For other uses, see Honey (disambiguation).

A jar of honey with a honey dipper and biscuits

Honey in honeycomb
Honey /'h?ni/ is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variet
y produced by honey bees (the genus Apis) is the one most commonly referred to,
as it is the type of honey collected by most beekeepers and consumed by people.
Honeys produced by other bees (bumblebees, stingless bees) and other hymenoptera
insects (e. g. honey wasps) have different properties, and they are not discuss
ed in this article.
Honey bees transform nectar into honey by a process of regurgitation and evapora
tion. They store it as a primary food source in wax honeycombs inside the beehiv
e.
Honey gets its sweetness from the monosaccharides fructose and glucose, and has
approximately the same relative sweetness as granulated sugar.[1][2] It has attr
active chemical properties for baking and a distinctive flavor that leads some p
eople to prefer it over sugar and other sweeteners.[1] Most microorganisms do no
t grow in honey because of its low water activity of 0.6.[3] However, honey some
times contains dormant endospores of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which
can be dangerous to infants, as the endospores can transform into toxin-producin
g bacteria in infants' immature intestinal tracts, leading to illness and even d
eath.[4]
Honey has had a long history in human consumption, and is used in various foods
and beverages as a sweetener and flavoring. It also has a role in religion and s
ymbolism. Flavors of honey vary based on the nectar source, and various types an
d grades of honey are available. It has also been used in various medicinal trad
itions to treat ailments. The study of pollens and spores in raw honey (melissop
alynology) can determine floral sources of honey.[5] Bees carry an electrostatic
charge whereby they attract other particles in addition to pollen, which become
incorporated into their honey; the honey can be analysed by the techniques of m
elissopalynology in area environmental studies of radioactive particles, dust an
d particulate pollution.[6][7]
Contents
1 Formation
2 Physical and chemical properties
2.1 Phase transitions
2.2 Viscosity
2.3 Electrical and optical properties
2.4 Hygroscopy and fermentation
2.5 Thermal characteristics
2.6 Acid content
3 In history, culture, and folklore
3.1 Ancient times
3.2 Religious significance
4 Collecting honey
5 Modern uses
5.1 As a food and in cooking
5.2 As a fermentable
6 Nutrition
7 Classification
7.1 Floral source
7.1.1 Blended
7.1.2 Polyfloral
7.1.3 Monofloral
7.1.4 Honeydew honey
7.2 Classification by packaging and processing
8 Preservation
9 Distinguishing honey
9.1 Honey grading
9.2 Indicators of quality
10 In medicine
10.1 Osmotic effect
10.2 Hydrogen peroxide
10.3 Use for diabetic ulcers
10.4 Acidity
10.5 Methylglyoxal
10.6 Nutraceutical effects
10.7 Use for sore throats and coughs
10.8 Other medical applications
11 Health hazards
11.1 Botulism
11.2 Toxic honey
11.2.1 New Zealand
12 Honey-producing and consuming countries
13 Gallery of honey harvesting
14 See also
15 References
16 Bibliography
17 External links
Formation
A honey bee on calyx of goldenrod
Honey's natural sugars are dehydrated, which prevents fermentation, with added e
nzymes to modify and transform their chemical composition and pH. Invertases and
digestive acids hydrolyze sucrose to give the monosaccharides glucose and fruct
ose. The invertase is one of these enzymes synthesized by the body of the insect
.
Honey bees transform saccharides into honey by a process of regurgitation, a num
ber of times, until it is partially digested. The bees do the regurgitation and
digestion as a group. After the last regurgitation, the aqueous solution is stil
l high in water, so the process continues by evaporation of much of the water an
d enzymatic transformation.
Honey is produced by bees as a food source. To produce a single jar of honey, fo
raging honey bees have to travel the equivalent of three times around the world.
[8] In cold weather or when fresh food sources are scarce, bees use their stored
honey as their source of energy.[9] By contriving for bee swarms to nest in art
ificial hives, people have been able to semidomesticate the insects, and harvest
excess honey. In the hive (or in a wild nest), there are three types of bees:
a single female queen bee
a seasonally variable number of male drone bees to fertilize new queens
some 20,000 to 40,000 female worker bees.[10]
The worker bees raise larvae and collect the nectar that will become honey in th
e hive. Leaving the hive, they collect sugar-rich flower nectar and return.
In the hive, the bees use their "honey stomachs" to ingest and regurgitate the n
ectar a number of times until it is partially digested.[11] Invertase synthesize
d by the bees and digestive acids hydrolyze sucrose to give the same mixture of
glucose and fructose. The bees work together as a group with the regurgitation a
nd digestion until the product reaches a desired quality. It is then stored in h
oneycomb cells. After the final regurgitation, the honeycomb is left unsealed. H
owever, the nectar is still high in both water content and natural yeasts, which
, unchecked, would cause the sugars in the nectar to ferment.[9] The process con
tinues as bees inside the hive fan their wings, creating a strong draft across t
he honeycomb, which enhances evaporation of much of the water from the nectar.[9
] This reduction in water content raises the sugar concentration and prevents fe
rmentation. Ripe honey, as removed from the hive by a beekeeper, has a long shel
f life, and will not ferment if properly sealed.[9]
Physical and chemical properties