C4 Sugar in Manuka Honey

There's been a few problems this year with high C4 sugar readings in manuka honey in the whole industry.

Honey that is exported has to pass a whole raft of tests, including normal food-type tests - does it contain poisons such as tutin, does it contain bacteria, does it contain impurities - plus some special honey tests. And testing for adulteration with sugar is one.

In this blog post I talk about ways that manuka honey fraud might happen. Now I don't really want to give a primer on how to beat the system (and my brain is far too pure to even be good at it, heh!), but one other way that honey fraud can happen is adding sugar to honey.

I think the basic motivation to adding sugar is effectively diluting the honey with sweetness, so you make more jars from the same amount of honey.

And you can test for this with the C4 sugar test. If your honey has more than 7% C4 sugar, it fails. Check out Analytica Laboratories excellent description.

Feeding sugar syrup to hives

One way C4 sugar might show up in honey is if the bees have been fed sugar at the wrong time. Especially if the honey is harvested early in the season. Check out Analytica's more in depth report here, if you like the science.

We've had some manuka honey unexpectedly rejected this year too.

So our first question to ourselves was to review our processes. Were we feeding sugar syrup to our hives too close to nectar flow? Or maybe we were feeding sugar to our nucs and they were too close to our productive hives and some robbing was occurring?

Always room for improvement, right?

But nope, all looks pretty good.

So, what else could be going on? And it is a problem that has affected lots of beekeepers this year too, for some reason.

Special manuka honey properties and C4 sugar

Manuka honey initially contains high levels of DHA. Over time the DHA converts to MGO. And MGO gives manuka honey it's magical properties.

But the chemical process of DHA to MGO also messes with the C4 sugar readings. Or so it seems.

I'm paraphrasing wildly here, and the science is not yet conclusive, but if you really want the down and dirty on all this science try these 2 articles 'The Unique Manuka Effect' and 'Adulteration Identification'.

What is 'C4' sugar anyway? (bonus points for science geeks)

Why not just 'sugar'?

Again, the short answer: there are 3 types of ways that nature stores carbon (C) in plants through photosynthesis. Two of them are called C3 from a system called the Calvin cycle, and it produces nectar.

The other method is for producing cane sugar and high fructose corn sugar, as in maize, and is called C4 sugars (system is called Hatch-Slack cycle, don't you love it?).

And you can test for each type. Using, if you must know, isotope ratio mass spectroscopy (IRMS).

And if you are still with me here, perhaps you'd like to write me a little blog post outlining all the technicalities? Contributions always appreciated!

But what we all really want is our honey to not be rejected unfairly. Currently all you can do is mix it with other honey so the levels drop to below 7%, a bit like you do with tutin honey.

I guess the scientists, and hopefully MPI's review of manuka honey will cover some of these issues. Fingers crossed. I seem to be saying that a bit lately.

10 little-known magic medicinal benefits of honey

Jars of manuka honey

The world is in trouble from super-bugs.

Back in 1928 the first antibiotic - penicillin - was accidentally discovered. And it worked a treat, curing all sorts of life-threatening bacterial infections. Other antibiotics were discovered or created. Great! People were declaring the world would soon be completely free from bacterial disease.

But what has happened? Bacteria has developed resistance to our antibiotics. And some of these bacteria are now a huge problem in our hospitals. MRSA is a big one.

Honey as medicine

The answer to all this may well be in honey.

Honey has been used for millennia as a healing agent. And now manuka honey is a thing (and has only been in existence for the last 150 years) it adds an extra layer too (see number 4.).

So, how does honey deal with bacteria?

Here are 10 magical ways that honey can heal bacterial infections:

1. Osmotic Action

The high sugar content of honey pulls water out of the surrounding environment, and effectively dehydrates bacteria, causing them to die.

2. High Acidity

Honey is acidic. This stops microbial growth of bacteria.

3. Hydrogen Peroxide

Glucose Oxidase is an enzyme added by bees - see this post for more about this. It turns into hydrogen peroxide, which is an antibiotic. All honey does this, some more than others.

