this isn't just any old honey it's manuka
honey and in its purest form it can cost up to $99 per hundred grams that's
more than a hundred times the price of normal honey so why is it so
expensive manuka honey is known for
being earthier richer and more viscous than many other
honeys it comes from the nectar of
the flower leptospirosis Cap areum
also known as manuka which is only native to New Zealand and manuka in fact is a Maori word the fact that it comes from New Zealand that gives it a premium just to start with because the bee travels after about six kilometres to collect to this honey
and so this honey is representative
of the environment and that environment as
of New Zealand Otero the plant
itself and the honey is very very rare out of
all the honey's in the world it
probably represents 1% of all the world honey's
it's difficult to harvest it's only
a two to six week harvesting period and
the flower is only open for uni for
12
days and in New Zealand we have wind
and we have rain and all the rest of it so
there's a lot of luck involved and
getting the BU or a lot of effort
from the beekeeper and for some years there are no there is no honey production
for
some beekeepers and we have to go to
the big extent also I'm using helicopters to
collect this honey although manuka
bushes can also be found
in Australia New Zealand accounts for
almost all of the world's production
with exports worth 204 million dollars
and expected to quadruple to 800
million by 2028 New Zealand's honey is protected
by a quality standard there's
safeguards
manuka special properties this honey
is
an expensive honey and anything that
is expensive people will try and copy
people will try and mimic or people
will try and cheat so a lot of the cost here
isn't actually in the protection of
it or the research so we know it's unique
we know it's from New Zealand we can
identify we fought labs around the world
to be able to do this identification
the
New Zealand government has set up a standard
to say what is mono granny
so how does the grading system work
and
what exactly are you looking for in manuka
honey we spoke to dr. Adrienne
Charlton from fara science a lab in
the
north of England where manuka honey
is tested to identify two unique compounds
as standards we will test for three
compounds dihydroxyacetone which is owned
as DHA we thought also known as
MgO and hydroxymethyl food for all
HMF
these are the basic tests that we we
would undertake to make sure that
manuka honey contains the antimicrobial
characteristics that the consumer
would expect we could detect them but we can
also measure the concentration of
them
and that's done using UV light to
detect a particular wavelength individual
compounds each compound has slightly
different properties but because of
the issues in the past with potential fraud
there's a suite of other tests
included
in Tesla's compound such as left
sparing which is a marker those unique to the
nectar of left spoonski Parian we
can
trace then the honey back to its botanical
origin the family came from
when you pick up a jar of manuka
honey
the markers can be confusing so how
do
you know that it's the real deal so
in some cases their labeling for the
concentration of a compound so mg o
300
would indicate 300 milligrams of me third
world so in that particular pots
of honey per kilogram to NPA which
is
non peroxide activity that's that's related
to the method locus of
concentration but it's a more direct
measure at the antimicrobial activity of
deep honey other other marks such as
um f the
quality mark that if you can see a particular
stamp on a product that has
been tested and assured to a certain
standard so that's different to
actually label in it with the concentration of a
particular compound another factor
that's driving up the price is the
use
of manuka honey and health and
beauty products its antibacterial and
anti-inflammatory properties are
said to
soothe and nourish the skin and it's
also said to help with blemishes and
acne isn't that really the case
there's been a number of studies that have tried
to determine the health benefits of
manuka honey and there are some very
positive results and certainly in
terms of antimicrobial activity we can show
that that the manuka honey has
antimicrobial activity in the
laboratory
but those clinical trials over a
long period of time have not been undertaken
today as of yet but there are lots of
reports that indicates manuka honey
has benefits so the jury's still out on
maneuvers medicinal properties but
that
hasn't stopped its popularity and
manuka honey is serious business the prices and
demand for the honey is so high that
the
New Zealand police have received hundreds
of reports of bee hives or
honey being stolen and even reports
of bees being poisoned so if you do manage to get your hands on the jar does it
actually taste different from normal honey that is delicious
the flavors really strong it's very
like very thick compared to normal honey it's
got a kind of chest naughty flavor
it's not as sweet as usual honey it's really
smooth the taste is pretty similar
to what I'm used to the texture is very
interesting it's very very thick
always like creamy is manuka honey really worth
a hundred times more than other
honey that's for you to judge but what's for
certain is that no other honey in
the world is so rare and unique that it
needs to pass by a lab before being
sold
you
