Overheated honey

[Mandeville]

My honey warmer thermostat failed and 10 jars of honey spent several hours at 60-70 degrees C. Is the honey of any use for anything now? Or do I just bin it?

 

[Amari]

My honey warmer thermostat failed and 10 jars of honey spent several hours at 60-70 degrees C. Is the honey of any use for anything now? Or do I just bin it?

Use it for cooking? Feed it back to the bees?

 

[Curly green finger's]

My honey warmer thermostat failed and 10 jars of honey spent several hours at 60-70 degrees C. Is the honey of any use for anything now? Or do I just bin it?

I would say it’s cooking/tea honey now.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Feed it back to the bees?

safer feeding it to humans

spent several hours at 60-70 degrees C

explain 'several'

 

[ericbeaumont]

honey of any use

Sell it as Bakers' Honey. I get £22/kg at London market.

 

[pargyle]

Use it for cooking? Feed it back to the bees?

I would not feed it back to the bees at that temperature it will have produced some HMF which will kill bees ... it's marginal according to the table that David Cramp produced that gives how long and at what temperatire it takes to produce 30mg/Kg in honey:

Temp(C) Time
30 100-300 days
40 20-50 days
50 4-10 days
60 1-2.5 days
70 3-5 hours
80 <2 hours

However, HMF is perfectly safe for humans at those levels - the legal limit for honey to be sold as honey is 40mg/Kg ... I rather doubt you would have got to that level. I would not sell it .. but I would eat it - It may have lost a few of the taste enzymes through being heated but it's still going to taste better than anything you buy in a supermarket.

 

[WoodenBeam]

Dare I suggest tasting it……….be a good starting point. If it’s nice, well it’s nice. If not, make a Honey cake

 

[Mandeville]

safer feeding it to humans


explain 'several'

As I don't know exactly when it all went pear-shaped I can't be sure, but maybe up to 14 hours

 

[Mandeville]

Dare I suggest tasting it……….be a good starting point. If it’s nice, well it’s nice. If not, make a Honey cake

At the moment, I can't get the lids off!

 

[Mandeville]

I would not feed it back to the bees at that temperature it will have produced some HMF which will kill bees ... it's marginal according to the table that David Cramp produced that gives how long and at what temperatire it takes to produce 30mg/Kg in honey:

Temp(C) Time
30 100-300 days
40 20-50 days
50 4-10 days
60 1-2.5 days
70 3-5 hours
80 <2 hours

However, HMF is perfectly safe for humans at those levels - the legal limit for honey to be sold as honey is 40mg/Kg ... I rather doubt you would have got to that level. I would not sell it .. but I would eat it - It may have lost a few of the taste enzymes through being heated but it's still going to taste better than anything you buy in a supermarket.

That's really useful, thank you!