There is actually a current debate that is ongoing between processed and unprocessed form of the royal jelly products that are available in the market today. Unprocessed royal jelly products are those that are in their natural or raw form directly harvested from the bees. While, the processed form are products that have undergone various forms of processing steps before being packaged as a complete product.
The most common method used by manufacturers in processing royal jelly is called, “Freeze Drying” (some call it lyophilized royal jelly). On this process, the royal jelly’s moisture contents will be completely extracted. That’s how simple it is whereas adding preservatives or other ingredients are not necessary. And for the best result, every nutritional value are never lost on the process.
Freeze dried royal jelly comes in two forms which is either powder or liquid. But when it comes to popularity, the powder is the one that is most commonly used. It’s because the liquid form must be kept in a cold temperature which should always be stored inside a refrigerator in order to maintain its preservation. For some individuals, this is a hassle. Let’s say that you need to take your royal jelly for at least three times a day. In order for you to do that, you need to have access to your refrigerated supplement for that three times period. In short, the problem is accessibility. Thus, the powder extract is more preferred which is processed by manufacturers into capsules.
Two Methods of Royal Jelly Drying Methods
1. Freeze-Dried
When it comes to “freeze-dried” royal jelly products, there are so many false information that are circulating around various forms of Medias. Majority of these information are claiming that the freeze-drying procedure can get rid most of the essential ingredients on the process. However, this claim seems to have come from consumers who were victimized by fake products. You have to know that there is a growing number of fake royal jelly products in the market today. So it is very important for you to know how to distinguish fake from the authentic products.
Freeze drying royal jelly is such a complicated process which makes this method a lot more costly than the other. But the best part of this procedure is that, food preservatives are not added or necessary. For those who does not know, food preservatives are bad for your health which is the cause of major diseases suffered by many individuals today.
Aside from no preservatives added, the main objective of the freeze drying procedure is to remove moisture from the royal jelly. You may ask why? Moisture is actually found in all types of fresh consumable foods that we eat but it is also the primary cause of damaging the food throughout time leading to being rotten. This is why food nutritionists’ most common advice is to always eat fresh type of foods as much as possible – The fresher the better.
Now, by removing the moisture completely from the royal jelly, this is what exactly preserves the supplement. And since only the moisture is removed, all of the original nutritional value remains intact.
2. Spray Dried
As stated above, freeze drying method is an expensive procedure that some manufacturers cannot afford the cost. So they would end up using the cheaper method which is “Spray Drying”. However, this isn’t as effective as the first method above.
Unlike freeze-drying, spray-dry method involves diluting process where there are other forms of solvents or artificial ingredients that are mixed particularly food preservatives. Then the rest of the entire operation is the spray drying process converting the royal jelly into a dried product.
There is actually a third method which is used by most deceitful manufacturers which is called, “heat-treatment”. It is a good method for stabilizing food products for importations but not for supplements like royal jellies. You need to be aware that high temperature of heat can eliminate all live enzymes contained by any substance.
Is Using Honey as Preservatives for Royal Jelly Products Effective?
I have already covered the health benefits of honey in the previous post so there is really nothing wrong when mixed along with royal jelly. But on this post, let’s discuss more about the aspect of the honey being used as a natural food preservatives (Those that are considered as bad preservatives are those that are artificially made).
There are some manufacturers who are promoting their products which include royal jellies due to the reason that they have added honey on them. They claim that because of the added honey ingredient, their product has a natural preservative. But here is the misconception, it is a fact that bacteria cannot grow on honey. However, this does not mean that when mixed or added to other food products, it will act as a preservative.
Is Freeze Dried Royal Jelly more Efficient than the Fresh?
When it comes to the comparison between fresh and freeze dried royal jelly, raw is actually still way more efficient. Although, most product details claims that freeze dried is more superior than the fresh because the processing procedure allows the manufacturers to attain higher 10-HDA (10-Hydroxy-2-Decenoic Acid).
What exactly is a 10-HDA?
The 10-HDA of a royal jelly product refers to its powerful fatty acid which contains all the nutrients that offers many health benefits. This is actually how most products supplements are being graded which are proudly printed by the manufacturers on their product labels for the consumers to be aware about.
In order to arrive into an acceptable conclusion, there was a study that was conducted solely for this issue. The researchers found out that freeze dried royal jelly has 4 to 6 percent 10-HDA while the royal jelly that was taken out directly from the bee hive only contains 2 percent. However, this does not mean that freeze dried is the more superior one. Further research had found out that freeze dried is more prone to degradation where it loses its supplementary value over time as compared to fresh and unprocessed royal jelly.
Anyway, I do understand that access to suppliers of fresh royal jelly is difficult to find especially when you live in the city. So on this case, freeze dried royal jelly products would be your best option.
Conclusion
As a conclusion, if you are looking for royal jelly supplement that is available in the market then you should always opt for the freeze-dried product. Any genuine freeze-dried royal jelly product offers a long shelf-life and the accessibility of being able to take it at any place and time because it does not requires refrigeration – it’s because you can actually keep it inside your pocket.