Strained Honey vs. Filtered Honey: What You Need to Know
When honey is extracted from the combs, small bits of wax and other debris often make their way into the liquid. To prepare it for bottling, most honey is strained. Beekeepers typically use strainers between 200–600 microns (0.008–0.024 inches), which remove debris while allowing honey—and naturally occurring pollen grains, ranging from 15–200 microns—to pass through. Straining preserves the honey’s natural character, making it what most people recognize as “raw” honey.
Filtered Honey: What’s the Difference?
Many large commercial honey producers go a step further and use fine filters to remove even the smallest pollen grains and debris. This process slows crystallization, making the honey look smooth and stay liquid longer. To achieve this, honey is often heated, which makes it thinner and easier to pump through filtering machines. However, heating and fine filtering destroy many of honey’s natural enzymes, and it should no longer be considered truly raw.
Beware of Honey Laundering
Some suppliers go even further, removing all pollen from honey to disguise its origin. Pollen analysis can reveal the country and region where honey was produced, so unscrupulous suppliers may filter it out and mix in cheaper sweeteners or honey from other sources—a practice known as “honey laundering.” This has been used to evade tariffs or sell cheaper honey in bulk and has led to fines and prison sentences in high-profile cases. Unfortunately, large-scale monitoring of imported honey is challenging, which makes it hard for authorities to screen every shipment.
How to Ensure You’re Getting Pure Honey
The best way to be certain your honey is pure and honest is to buy directly from a local beekeeper. It may cost a little more than supermarket honey, but the taste, freshness, and natural goodness are worth it. Supporting local beekeepers also strengthens your local ecosystem—helping pollinate neighborhood plants and gardens. If you’re adventurous, keeping your own bees allows you to produce your own raw, delicious honey straight from the hive.
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