Organic Honey Comes From Organic Bees. This is an unbelievable process and you will probably look at organic honey in a different way after reading this article. One of this country’s great honey producers, Dutch Gold from Lancaster PA has been producing honey since 1946. They have a long history and are certified for distribution of Organic Honey.
If you ever wondered how we get Organic Honey on our store shelves you will probably find this article as fascinating as I did. Organic Honey must come from organic bees. Hives that have existing honey in them are forbidden to become organic.
Organic honey must be produced from naturally foraging bee colonies that are located at least 2 miles (straight-line flight) from any source that could cause the honey to contain pesticides or herbicides.
Organic hives need to have all of their parts (supers, queen excluders, etc.) numbered to prevent accidental use in non-organic hives. All hive parts must be made of wood. Comb foundations must be made from organic beeswax, and the extraction facility must be certified organic.
Feeding bees within a 2 mile radius no pesticides or herbicides may be used, and must not have had any chemical application in the previous 3 years. Feeding of bees is prohibited. If feeding is necessary to prevent starvation, the honey produced is not organic honey.
Organic integrity dictates that all organic honey is stored in a segregated area to prevent co-mingling organic and non-organic product. Organic honey is only processed after all equipment has been completely flushed with hot water and PCO approved chemicals.
The system is flushed with fresh water. All of their equipment is completely clean and emptied of all prior honey. Because of these strict requirements Organic Honey is usually run on Monday mornings after a complete system cleaning
Certified organic honey must be certified by an approved organic certifying agency. The USDA’s NOP program (National Organic Program) certifies the agencies. Dutch Gold is certified by PCO (Pennsylvania Certified Organic) who inspects their facilities on behalf of the USDA.
Organic honey is from areas that are certified organic by an NOP approved certifier; furthermore the certifier must have physically visited the organic honey producing area.
For organic approval all labels must be approved by PCO before they go into production. You must be able to be able to track 100% of the organic honey as this is inspected yearly by organic honey inspectors
A good part of this article came from the website of www.DutchGoldHoney.com
