Where can I purchase a specific type of honey or honey product?
While there is no official National Honey Board definition of “raw” honey, it generally means honey that has not been heated or filtered. We often see or hear claims that raw honey is more nutritious or better for you, primarily because raw honey may contain small amounts of pollen grains that are often removed during processing or filtering.
Honey is produced by honeybees from the nectar of plants, not pollen. Pollen occurs only incidentally in honey. The amount of pollen in honey is miniscule and not enough to impact the nutrient value of honey. A 2004 study by the Australian government found the percentage of dry weight canola pollen in 32 Australian canola honey samples ranged from 0.15% to 0.433%.
A 2012 study by the National Honey Board analyzed vitamins, minerals and antioxidant levels in raw and processed honey. The study showed that processing significantly reduced the pollen content of the honey, but did not affect the nutrient content or antioxidant activity, leading the researchers to conclude that the micronutrient profile of honey is not associated with its pollen content and is not affected by commercial processing. The 2012 study and abstract with statistical analysis was presented at the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Conference in Boston April 20–24, 2013.