Planning on using honey on your latkes? You need to know this

When it comes to kashrut, honey has long been special — and a pretty safe bet.

One of the few foods that, if unprocessed and straight from the bee, does not require a hescher to be kosher.

But this Chanukah, if you’re planning on drizzling it over sweet latkes or your freshly fried doughnuts you’ll need to take care.

Due to an industry-wide shortage of regular honey that is made by bees from flower nectar in the normal way, companies have started supplementing the sweet stuff with something called Honeydew — aka Forest Honey or Pine Honey.

Honeydew honey doesn’t come from flower nectar but instead the bees make use of sticky sap secreted by aphids (tiny insects that live on tree branches). It’s this gluey goo that makes annoying dots on your car windscreen if you park under certain trees.

The problem is that the honeydew honey is subject to some halchic debate and the KLBD don’t deem it to be kosher.
If you want to know why — this handy Instagram post will explain all or click on the post below.

So, the KLBD have advised that if you’re going to buy honey any time soon you must ensure the honey has a KLBD logo.

They have also announced that the following Rowse honeys are no longer KLBD certified unless the label bears the KLBD logo: Rowse Dark & Rich 340g; Rowse Greek Squeezy 250g; Rowse Runny Squeezy 680g; Rowse Runny Squeezy 1.36kg; Rowse Set 1.36kg and Rowse Spreadable 3.17kg.
All other Rowse products remain certified as previously. There’s a full list on the KLBD’s isitkosher site and plenty of other honeys to pick from.

If you’re now dreaming of a recipe to use some of your kosher honey over Chanukah, you might want to try this delicious recipe for hot honey chilli air fryer halloumi bites. The recipe title is more of a mouthful than the deliciously moreish cheesy bites that are delicious slathered in sweet sticky (regular) honey.