4. Non-peroxide Activity

This one is manuka honey only. Manuka honey makes methylgloxal (MGO), which is a heat stable antibacterial.

5. Moist Wound Environment

Honey supports the formation of new tissue in wounds by creating a moist wound environment. Most antibiotics delay healing.

6. Debridement

Honey helps with the removal of dead, damaged or infected tissue. This is necessary so the new tissue can grow.

7. Stops Noxious Odours

Deep wounds smell, which is distressing. Honey works to stop these noxious odours.

8. Anti-inflammatory

Honey soothes and relieves inflammation.

9. Anti-fungal

Some honeys inhibit fungal growth.

10. Antioxidants

Honey is an antioxidant. Which we all know promotes good health and longevity.


Isn't that cool? That's for all honeys, not just manuka. Manuka is just extra special, and super powerful.

If you would like to read a bit more of the science, check out the full post at Business of Bees.

If you would like to grow manuka trees, check out the free resources here.

How do bees make honey from nectar?

The bees are all busy collecting nectar at this time of year, in the spring.

But what do they do with it? How do they turn it into honey?

The short story is, they change the sugars chemically, and remove water. Let's look at that in more depth:

Collecting nectar

Plants produce nectar in nectaries. Nectar is mostly sucrose and water.

The shiny middle is the nectary, and nectar. This is a manuka flower.

When a forager bee visits, she will suck up the nectar with her long mouth part. She stores the nectar in her sac in front of her stomach.

A bee can carry up to about 40mg, which is the size of a large raindrop. Quite a lot, compared to the size of a bee!

Inside her stomach, enzymes are added. These start the process of converting the sucrose to simple sugars of glucose and fructose.

Back to the hive

The forager returns back to the hive with her load. There she passes the nectar to the mouths of waiting hive bees. 

These bees also add the same enzymes, to continue the chemical changes. 

The processing bees spend about 20 minutes holding droplets out on their 'tongues', so some water can evaporate. 

Evaporation continues

Once the moisture content is down to about 30 - 50% the hive bees put the nectar into cells, just lightly packed and spread on the cell walls.

The bees turn the hive into a huge dehumidifier, and start fanning their wings to circulate warm air throughout the hive to evaporate more moisture from the ripening honey. This works best at night when the outside humidity is lower.

They also move the honey around from cell to cell, gradually increasing the quantity in each cell.

The honey comb cells are capped

When the honey is fully ripe, it is repacked into a new cell, full up, and a wax cap put on the top. This is like putting the lid on a jar of honey - it prevents the honey from reabsorbing moisture.

It's important that the moisture content is kept low, as otherwise the honey will start to ferment, and the sugar change into alcohol, which is toxic to the bees.

Honey qualities

So these marvellous bees have:

• changed the sugar to glucose and fructose - which is an easily digestible form of energy
• added other enzymes that create antibacterial properties (this is all honey, not just manuka - manuka has another, extra chemical process)
• evaporated water so the honey won't ferment
• made it more acidic, which helps it keep

And then they store it, so the whole colony can survive winter. All pretty special for the animal kingdom.

If you would like to read a bit more of the science-y bits, see the full post at Business of Bees

What is medical grade manuka honey?

How do you grade honey?

After quite a deep search on the interwebs, I would have to say, the answer is not readily forthcoming.

There seems to be several factors that are measured with manuka honey:

1. MGO

MGO is methyl glyoxal, which is a long lasting antibacterial enzyme, that's not known to occur in any other honey in the world.

All honeys contain hydrogen peroxide, which gives them antibiotic properties, but MGO gives manuka honey antibacterial properties as well.

What's the difference in antibacterial and antibiotic? Google reveals this"

"Antibiotics are a broader range of antimicrobial compounds which can act on fungi, bacteria, and other compounds. Although antibacterials come under antibiotics, antibacterials can kill only bacteria."

