McCormick & Company Inc announced this week that it has purchased the shares of Billy Bee Honey Products Ltd. for $75 million in cash.

Founded in 1958, Billy Bee Honey Products is Canada’s largest honey business with a 60% share of branded honey sales to retailers in Canada. In recent years, Billy Bee has developed and marketed new products using honey, including mustard, sauces and salad dressings. Billy Bee also supplies an estimated 50% of the private label honey sold to Canadian retailers and about half of the honey used as an ingredient by food manufacturers in Canada.

Including its Billy Bee® and Doyon® brands, as well as private label and industrial products, Billy Bee Honey Products has sales of approximately $37 million per year.

Alan D. Wilson, President & CEO of McCormick, said in a corporate press release that the acquisition of Billy Bee Honey Products is part of his company’s acquisition strategy to bring established brands under the McCormick umbrella.

“Consumers in Canada know Billy Bee and Doyon as trusted brands of pure, natural honey,” Wilson said. “This is a terrific complement to our savory products in Canada and a great extension of the sweet products we currently market in Europe and the Asia/Pacific region.

“Over the past 50 years, the management and employees of Billy Bee have created a well-established business, and in recent years have launched some exciting value-added products. We look forward to working together to achieve further growth through innovation and distribution expansion.”

Even beekeepers have to admit it — using liquid honey to sweeten a hot beverage can be a bit messy!

Island Abbey Foods Ltd., a 6th-generation company out of Prince Edward Island, Canada, has just launched a product that offers an all-natural solution to sticky fingers at tea time.

The Honey Drop™ is an individual serving (one teaspoon / 5 g) of 100% pure dried honey, ideal for sweetening tea or coffee. You just drop it into the cup, and stir to dissolve.

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It’s not an “old wives’ tale” after all — a spoonful of honey at bedtime really does help children to stop coughing and get a good night’s sleep. Given the recent alarms about the use of over-the-counter cold medicines for young children, this comes as welcome news to parents.

According to a study reported in this month’s Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a spoonful of honey taken 30 minutes before bedtime was as effective in easing cough and cold symptoms in small children as treatment with DM cold medicines, and significantly more effective than giving the child no treatment at all. (It was noted that honey should not be given to children under 1 year of age, because of a rare but serious risk of botulism.)

There is increasing concern about the use of over-the-counter medications to treat symptoms of upper respiratory infections (URIs) in young children. This study randomized 130 children aged 2 to 18 years with cough due to URIs to receive either dextromethorphan, buckwheat honey, or placebo before going to sleep. Honey provided the greatest relief in cough symptoms, and both children and their parents in this group slept better compared with the other groups. Buckwheat honey, but not dextromethorphan, was better than no treatment in relieving nocturnal symptoms associated with URIs.

The study, headed by Dr. Ian Paul of Pennsylvania State University’s College of Medicine, looked at cough frequency, cough severity, the bothersome nature of the cough — and the quality of sleep enjoyed by both the child and the parent.

See:
Effect of Honey on Nocturnal Cough and Sleep Quality in Children
Ian M. Paul, MD, MSc; Jessica Beiler, MPH; Amyee McMonagle, RN; Michele L. Shaffer, PhD; Laura Duda, MD; Cheston M. Berlin Jr, MD
Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
Vol. 161 No. 12, December 2007
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2007;161(12):1121

A question that beekeepers are often asked is this:
How long can I keep honey and have it still be good to eat?”

The short answer is — indefinitely.

In fact, jars of honey have been found in the tombs of the old Egyptian pharaohs, still in fine condition!

If honey is allowed to absorb extra moisture from the air, however, it might begin to ferment. But if you store it in a sealed container, honey may be kept for almost an unlimited time. Honey may also darken with age and become a bit stronger in flavour, but again, it will not spoil if it’s kept in a sealed container.

• Do keep your honey at room temperature, in a closed jar, and out of strong sunlight.
• Don’t keep honey in the refrigerator, as cool temperatures will often speed up the natural granulation of honey, making the liquid turn into a lumpy solid form!

Tip: If your honey jar is sometimes hard to open, try wiping a little oil onto the rim of the jar before closing it. That will keep the lid from sticking.

The National Honey Board (USA) published its first recipe nearly 18 years ago in an attempt to encourage people to use more honey.

Since that time, they’ve collected more than 1,500 delicious honey recipes, including beverages, salad dressings, appetizers, main courses, side dishes and desserts.

Now they’re offering a free recipe newsletter, The Honey Feast, to deliver those recipes by email.

Once every three weeks, the National Honey Board will be pleased to send you an entire recipe meal planner, featuring outstanding recipes from our collection, all containing honey as an ingredient.

The entrée course will always try to give you a selection so that a meat or seafood dish might have a vegetarian alternative.

From time to time, we may add bonus selections such as tips on cooking with honey; all-natural honey based cosmetic recipes and a tidbit or two on the very latest honey research.

To sign up to receive The Honey Feast newsletter, visit the NHB at www.honey.com.