Honey

Honey is a sweet food that bees produce from floral nectar, mainly composed of sugars and water. Its flavor, color, and aroma vary with nectar sources and processing.

Nectar: A sugar-rich liquid secreted by flowers and collected by pollinators. Bees begin honey production with this floral resource.
Fructose: A simple sugar found in fruits, nectar, and honey. It is usually honey’s most abundant sugar and contributes to its sweetness.
Mead: An alcoholic drink made by fermenting honey diluted with water. Honey supplies the fermentable sugars used to make this traditional beverage.
Manuka honey: A honey produced mainly from the nectar of the mānuka shrub in New Zealand and parts of Australia. It is studied for distinctive chemical markers and antibacterial activity.
Sugar syrup adulteration: The deliberate addition of inexpensive sugar syrups to a food to misrepresent its composition or origin. This fraud can make a product appear to be pure honey.
Honey bee: A social bee that lives in colonies and gathers nectar, pollen, and water. Worker honey bees collect and process the nectar that becomes honey.
Glucose: A simple sugar that serves as a major energy source in living organisms. Its proportion helps determine honey’s tendency to crystallize.
Baking: Cooking food with dry heat, typically in an oven. Honey sweetens baked goods and affects their moisture, browning, and texture.
Tupelo honey: A floral honey made largely from the blossoms of tupelo trees in the southeastern United States. Its high fructose content is associated with slow crystallization.
Honey laundering: The concealment of honey’s true origin or composition through fraudulent supply-chain practices. It obscures whether honey has been adulterated or misrepresented.

Linked from 13 pages