Stirring and Homogenising

Honey clarifying, blending and homogenising equipment comprises the strainers and settling tanks that separate extracted honey from wax and foreign particles, the slow-running mixers that combine honey from different hives and buckets into a uniform batch, and the stirring set-ups used to make creamed honey. With honey, "clarifying" means physical cleaning only: nothing is added to the honey, and pollen and natural components are not removed from it. On this page you will find the equipment, the right temperatures, how to make creamed honey and the limits set by regulations.

What honey clarifying is, and what it is not

Honey flowing from the extractor contains wax fragments, pieces of cappings, bee parts and air bubbles. Clarifying honey means removing this foreign matter by straining and settling. The honey itself is not altered.

• Counts as clarifying: Passing through coarse and medium strainers, letting foam and wax rise to the surface in a settling tank and removing them, making honey runny at a low temperature.
• Does not count as clarifying: Adding water, syrup or additives to honey; removing colour and odour with activated carbon; filtering so finely that pollen is removed; processing at high temperatures.

In Türkiye, the Honey Communiqué of the Turkish Food Codex does not allow any substance to be added to honey, and prohibits the removal of pollen from honey except for unavoidable losses during the separation of foreign matter. According to the Communiqué, no honey other than "filtered honey" may be filtered through a mesh smaller than 0.2 mm; this distinction is also critical for determining origin.

What equipment is used to clarify honey?

Strainers

These are usually two- or three-layer stainless steel strainers placed under the extractor's honey gate. The coarse sieve on top catches large pieces of wax, and the finer sieve below catches small fragments. Conical cloth or nylon straining bags are also common.

Settling tank

This does the main work of clarifying. The strained honey is left for a few days in a lidded tank with a bottom gate; air bubbles and fine wax particles rise to the surface and a layer of foam forms. Because the honey is drawn off from the gate at the bottom, the foam stays in the tank. The speed of settling depends on the honey's temperature and consistency: faster in a warm room, slower in a cool one.

Warming cabinet and tank with a heating jacket

These make crystallised or very thick honey suitable for straining, blending and filling. A thermostatic cabinet or a heating jacket wrapped around the outside of the tank warms the honey slowly and evenly. The honey temperature should not exceed about 40 °C; high heat raises HMF and damages enzymes. According to the Honey Communiqué, honey to be called "raw honey" must not have been heat-treated above 45 °C and must have been strained through filters with a mesh larger than 0.3 mm.

Why and how is honey blended?

Even from the same apiary, honey from different hives, buckets and extraction days differs slightly in colour, moisture and crystallisation speed. Blending (mixing, batching) combines these buckets in a single tank so that every jar belongs to one batch of the same quality. The label, analysis report and moisture record then represent the whole batch.

• Slow-running mixer: A wide-paddle or helical mixer that turns inside the tank. A fast-running mixer adds air to the honey.
• Stainless steel mixing paddle for a drill: Useful at bucket scale; it should be run at low speed and below the surface of the honey.
• Hand stirring paddle: Enough for small quantities.

1. Check the source: Only blend honeys of the same type and similar moisture. One bucket with high moisture raises the moisture of the whole batch.
2. Keep the honey warm: Runny honey mixes more easily and with less air.
3. Mix slowly: The mixer should stay below the surface of the honey, and no vortex should form.
4. Let it settle again: Leave the honey to stand for a while after blending so that the bubbles released can rise to the surface.
5. Record it: Write down which buckets were combined, the final moisture value and the new batch number.

What does homogenisation mean for honey?

Unlike in the dairy industry, high-pressure homogenisers are not used in honey processing. For honey, homogenisation is used in two senses:

• Batch uniformity: After blending, moisture, colour and taste are the same throughout the tank.
• Uniform crystal structure: In making creamed honey, the crystals are small and evenly distributed.

In natural crystallisation, glucose crystals grow large and irregular; the honey can have a coarse, gritty texture. With controlled crystallisation these crystals are kept small and the honey takes on a smooth, spreadable consistency.

How is creamed honey made?

Creamed honey (whipped honey, spun honey) is made by seeding liquid honey with a fine-grained "starter" (seed) honey and crystallising it in a controlled way while stirring it in cool conditions. In Türkiye, according to the Honey Communiqué of the Turkish Food Codex, extracted blossom honey of non-fluid consistency may be sold as "creamed honey" if it was crystallised under controlled conditions, or as "crystallised honey" if it crystallised spontaneously.

The common method is the Dyce method, developed in the 1930s and named after its developer. Beekeepers adapt this method to their own conditions:

1. Choose a suitable honey: A cleanly strained blossom honey with low moisture (below 18 per cent), preferably one that naturally crystallises quickly. Honey with high moisture can ferment while it is creaming.
2. Prepare the seed: Use a creamed honey with a fine, smooth texture as the "starter". If you do not have one, crushing crystallised honey and grinding it fine in a mortar gives you the first seed.
3. Seed the honey: Add seed amounting to about 5–10 per cent of the weight of the liquid honey and mix thoroughly without adding air.
4. Keep it cool: Keep the mixture at about 14 °C. Crystallisation is fastest and finest-grained at around this temperature.
5. Stir at intervals: Stirring slowly a few times a day during the first days keeps the crystals small. When the honey thickens and turns light in colour, fill it into jars.
6. Store cool: Creamed honey softens in the heat and can separate. It should be stored below room temperature, in a cool place.

In the original Dyce method, the honey is heated at the start to kill yeast cells. Beekeepers who do not want to heat their honey skip this step; in that case low moisture is even more important.

Creamed honey equipment

• Tank with stirring paddles: On a commercial scale, tanks with slowly rotating paddles and often a cooling jacket are used.
• Bucket mixer: At hobby scale, a stainless steel helical paddle attached to a drill.
• Cool room: A room or thermostatic cabinet that can hold about 14 °C; a cool store also works in the winter months.
• Thermometer: To monitor the temperature of both the room and the honey.

Equipment maintenance and hygiene

• Material: Every surface in contact with honey should be food-grade stainless steel or food-grade plastic.
• Cleaning: Strainers, tanks, mixers and honey gates should be washed in warm water after each batch and dried completely.
• Strainer care: Torn or deformed sieves should be replaced; wax stuck to the sieve dissolves in warm water.
• Records: Each blending and creamed honey batch should be given its own number.

Common mistakes

• Overheating honey: Going above 40 °C to make straining or blending easier.
• Filtering too finely: Filtration that also removes pollen erases the honey's origin and puts it in the "filtered honey" category.
• Mixing too fast: Adds air to the honey, and foam and a white layer form in the jars.
• Creaming honey with high moisture: The risk of fermentation increases.
• Blending different types under a single-type name: Both misleading and against the regulations.