Honey Fraud

While Britain’s beekeepers are calling for new rules to combat honey fraud, until testing and legislation catches up with the scale of the problem the advice is to keep it local and keep it simple.

The recent decision by the ‘International Federation of Beekeepers’ Associations’ to remove the honey category at next year’s awards comes as a blow to honey producers. Luke Hutchinson, Director and Beekeeper, of the Northumberland Honey Co highlights three severe impacts on the honey producing industry caused by reports of fraud and adulteration within the global supply chain.

• Impact on the consumer as their faith in the system has been challenged.
• Impact on the honey producer – beekeepers can no longer enter award schemes to give important industry recognition to their product as the system is flawed and testing doesn’t work.
• Impact on the supply chain, fraudulent products effectively blocking genuine producers.

 

The Federation’s announcement begs the question: if the international body overseeing beekeeping cannot guarantee honey authenticity, how is the regular consumer supposed to make an informed choice?

It’s a complex picture, but the answer to sourcing raw, pure honey with a trusted provenance is not as difficult as you may think.

Luke Hutchinson gives his insider’s guide.

• Find a trusted, UK based primary producer with whom you can build a relationship.
• Insist on labelling clarity at your point of sale – this should include information about where the honey was harvested and as much site specificity as possible
• Choose a supplier with a circular supply chain meaning no breaks from flower to jar and absolutely no imports.

 

Luke say’s ‘I urge consumers to make a conscious lifestyle choice, to put down the questionable products and pick up a relationship with a quality producer for the long term and the benefit of the whole honey ecosystem’.

The Northumberland Honey Co produces raw honey, straight from the hive and guarantees the provenance of each jar by linking it to the apiary site from where it was extracted and clearly displaying the information on the label.

Date of Publication 3/12/2024