What is the effect of heating (sterilizing) the honey ?

Question

1) In the honey producing factory, if I am not mistaken there is a particular step which is to heat up the honey to a certain temperature, will that affect or do any harm or good to the product (the honey) ?

2) Do all types of honey need to undergo this heating up process to kill the bacteria inside ?

Answer 1

The heating up procedure is called pasteurization.  It is done because honey is susceptible to growing a toxin called botulism during the transport and bottling process.  Our milk is also pasteurized.  The time and temperature that is used to pasturize is calculated carefully to kill harmful bacteria but still maintain the quality of the product.  It is not sterilized though, as this takes much greater tempertures and changes the product too much (Eg UHT milk tastes different)   .

All honey would need to be treated in this way to meet food safety standards for export and for selling on supermarket shelves.  Honey bought directly from honey farms would probably not need to be heat treated because it is used straight away and is less likely to have grown harmful bacteria since it's harvest.  

Answer 2

The freaking FDA probably requires that honey be pasturized... it's pointless because honey is sterile in nature.