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SALT LAKE CITY — After getting his much-talked-about immigration legislation moving, a Utah lawmaker now wants to legally define a food he calls "delicious."
The food Rep. Stephen Sandstrom wants the Legislature to define — raw honey.
The Republican from Orem is sponsoring the short, one-page bill because he said raw honey and its close cousin — pure honey — are being intermixed, and beekeepers in his district want to preserve their niche in the "raw" market.
Sandstrom says he wants to pursue more raw food bills in the future, and raw honey is an "easier transition" than, say, raw milk.
In order to be labeled as raw under HB148, honey that is produced or sold in the Beehive State could not be pasteurized or heated above 118 degrees.
Sandstrom said raw honey legislation is "just a good place to go." He said he wants to pursue more raw food bills in the future and raw honey is an "easier transition" than, say, raw milk.
People are becoming more conscious of eating raw foods, said Omar Abou-Ismail, owner of Omar's Rawtopia, a raw food restaurant in Sugar House. Eating more raw foods, such as fruits and vegetables, "changes you all together," he said.
There are a myriad of websites dedicated to promoting raw foods, generally meaning foods that have not been cooked above 104-120 degrees, depending on the source. According to the website The Best of Raw Food, a raw food diet generally consists of at least 75 percent of raw fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts and sprouts.
Brandon Foote, president of Redmond Heritage Farms, a producer of raw honey and raw milk, said he's seen a recent increase in demand for raw products.
"We're seeing a continual interest in it, not only here but across the country," Foote said.
Eileen Miller, a fourth-generation vice president of Miller's Honey, said the bill's definition of raw honey needs to be modified because honey must be heated to be extracted from the hives. Miller suggested a better definition of raw could be "minimally processed."
If people just knew how powerful bee pollen and honey was, all those other allergy medicines wouldn't be on the market.
–Robert Bird, beekeeper
Miller said she considers the honey her company produces to be raw, even though it is put in a steam bath before being strained and packaged.
Larry Lewis, public information officer with the Utah Department of Agriculture, said that while the department doesn't oppose the bill, it currently doesn't have the estimated $26,000 it will cost to enforce it.
Honey is heated because it puts it into a form that's more "customer-friendly," Lewis said. "I don’t think the general public knows the difference between raw and regular honey that's on the shelves."
Robert Bird, a beekeeper that produces raw honey for Redmond Heritage Farms, said the true test for deciding if honey is raw or not is in the consistency. If it's crystallized and solid, it's raw, but if it's liquid, it's been heated. "Real natural honey will crystallize no matter what," Bird said.
Pure honey was defined by a Department of Agriculture administrative rule last year to discourage the "pervasive, illegal practice of blending or diluting pure honey with low-cost syrups such as sugar, cane and corn." Miller said Sandstrom's bill is "creating a problem that isn't," because pure honey is defined.
But some feel what makes raw honey stand apart from pure honey are its distinct flavor and health benefits, such as allergy relief. Bird said eating raw honey cured him of his allergy to shellfish.
"If people just knew how powerful bee pollen and honey was, all those other allergy medicines wouldn't be on the market."
E-mail: averzello@desnews.com
