The Kosher Status of Bee Products

Author: Rabbi Cohen

Honey

For thousands of years, people have been aware of the many uses and nutritional benefits of honey, this bee product. People consider honey healthier than other sweeteners. As winter comes, people are susceptible to viruses, colds and flu. Therefore many people use honey as a health-care product. This article explores the Kosher status of bee products from multiple angles.

From the Kosher perspective, there is undoubtedly this question: the general principle of Kosher is that all substances from non-Kosher sources are non-Kosher. So why is the honey produced by the non-Kosher bee Kosher? The basic question of honey's Kosher status is discussed in the Bechoros chapter of the Gemara. Before discussing this question, let us first look at why and how bees make honey.

Bees make honey because honey is a liquid food that can be preserved for a long time. So in winter, bees only need to stay in the hive and rely on honey for nutrition. The honey-making process is as follows:

In spring and summer, bees draw nectar (mainly a sucrose solution) from flowers and immediately return to the hive, regurgitating the nectar into the mouths of their hive mates. In this way, the nectar mixes with the bees' saliva. Bee saliva contains two enzymes - invertase and glucose oxidase - which are crucial to honey-making, as detailed below. (In plain terms, an enzyme is a microorganism that can digest a specific compound, and this digestion process changes the compound's chemical properties.) Then the hive mates regurgitate the nectar and saliva into the honeycomb and fan it continuously with their wings until most of the water in the nectar evaporates. Meanwhile, their enzyme-rich saliva breaks down sucrose (a disaccharide) into two monosaccharides - glucose and fructose. These two sugars and the remaining water cling tightly together, forming a "desert" where bacteria cannot survive, so the honey can be stored for a long time.

However, during honey's maturation, it can still be attacked by pathogens (a pathogen is a bacterium that can cause a substance to spoil). The hero resisting pathogens is glucose oxidase. It converts glucose into gluconic acid, making the honey acidic, thus killing most bacteria. Note that the formation and maturation of honey occur almost entirely in the honeycomb, not inside the bee's body.

Next, let us analyze from the Kosher perspective. The Gemara provides two grounds for why honey is Kosher. First, honey is not a secretion of bees, but a product formed from the later processing of the nectar they collect, so honey is permitted. By this view, the honey of other insects, as long as it is not a secretion, is also permitted.

The second ground is more restrictive. The Gemara points out that the Bible specifically states that bee honey is permitted. By this view, only bee honey is specially permitted by the Bible; the honey of other insects is not included and is therefore non-Kosher. The Jewish code Shulchan Aruch cites both views but does not make a clear ruling. However, halacha (dietary law) follows the principle of sfekah d'oraisah l'chumrah, forbidding such products.

For a special kind of honey - honeydew honey, produced after bees feed on the sweet secretion of aphids called "honeydew" - the two grounds of the Gemara diverge in application. The Gemara's first ground is that honey is permitted because it is not a secretion of bees but comes from Kosher nectar. By this, honeydew honey should be forbidden because its source is the non-Kosher aphid. However, the Gemara's second ground is that honey is specially permitted by law, so one could argue that honeydew honey is also permitted. As stated above, due to the Gemara's uncertainty on this question, it is hard to decide which of the two grounds is more important.

Royal jelly

Honey is not the only bee product. Recently, interest has been growing in another bee product - royal jelly. Because it is said to have many benefits (none proven), able to boost the body's immune system and promote physical and mental health, royal jelly has become a hot commodity in health-product stores.

But is royal jelly Kosher? Does the principle determining honey's Kosher status also apply to royal jelly? Unlike honey, royal jelly is a creamy-yellow secretion from the glands of worker bees, with a consistency similar to cream, less viscous than honey, bitter but not irritating. Worker bees produce royal jelly mainly as food for larvae in the early stage, and it is also the sole food of the queen bee. The rest of the bees survive on the honey stored in the hive.

Some argue that royal jelly should be permitted. Because it is very similar to honey, it should also fall under the Bible's special exception. But this argument is hard to sustain under either of the aforementioned grounds of the Gemara. First, royal jelly is a glandular secretion, so it does not meet the first rule. At the same time, since royal jelly differs from honey in appearance, taste and function, it can be regarded as a food entirely different from honey, and therefore cannot be included in the Bible's special permission for honey.

Others believe that because royal jelly is "extremely bitter" and unsuitable for human consumption, there is no need to forbid it. This view is undoubtedly wrong. Because although royal jelly has a somewhat sour-bitter taste, it is by no means impossible to swallow, even without any processing - which non-Jews have confirmed.

Therefore, it is generally agreed that royal jelly is non-Kosher.

Beeswax

Beeswax is a secretion from the glands of the bee's abdomen; bees use beeswax to build the honeycomb to store honey. Beeswax applied to the surface of fruit can extend its shelf life; it can make chocolate, jelly beans, candy corn and the like shiny; and it is the base of a flavoring - beeswax extract.

At first glance, neither of the Gemara's two grounds for permitting honey seems to apply to beeswax, because beeswax is both a secretion and not honey. However, many contemporary authorities consider beeswax permitted, mainly because beeswax is a non-edible item. Beeswax is regarded as animal waste, not subject to the law's provisions on food (yotzeh min hatamei). Earlier authorities also offered much supporting evidence for the view that beeswax is Kosher. The Magen Avraham, chapter 321, section 16, stipulates that the candles used when searching for leaven before Passover should be made of beeswax rather than animal fat, to ensure that non-Kosher grease does not drip onto the dishes. That is, the Magen Avraham implies that beeswax candle drippings on a plate do not cause a Kosher problem.

Therefore, it is generally agreed that beeswax is Kosher.

Pollen and propolis

Pollen is a light-yellow or light-green powder that bees collect from flowers, carried in the pollen baskets on their legs. Pollen contains the nutrients that male flowers provide to new plants. Bees mix pollen with a little nectar to make a protein-rich food, bee bread, used to feed larvae. Pollen is sold in health-product stores. Many people believe pollen is rich in vitamins and enzymes and has antibiotic properties.

Propolis is a resin that bees collect with their legs, used for sealing and other purposes. The chemical composition of propolis is: 45 to 55% resin, 25 to 35% waxes and fatty acids from beeswax or plants, 10% essential oils from plants, 5% pollen, and 5% other organic substances and minerals. Propolis is sold in health-product stores and is used as a toothpaste additive for its antibacterial properties. Propolis contains beeswax, which is Kosher. Propolis is presumed to contain a small amount of bee saliva, but the amount is too small and similar to the content in honey (which is undoubtedly Kosher). Since both pollen and propolis are collected by bees from Kosher sources, both are permitted. Another reason propolis is permitted is the same as for beeswax: it is also a non-edible gum-like item.

This article highlights an important principle - before determining a product's Kosher status, one must thoroughly understand the product and its applicable dietary rules. Consumers should obtain dietary information from a Kosher body or consult a rabbi familiar with the product's entire process and applicable dietary rules.