Regardless of location: Note that per NPR, the previously mentioned website Food Safety News is an online publication sponsored by a law firm that represents plaintiffs in food safety lawsuits.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/20...g-the-pollen-out-of-honey-makes-a-sticky-mess
And a reply from the national honey board:
http://www.honey.com/nhb/about-honey/frequently-asked-questions/#honey-filtration
"November 9, 2011
The choices consumers make today about most products, including honey, are extremely personal. In regards to honey, consumers may have varying opinions about their choice of honey type, flavor and origin. To enable a truly personal choice, there are many different kinds of honey available in the U.S. market. Some consumers prefer honey in the comb or liquid honey that is unprocessed or raw, while some prefer honey that is crystallized or cremed. Others will seek out honey that is organically produced and certified. However, the majority of honey sold at retail in the U.S. every year is the clear, golden liquid honey that has been strained or filtered.
There are a number of filtration processes that remove fine particles, including pollen, from honey - but the end result is still pure honey. Pollen particles may or may not be present in the honey an individual chooses, but the product is still honey.
Unfortunately, inaccuracies in a recent news story have fueled a considerable amount of confusion about the term “ultrafiltered honey.” Ultrafiltration is a specific process used in the food industry. When applied to honey, ultrafiltration results in a sweetener product that is not honey because of the significant changes it causes in the original honey. It is an expensive process that requires the addition of water to the honey, high pressure filtration at the molecular level, and then removal of the water. While it is known to have been used with honey overseas to create a sweetener product for beverages, ultrafiltration is not generally used in the U.S. Other filtration methods have been used for many years in the U.S. honey industry. These filtration methods are designed to remove fine particles such as bits of wax, bee parts, air bubbles and pollen that hasten crystallization of the honey and affect clarity. Recent articles have also incorrectly stated that the FDA does not consider honey without pollen to be honey - that is simply not true.
"
Now that said, I'd still go for local honey producers (especially if I source it from wineries making mead) when I'm brewing something (cyser, mead, etc). Regardless of if it's highly filtered or not.
And I admit that I'll go for generic filtered honey when I'm using it for anything else, which is seldom. (Gluten free so I don't have waffles every week.)
The weather ruined our honey flows this year. I don't like HFCS but I have to feed so much to build up winter stores that sugar wasn't in the budget.