2. UMF

UMF is Unique Manuka Factor. Overseen by the UMF Honey Association www.umf.org.nz. UMF factor is a measure of leptosperin, DHA and MGO.

3. DHA

(don't you love all these 3 letter words?)

DHA is dihydroxyacetone. Which is present in the nectar of manuka flowers. Manuka honey starts out with high DHA and low MGO. Over time DHA in the honey interacts with various naturally-occurring proteins and amino acids and creates MGO. So manuka honey matures, and reaches peak maturity at about 18 months age.

4. Molan Gold Standard

Named after the pioneer of manuka honey research, Professor Peter Molan MBE, this internationally recognized standard certifies authentic manuka honey. Check out www.mgs.org.nz.

5. Medical grade manuka honey

Medical grade manuka honey is used topically to treat wounds and ulcers, in medical situations.

To be medical grade honey, it seems (although I can't find the 'bible' on this, and I have looked heartily) it needs to be (I think) UMF 9.5+, microbe level < 500 somethings, and moisture < 20. Plus a range of tests for contaminants - these need to be below the relevant thresholds, so hygiene and straining for impurities and such comes into play. Might be other things as well.

Why the confusion?

Well, it turns out that honey is just honey, and has been for millennia. It's only now that scientists are thinking about quantifying and measuring these things. MPI, our government department that likes to control these things, has only just established an interim guide for labeling manuka honey, in 2014 (yesterday, right?). And they are involved in a study of how to define monofloral manuka honey, due to be released late 2016. So it is all new new science. Check them out here MPI.

How to learn stuff

We're going to the Apiculture NZ annual conference this weekend. And it looks like the speaker programme is heavily loaded with some of the scientists involved in all this research. Which I am tremendously looking forward to. Isn't it so great to be at the beginning of interesting science? 

Honey is, of course, still honey. And the old timers know how great it is, and have been self treating with all sorts of bee products all this time. It's just the rest of us that need to catch up.

New Season Honey

 

Here it is! One of our first off the production line - a lovely pot of new honey. Most of our honey goes off to the wholesaler for sale by others. But we've kept some back to put in these lovely pots as part payment to our excellent farm hosts. So the crew have their work cut out to produce a few hundred of these. 

I wrote a couple of blog posts ago about my brother's honey, and the rata v kamahi, which got me to thinking...how do you tell? I think it must be one of those things like wine tasting or cheese experts, an acquired taste developed over decades, which would apply for my brother. But not me, so I can't tell what is in this honey, but anyone who receives one, feedback welcome!

It needs fresh homemade sourdough bread to go with it of course, see this blog post or you could use it to sweeten sugar free muesli, see this blog post

Ancient Roman Honey Cake Recipe

This gluten free organic honey cake recipe comes from my friend Judith in America (thanks Judith :-)). Looks super easy, and as soon as I get honey from my hive I'll give it a whirl.

Ancient Roman Honey cake   (Sacred Sciences recipe)

"Honey was thought to be magical in the world of the ancient Romans. Aside from its value as a beloved sweet treat in its honey comb form and as a sweetener in cooking, honey was also used to dress wounds and to lift the spirit. The Romans made a wine called Mulsum from honey which they believed was good for digestion and promoted long life.

Many Romans made replica statues and funerary masks using bees wax which were believed to protect them. According to the legendary Roman poet, Ovid, these statues also functioned similarly to voodoo dolls in that harming the figurine could also inflict harm on the human it represented." (Sacred Sciences)

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups organic spelt flour

1/2 cup olive oil

3/4 cup wild local honey

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

3/4 cup goat’s milk

1 egg

PREPARATION

• Preheat oven to 180 C

• Beat all liquid ingredients together in a small bowl.

• Mix all dry ingredients separately in medium mixing bowl.

• Add liquid ingredients gradually to dry ingredients and beat well.

• Bake for 35-40 minutes in greased round cake pan.

• Serve with a drizzle of honey, a dollop of whipped cream or yogurt

and some fresh berries.