10 UK honey brands are being diluted with cheap sugar syrup

At least 10 brands of honey exported from the UK are diluted with ‘illicit, cheap ingredients’, a new report has found.

A Europe-wide study by the European Commission picked out a random selection of honey samples imported into EU countries and tested them for their purity.

Ten UK brands were tested and all were found to have been diluted with sugar syrup.

The brand names were not revealed in the report, but it is likely all are on sale in UK shops.

The EU Honey Directive requires ‘honey shall not have added to it any food ingredient, including food additives, nor shall any other additions be made other than honey’.

The UK Government will now investigate the research, reports MailOnline.

The study found that overall 46% of honey products tested across the EU had sugar added.

The commission said the UK brands were the ‘likely the result of honey produced in other countries and further blended in the UK’.

The highest number of contaminated honeys came from the UK’s largest supplier, China. But the highest proportion showings signs of sugar added were from Turkey at 93%.

Sixteen EU countries, plus Switzerland and Norway, took part in the testing campaign. A total of 320 honey consignments – imported from 20 countries – were randomly sampled between November 2021 and February 2022.

Samples of these shipments were then sent for analysis, which identified that 147 samples (46%) were thought to be adulterated and therefore non-compliant with the general provision of the EU Honey Directive. 

The British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) said it’s important firms label their honey with its country of origin to enable ‘consumers to choose honey from sources where adulteration is less likely’.

Diane Drinkwater, chair of the BBKA, said: ‘To meet demand, around 90% of the honey we eat in the UK is imported. There is legitimate concern among UK beekeepers and honey producers about honey imports from countries where honey may be adulterated on an industrial scale.

‘BBKA are keen for the public to be given accurate information about where their honey comes from. BBKA would like all countries where the honey originated from to be listed on the label.

‘The general public knows where our broccoli and cabbage comes from, often down to the county, so why shouldn’t they know where the supermarket honey comes from?’

Currently the country of origin on honey labels can be replaced, if the honey originates from multiple countries, with ‘blend of EU/non-EU honeys’.

Ms Drinkwater continued: ‘We believe this is insufficient to allow consumers to make an informed choice. All countries where the honey originated should be listed.’

The organisation launched a petition just under six months ago calling the government to make it mandatory for the honey’s origin to be included on the label. It has more than 12,000 signatures so far and closes on April 13.

The Government responded to the petition on January 31 with: ‘The Government takes food fraud seriously and is working to ensure honey meets our high standards. Country of origin labelling is not a suitable means for determining if a food is subject to fraud.’

In 2013 the UK and other parts of Europe were rocked by the horse meat scandal.

A number of products on the market were found to contain horsemeat despite not being declared on the label. It sparked outcry and numerous products were taken off the shelves.

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