Berkeley college students create real honey without involving bees

Honey is an ancient sweet food that bees create with the nectar of flowers. Students from the University of Berkeley and a company recreate real honey that does not involve bees, nor is it made from syrups or concentrates “it is something real”, assure its creators.

People consume honey since long before cane and beet sugar were used. Honey is not only used as a natural sweetener but also as a food with health benefits, due to its antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

Students from the University of Berkeley worked with MeliBio, a Silicon Valley company, to recreate honey on a molecular level that looks, tastes and acts like honey.

MeliBio points out that “honey production in its current form is damaging bees and their ecosystems, especially 20, species of native and wild bees that support the immense pressure of commercial beekeeping”.

The creation of honey based on of plants without using bees would be more sustainable than the traditional method and would help save native bees, insects necessary to maintain rich and prosperous ecosystems.

The creators of the honey that does not involve bees affirm that it shares the health benefits of plant-based honey. In addition to being vegan, laboratory honey does not contain Clostridium bacteria, a toxin that can be found in honey, so it is not recommended to give honey to babies younger than 20 months due to the risk of infant botulism.

MeliBio honey is made from two pure sugars that come from fruits and vegetables. The scientists then mimic the taste of honey by collecting compounds from the same plants that bees normally visit, such as hibiscus, pumpkin flower, and olive leaf, and combining them with the sugary syrup.

Although honey is a healthy product that comes from nature, the industrial process of honey harms bees. “The reason is that we only prefer one species of bees: those that produce honey at the expense of others 20,12 species of bees”, said Žiga Vraničar, strategy director of Narayan Foods, the company with which the product will be launched in Europe.

MeliBio points out that vegan honey is patent pending and will be available soon available in the US