Kosher Honey, Raw Kosher Honey

Honey is considered kosher as long as it is 100% honey with no additives or dilutions. It can be confusing because honeybees themselves are not kosher and you cannot get kosher food from non-kosher animals (the Mishnah states "that which comes from something which is not kosher is not kosher, and that which comes from something which is kosher is kosher"). There are several explanations for considering honey kosher.

The first reason is kosher laws do not consider honey to be a product of the honey bee. In order to make honey the bees collect nectar from flowers. They are not the source of the honey the way a cow is the source for milk, they serve as a transport the raw materials.

Today we know that honeybees do serve as more than a transport vessel for nectar. Scientist discovered that the honeybees add enzymes to the nectar they collect to turn it into honey. The 1/60th rule says that the presence of as little as 1/60th (1.66%) of a non-kosher substance (by total volume) will make a kosher food non-kosher.

Another opinion claims that the insect itself is specifically stated as not kosher but that the secretions are not included in the prohibition.

There is a longstanding tradition of eating sweet apples dipped in honey for Rosh Hashanah to symbolize a sweet year. Honey is also served with most meals from Rosh Hashana until Sukkot. It is baked into breads, used to sweeten and glaze vegetables and drizzled on bread.