>Why is the honey at the supermarket so thin?
 
Depends on what honey you compare the honey to, honey varies from very
high moisture to very low. I have seen it so low in desert sweet clover
honey, still in the liquid form, that it could not be poured out of a
5 gallon can without heating it. I was told by old times who unloaded
rail cars of this honey that the bottom cans would be ripped on nails
and no honey would leak out. Normally in the old days when tin cans were
less then perfect it was not unusual to have many leakers in a rail car
and a real sticky mess to clean up before the car could be released.  At
the same time I have seen beautiful white honey from our fall Blue Curl
flow that would crystallize hard as a rock with moisture so high if set
out in the sun would blow the tops off 55 gallon drums and foam up and
run over.
 
Every major honey packer that I have ever visited with in the US has
some method to adjust the moisture. Most blend high moisture honey with
low to produce a uniform project. Some add moisture direct in the
processing procedures, some with the filter aid, or with steam on the
bottling line.
 
Is it right, well they all would tell you they don't set the standards,
and I would think that is about as right as the tomato canner who adds
worm parts because the standard allows it and his crop came in clean.
(None do that I know of.) Anyway for sure I have never met a honey
packer who did not claim that there was actually loss from the honey
that enters the packing line and the amount that comes out. I believe
that is true having some experience packing honey and know it was in the
co-op I was an officer in and also know the loss reported by the Sue Bee
Honey CoOp each year.
 
I was once a elected officer of a now failed honey co-op and had much
opportunity of seeing behind the scenes of how honey is processed
commercially. Some beekeepers who were not producers for this old time
honey packer formed a co-op and hired a manager and took over so they
would have a home for their honey. I stuck around to protect the long
term interests of myself and the old time producers and I was elected
Treasurer and left a few years later because of problems with the books
and the manager that could not be resolved between me and my conscience.
 
Anyway for many years I sold honey to the previous owner and we were
friends in business. After he sold out to the co-op they naturally had
to enlarge the plant on borrowed money, (their downfall), and the
original owner stayed on to oversee the project. On one of my trips to
deliver honey my friend who was proud of his work on the enlarged plant
and the new 1st class super fast bottling line he could never afford
when he owned the plant. As he showed me around the lower levels of the
plant that the hot honey gravitated down to from the upper level melting
ovens to be flash heated and mixed with the filtered aid which was
diatomaceous earth, a dry power, and then pressure filtered, then pumped
to the bottling tanks and cooled prior to packing. I noticed a wooden
handle that connected to a chain and followed that chain to my amusement
to a regular old time flush toilet tank mounted on high up the side of
the wall from which a pipe extended to the mixing tank. And sure enough
he had that tank flow adjusted so he knew  how much water gushed down
with each yank of the chain to mix with the dry filter aid. I got to
pull the chain several times and it was a kick as the sound was the same
of the old time flush toilets of by gone days. Eventually the tank was
replaced with a nice new stainless steal tank and electronic brains to
regulate the flow.
 
Before you flood this tread with comments I should also say that every
country has a little different angle on honey and different food
standards and laws pertaining to what they can and can not do. In Japan
I have been told it is quite normal to actually take the honey apart
separating everything out, sugars, moisture, and more, then putting it
all back together according to their own specifications and ending up
with several byproducts and the original pound of honey. I have sampled
some of the by products, the essence of honey, and liquors made from
what they call the washing process, and must admit they were very
interesting.
 
                         ttul, the OLd Drone
 
 
(c) Permission is granted to freely copy this document
in any form, or to print for any use.
(w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk.
111096
---
 ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ ... Where the wild bee never flew,