Combating honey fraud and enhancing traceability and labeling regulations established in the European Union

02 February 2024

A crucial step forward has been made when negotiators from the European Parliament and EU Council came to a temporary agreement to combat adulterated honey and improve openness in the industry, as reported by Food Ingredients. The agreement focuses on revising regulations pertaining to specific breakfast items’ composition, names, labels, and presentations.

The agreement includes a significant new requirement for honey blends: a label that clearly identifies the nations of origin in descending order along with their proportional shares. This action is meant to combat fraud, namely with regard to imports of honey that may have been tampered with to include sugar.

The agreement also highlights the need for better consumer education, mandating the disclosure of honey origin percentages from at least the top four countries. The larger plan includes innovations like a sensor created in China to identify water adulteration in honey and a pledge to improve traceability via an EU platform of experts and a unique identification code. These actions are a reaction to ongoing worries in the EU about adulterated honey. It is anticipated that the accord, which was addressed in the “Breakfast Directives,” will be legally implemented later this year.