The European Commission discovered 147 samples of honey that were suspected of being contaminated with syrups.
The European Commission investigated the authenticity of honey marketed in Europe and discovered that 46 per cent of samples examined were “suspicious of being contaminated.”
The findings of “From the Hives,” an EU-wide inquiry on honey contamination with sugars, have been published on the European Commission’s website. To conduct the study, 320 honey consignments imported from 20 nations were examined at random between November 2021 and February 2022.
After analysis by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), 147 samples (46 per cent) were found to be contaminated. This meant that the samples violated the general requirement of the EU Honey Directive, which states that “honey should not have any food ingredient, including food additives, added to it, nor shall any other modifications be made other than honey.”
According to the European Commission, this percentage of honey adulteration was “considerably higher” than in 2015-17, when 14 per cent of tested honey did not match guidelines.
In delving deeper into the investigation’s results, the European Commission stated that 74 per cent of the “suspect consignments” originated in China, whereas honey from Turkey had the largest relative proportion of questionable samples (93 per cent).
However, 100 per cent of the honey tested from the United Kingdom was labelled suspicious and failed to fulfil criteria, despite the European Commission’s assertion that this is “likely the consequence of honey produced in other countries and further mixed in the UK before re-export to the EU.”
Moreover, the findings revealed that 57 per cent of operators exported honey samples suspected of being contaminated with extraneous sugars, with 60 per cent of operations receiving “at least one” dubious consignment.
Ville Itälä, Director-General of OLAF (the European Anti-Fraud Organization), commented on the fake honey probe, saying, “The EU is an importer of honey since internal demand exceeds local output.” It is critical that we be watchful against any form of misuse.” The most common sort of honey fraud is through adulteration, which means adding inexpensive substances instead of keeping the honey pure.”
Earlier techniques of testing were used to detect sugar syrups consisting of maize starch or sugarcane with appropriate sensitivity, but the European Commission stated that this method was less efficient in detecting other forms of syrups intended to imitate honey.
Nevertheless, according to the conclusions of this study, sugar syrups manufactured from maize are now “rarely utilised to prolong honey” and have been largely supplanted by syrups made mostly from rice, wheat, or sugar beet.
The European Commission has said that “better, standardised, and generally acceptable analytical procedures are required to boost the competence of official control laboratories to detect honey contaminated with sugar syrups in the future.” According to reports, the JRC is attempting to improve these approaches.
Furthermore, the research discovered cases of origin fraud, in which labels claimed fraudulent honey sources.
The European Commission is continuing its work on honey regulation in the EU, recognising that honey adulteration is an appealing opportunity for food fraudsters. The EU Honey Directive is now being revised, which would purportedly enable for future regulations to protect consumers against fake honey and ensure that producers are truthful about the origins of their honey by demanding specific labelling of honey’s geographical origin.