THS KNOWLEDGE CENTRE
What is honey authenticity?
Honey authenticity means that honey is what it is claimed to be. Understanding it involves the product, its origin, its handling and the evidence behind its description.
Authenticity is more than appearance
Colour, consistency and flavour vary between honeys. Appearance alone cannot establish that a jar matches every claim made about it. A useful assessment asks what is being claimed and which evidence can support that claim.
Examples include the producer’s identity, the geographical origin, a stated floral source and the connection between a finished jar and its source batches. These questions need different kinds of evidence.
What is honey adulteration?
Adulteration can include adding materials such as sugar syrup to honey. Misrepresentation can also concern origin or product description. The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre discusses these risks and the need to follow up suspicious analytical results with investigation and traceability information.
That research does not establish that any particular jar, producer or country’s honey is fraudulent. Claims about individual products need appropriate evidence.
What can a buyer check?
Look for a clearly identified producer or responsible business, an understandable origin statement and a way to ask about provenance. Where a certification mark is used, check the scheme’s register, certificate status and scope.
A mark should lead to a checkable record. An organisation’s certificate should not be read as covering activities, sites or products beyond the scope actually recorded.
What can a producer demonstrate?
Keep a connected account of production, source batches, transfers and packing. Make sure the descriptions used in sales information can be explained and supported.
Where laboratory analysis is appropriate, ask which question the method addresses and how its findings should be interpreted alongside records and other evidence.
How THS is approaching authenticity
The Honey Standard is developing requirements and an assessment approach that bring provenance, chain of custody, practical controls and relevant testing together. The final requirements are not yet published.
This guide is an introduction to the topic, rather than a declaration that a particular honey or business is certified.
Sources and further reading
Joint Research Centre: Food fraud—how genuine is your honey? (2023)
External sources inform this introduction; their authors have not endorsed THS. Published research should be read in its original context.
Explore further
Have a question or correction? Contact The Honey Standard.