‍Finnish Company’s Hikiän Raw Honey Wins Prestigious Award at Gulfood International Food Exhibition

Gulfood is one of the world’s largest and most popular international food festivals. With over 5,000 exhibitors and 97,000 attendees from 185 different countries, it is a major achievement for any product to win an award in any of the 14 major categories of product, especially when only four products are selected as finalists in each of these categories.

Hikiän raw honey wins Best Health and Wellness Product category

Consequently, here at Hikiän, we are delighted to announce that our Hikiän raw honey has won the Best Health and Wellness Product category at this year’s Gulfood exhibition.

Commenting on this highly prestigious award Reko Nieminen, Managing Director of Finnish company Hikiän, said: “We were so excited when we discovered that our Hikiän raw honey was one of the four products selected for the final. To then win the award for Best Health and Wellness Product is an outstanding achievement, one which confirms our beliefs that our Hikiän raw honey is probably the best honey in the world. It is also testament to the environment in which our bee hives are located and the care we take with every step of the production of our raw honey. Hikiän is only a small specialist company, so to come out on top against so many major companies reminds me of David and Goliath and underlines that biggest isn’t always best”.

About Hikiän raw honey

Part of the magic surrounding Hikiän raw honey is that it is a honey which, once packaged, is still about as natural as it can possibly be. This comes down to the fact that the bees are the ‘production process’ and the honey is simply taken from the hives and then packed in high-quality containers to ensure it retains all its natural properties.

Much of today’s mass-produced honey is pasteurised and frequently diluted, it is honey by name but not honey by nature. Hikiän raw honey is not pasteurised, and annual analysis is carried out to establish the levels of hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). HMF is a product created through the breakdown of fructose (a totally natural sugar) and occurs at higher levels when honey has been treated and is therefore no longer classed as ‘natural’. The level of HMF in Hikiän raw honey = 3,8mg/kg

Finland’s beekeeping association has set guide levels for raw honey as follows:

Maximum HMF allowable                40mg/kg
Maximum HMF in ‘Good’ Quality’   15mg/kg

To further ensure the quality of the honey when it reaches its destination, each jar is carefully wrapped in violet grass which acts as a natural thermal insulator protecting the honey from external temperatures when in transit. The use of violet grass also underlines the commitment of Hikiän commitment to protecting the environment and minimising the company’s carbon footprint.

Other products - Propolis

For millennia propolis has been recognised for its healing powers. Created from sap harvested by bees from the buds of coniferous trees, propolis is used by bees to protect the hive against disease. When you consider that anywhere between 20,000 and 80,000 female worker bees and hundreds of male drones, plus one queen, live in one hive colony, clearly propolis is an essential element in the health of such colonies. Thus, propolis works both as a disinfectant and also has antivirus properties.  

Propolis in its totally natural form is a very rare commodity and only through the fact that Hikiän’s hives are located deep within the heart of Finnish pine forests is it possible to extract sufficient quantities of propolis without harming the integrity of each and every hive.

Contact and Further Information

For further information on the success of Hikiän raw honey at this year’s Gulfood exhibition and any of the company’s products, please contact:

Reko Nieminen
Managing Director
Hikiän
Phone +358 40 570 7951
[email protected]