Is Honey Gluten Free? Some Important Answers to Questions About Honey

Honey is one of the oldest and most cherished foods in human civilization. Archaeologists have found evidence of people collecting honey from beehives over 8,000 years ago. Honey is put into a wide variety of foods and drinks, as well as eaten raw. In fact, honey is a food that’s believed to never spoil! It can last virtually forever as long as it’s kept in a closed, dry place.

For many people, honey is an indispensable ingredient in the kitchen and a health product that helps to protect the immune system. So why are “honey” and “gluten free” ever used in the same sentence? Is honey gluten free? Let’s find out the truth about the so-called “nectar of the gods.”

Is Honey Safe for Celiac Sufferers?

Generally, honey is safe for celiac sufferers. However, the sad truth is that many of the companies that process and package honey do so in a facility that also processes and packages products with gluten. Anything with gluten – wheat flour, rye flour, or barley products – produces quite a lot of tiny particles when dried. In a heavily-ventilated warehouse, there will be a lot of air movement and unless stringent measures are taken, it’s nearly impossible to isolate other products from contamination with gluten. These particles are practically invisible and will easily stick to sugary substances such as honey during processing or packaging.

Unless a facility does not process any products with gluten, it’s not possible to guarantee that all of those other products are gluten free. For those with celiac disease especially, it’s important to only buy honey from a facility that’s certified gluten free. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for enforcing the use of their official gluten free logo. They inspect facilities for their gluten free certification and strictly enforce penalties for misuse of the certification and logo. In the United States, it’s a very trustworthy notification that the honey is safe to eat for those with celiac disease.

Celiacs could also buy local honey - in which case it’s possible to talk to the producer and find out what their packaging processes are and whether there’s any chance of cross-contamination with gluten.

Can Honey Contain Wheat?

By and large, honey is safe for both those with gluten intolerance as well as those with celiac disease. The entire time that bees are creating honey, they will not pollinate wheat, barley, or rye. In fact, bees are not known to come in contact with any sort of grain during their activities. They are simply not interested in grains and actually unable to get anything from those plants because wheat, barley, and rye are not flowering plants. Bees feed on and collect pollen exclusively from flowering plants.

Honey has been made by bees and harvested by people for thousands of years. In its pure form, honey is just sugars from flowers. Some honeys are labeled as different flavors because of the type of flower that the majority of the bees were taking nectar from, such as wildflower honey or oregano honey. Natural honey shouldn’t be flavored or diluted. There aren’t any logical reasons why anything should be added to honey other than to act as a filler to make it cheaper for the manufacturer.

Since bees will have nothing to do with gluten and people have no real reason to add glutenous products to honey, it makes sense that all honey should be completely gluten free. However, again, mass-packaged honey could come from a facility that also produces glutenous foods.

What Kind of Honey is Gluten-Free?

Honey is a very sticky substance. While honey itself does not contain wheat or other glutens, it can be contaminated by careless or improper handling in a facility that also handles glutenous products. Honey that has been certified gluten free in the United States by the FDA has an extremely low chance of ever coming into contact with gluten. Honey that hasn’t been certified gluten free by the FDA should be considered very likely to contain small particles of gluten.

Is Honey and Sugar Gluten-Free?

We’ve already covered how honey can come into contact with gluten. Let’s talk about sugar.

Sugar is a type of carbohydrate and people extract their sugars from a wide range of crops, mostly cane and beets depending on the climate. However, sugar is found in various amounts in all plant products including sources of gluten such as wheat, barley, and rye. However, sugar and gluten are not mutually exclusive. That’s because gluten is a protein, a complex molecule which contains all sorts of substances such as sugar. 

Sugar sources and gluten sources are grown in the same regions in all parts of the world. They are processed from their raw form dramatically differently in completely separate facilities with few exceptions. However, sugars and glutenous products are packaged very similarly and may use the same facility during packaging and distribution. Much like with honey, it is possible that glutenous particles fly into sugar packaging undetected. Therefore, it’s also important that someone with celiac disease only uses FDA certified gluten free sugar.

Is Raw Honey Gluten Free?

Raw honey is the form of honey that is taken straight from the beehive and left unprocessed. So, why do people process honey? In its natural form in the hive, honey very likely contains remnants of the waxy honeycomb. Honey can be sold with the whole honeycomb and the whole thing can be eaten. It’s delicious! 

Raw honey also contains small amounts of water moisture which cause the crystallization of some parts of the mixture. Inside the beehive, raw honey is also exposed to the natural yeast spores found in the air at all times. Note that yeast and gluten are not at all related since yeast is a member of the fungus family and while it’s used in breadmaking and brewing, it does not contain any gluten (gluten comes from grains).

When raw honey is processed, it’s heated so that it can pass through a filter much easier due to its highly viscous nature. Honey is heated up to around 150 to 170 degrees Fahrenheit, well below the boiling point of water. This is to avoid caramelization, which will damage the honey. Pasteurization may also occur at about 161 degrees, which will eliminate the yeast spores or bacteria which may have collected on the surface of the honey over time. As the processed honey cools, water is drained and wax is scraped off the surface.

Then, honey is filtered. The filtration process can happen to various degrees. Larger filters trap foreign objects and debris, such as dust, dirt, and others. Smaller filters will separate miniscule particles to produce an incredibly smooth final product.

Now that we’ve covered what differentiates raw honey from processed honey, let’s be clear: at no point from the beehive to your pantry is gluten ever intended to come in contact with gluten. However, cross-contamination does happen from time to time in the facility where both products are packaged. For those with celiac disease, it’s important to be as safe as possible and only use sugars that are certified gluten free by the FDA.