Honey with royal jelly

[polomadh]

I am just back from Northern Spain, and as always checked out the honey for sale. I was intrigued to see lots of places selling honey with a certain percentage of royal jelly, around 8% if my memory serves me right. My Spanish wasn’t sufficiently good enough to ask How?
They also declare a certain percentage of pollen, so I was wondering if they are extracting brood frames, otherwise how are they doing it?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

They also declare a certain percentage of pollen, so I was wondering if they are extracting brood frames,

you get pollen in all parts of the hive - it doesn't end up exclusively in brood frames

 

[jarmo henttu]

I think that royal jelly is not allowed to add into the honey.
It is same rules in the whole EU.

 

[Ian123]

I think that royal jelly is not allowed to add into the honey.
It is same rules in the whole EU.

Plenty of honey is sold with royal jelly but I’d doubt it’s anywhere near 8% volume.
They don’t extract brood frames, they graft into frames with racks of cups just like queen rearing. They have small pumps maybe similar to what a dentist used to suck your saliva

 

[ericbeaumont]

honey with a certain percentage of royal jelly

Honey is a stable product but royal jelly (I would guess) will degrade quite rapidly. On the other hand, honey may preserve royal jelly. The info. for a random royal jelly, Api Royale (harvested in the mountains of Romania) states: The jar comes in a special isothermal to keep the properties intact for 5-7 days, until you can safely store it in the refrigerator.

royal jelly is not allowed to add into the honey. It is same rules in the whole EU

The UK Honey (England) Regs. 2015 define honey and at Schedule 1, sub-sections 5 & 6 state: 5. No food ingredient has been added, including any food additive. 6. No other additions have been made to the honey except for other honey.

How do the sellers of honey+fancy food additives (turmeric, ginger, rose petals, walnuts, royal jelly) manage to stay within the regs.?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

How do the sellers of honey+fancy food additives (turmeric, ginger, rose petals, walnuts, royal jelly) manage to stay within the regs.?

they then come under the wider classification of food producers rather than honey packers (or primary producers) so have to follow different (and more stringent) food premises and food hygiene regulations and processing regime. The labelling rules are also different and they have to list ingredients, percentages etc.

 

[ericbeaumont]

follow different (and more stringent) food premises and food hygiene regulations and processing regime

Had an idea that would be the case; wonder how many beekeepers that sell the honey+food combo have that level of production control.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Had an idea that would be the case; wonder how many beekeepers that sell the honey+food combo have that level of production control.

I know of a few, did a marketing/presentation workshop with one a few years ago that produced and sold honey coated nuts (last thing I'd want to slather my nuts with to be honest!) and a nearby be farmer I'm acquainted used to do a lot of food fairs etc. pre Covid where, together with candles and bog standard honeys she sold various flavoured, multi ingredient and and spice infused honey. both had gone down the line of having a separate premises, one for extraction and the other for the rest. One issue they faced otherwise was having a label, even on the 'pure' honey warning the purchaser 'may contain nuts'!!

 

[rolande]

Plenty of honey is sold with royal jelly but I’d doubt it’s anywhere near 8% volume.
They don’t extract brood frames, they graft into frames with racks of cups just like queen rearing. They have small pumps maybe similar to what a dentist used to suck your saliva

What now seems like a long time ago I had a price list from John Kefuss who at the time was producing what he called Jelly Queens, a strain selected for generous provisioning of RJ to the cell cups..

 

[jarmo henttu]

Honey is a stable product but royal jelly (I would guess) will degrade quite rapidly. On the other hand, honey may preserve royal jelly. The info. for a random royal jelly, Api Royale (harvested in the mountains of Romania) states: The jar comes in a special isothermal to keep the properties intact for 5-7 days, until you can safely store it in the refrigerator.


The UK Honey (England) Regs. 2015 define honey and at Schedule 1, sub-sections 5 & 6 state: 5. No food ingredient has been added, including any food additive. 6. No other additions have been made to the honey except for other honey.

How do the sellers of honey+fancy food additives (turmeric, ginger, rose petals, walnuts, royal jelly) manage to stay within the regs.?

 

[jarmo henttu]

If you add rose leaves or carlic to the honey, then you add. It is not honey any more.

I do not understand why to add. Of course to add selling, but.

What heck to add royal jelly to honey, that is mere humbug. But if you believe to that, it is ok. But it will not have any scientific or nutritional explanation.