Medicinal honey from Western Australia certified for antimicrobial benefits set to rival Manuka

Scientists have developed a process to certify West Australian honey with medicinal and antimicrobial properties, which will rival New Zealand’s famous Manuka honey.

The new certification process, developed by industry and food testing laboratory ChemCentre and funded by a $500,000 State Government grant, will now be able to authenticate WA honey with medicinal properties.

Honey that comes from jarrah and marri trees, which are unique to WA, are known as monofloral honeys and have been found to have some of the highest antimicrobial activity in the world.

Certification paves way for new marketing

But the WA honey industry had been unable to market these properties effectively because until now, it had no official certification process for monofloral honey.

ChemCentre principal food scientist Ken Dods said the certification would be able to test for and confirm the presence of antimicrobial activity in honey.

Mr Dods said certified honey would then have greater marketing value in export markets like China and Japan, where medicinal honey was in high demand.

He said his research had shown that jarrah and marri monofloral honeys had higher levels of antimicrobial activity than the famous Manuka honey from New Zealand.

“This certification process will protect and grow the WA honey industry,” he said.

The certification process will be launched at official opening of Baldivis honey producer Stephen Davies’s $2.5 million honey processing facility.

Mr Davies said the investment by State Government and industry into an authenticity certificate demonstrates the significant demand for WA honey in international markets.

3 Likes

That’s a big call.

Price of those honeys will rise accordingly. I know Jarrah honey sells at about twice the price of other WA honeys because anacdotally it had high antimicrobial properties but Marri was a surprise.

Sounds good news. Does it taste better than manuka?

Put it this way…Manuka is an aquired taste for anyone who hasn’t grown up on it. I personally don’t like manuka but many do.
Jarrah and Marri honey tastes divine and they tend not to crystallize. But I am biased so perhaps shouldn’t replying to your question. LOL

I’ve eaten Jarrah pollen and it was delicious and citrusy (from memory). It also felt hot in my mouth when I first bought it, I guess from whatever was active in it at the time.

Thanks.

@Faroe
It sounds lovely

This will be of interest, especially those in Western Australia.


Cheers