best before date

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Joined
Jul 5, 2011
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Location
essex
Hive Type
National
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I have a chance to sell some of this years honey to my local health food shop but i understand that there are certain things that have to be on the label of which one is the best before date can any one advise me on what i should put on them

many thanks in advance
 
If you look on the BBKA website there is a download for honey selling regs.

There is no hard and fast rule for shelf life but two years in recommended.

My current harvest is labelled Best before end 2016.
 
BBKA and Cornwall Council ( best doc on honey labels that is up to date!)
Best before... We put 1 years after bottling, it never last that long, if it is any good ( as ours is!!!) it is eaten and more purchased within a week.
Egyptians of the Ancient ilk, "Mummy Honey" lasted over 1000 years in ideal tomb temps and humidity, I therefor suppose you could have a best before date of 3014!
In 3014 there will probably be no honey bees left as some dreadful virus imported into Europe will have made them go extinct!

The vast majority of honey jar labels I have seen are incorrect, best to date was a 8oz jar labeled 1lb, totally wrong as it did not have the producer stated on it anywhere .

James
 
If you look on the BBKA website there is a download for honey selling regs.

There is no hard and fast rule for shelf life but two years in recommended.

My current harvest is labelled Best before end 2016.

Some of the information on the BBKA site is not up to date.
Perhaps you should contact your own local food and health inspection dept before getting into deep water, do not trust all you read here!

Also as bees are now "Food producing stock" a whole raft of new regulations are now in force and enforceable.

I suspect that the vast majority of beekeepers would be unaware of the impact the new regulations will have on all aspects of beekeeping and particularly food consumables that are honeybee related.


James
 
I put three years . I understand that if you only use a month and year you must use the word end, eg end July 2016, but if you use a full date such as 31/7/16 that means you don't have to use a batch number as that identifies the exact date the honey was extracted... But I may be wrong. When I looked it up before making my new labels there was quite a lot of conflicting advice. I also read that honey could be within three to five years from extraction!
At the end of the day, honey doesn't really go off and who knows when the bees made it in the hive before you extracted or bottled it so I think as long as you are happy to explain why you have what you have on the label and that it is done in good faith you are half way there. The weights have to be a certain size. 3mm for 8oz and 4mm for above. Your address must be traceable and I think you have to have produce of uk on there too! The word honey must be on there but be careful of specifics such as heather honey as the content should be 60per cent or more if you declare it!
Others will correct me if I am wrong but these are the rules I stick to!
E
 
The way I handled this issue was purely pragmatic.

I'd decided to order 500 labels.
I worked out how long it would take to use them up - then added 12 months.

Dusty
 
:thanks:Thanks every body for taking the time to answer
you can always rely on helpful advice on this forum
 
Best before end: of the world?

At the moment I'm putting down 'best before end: 2019' accepted at the honey show, so good enough to me!

4 years on mine..................2nd at honey show :rolleyes:

I only use the bbe date as my lot No ie 12 07 18, I trace this from jar to bucket / apiary and harvest day as kept in my records.
I had to add a Lot No to comply with the honey show rules (commercial class) and after arguing I didnt need to but as they were the rules I had too I added a 4 digit ficticious number in biro on the tamper label and .............got 2nd place. Also got a note on my jars saying strictly speaking it should have my name on the label too.............despite it having my trading Co name and full postal address.
 
I put three years . I understand that if you only use a month and year you must use the word end, eg end July 2016, but if you use a full date such as 31/7/16 that means you don't have to use a batch number as that identifies the exact date the honey was extracted... But I may be wrong. When I looked it up before making my new labels there was quite a lot of conflicting advice. I also read that honey could be within three to five years from extraction!

I also use 3yrs but that's just my personal choice.

We had a talk last year given by the local council representative about labelling and selling honey. Although some bits made me yawn there were some interesting points made.

  • The Best Before date is relevant to the bottling date and not the extraction date!
  • If you use dd/mm/yy You only need the words "Best Before" and not "end or end of"
  • Using dd/mm/yy negates having to use a batch or lot no. **
  • There is no hard and fast rule on length of time from bottling to expiry

** It's all about traceability and if for some reason a jar was found to be defect in anyway you can recall that batch. ie In my case I jar in smallish batches and the BBF date is the day I jar +3yrs so It wouldn't be a massive number of jars I would have to recall!

When I started I wanted to put "Best Before Jar is empty" :D

He also emphasised that the main regs were to do with what is required on the label and the size of the type face.
 
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4 years on mine..................2nd at honey show :rolleyes:

I only use the bbe date as my lot No ie 12 07 18, I trace this from jar to bucket / apiary and harvest day as kept in my records.
I had to add a Lot No to comply with the honey show rules (commercial class) and after arguing I didnt need to but as they were the rules I had too I added a 4 digit ficticious number in biro on the tamper label and .............got 2nd place. Also got a note on my jars saying strictly speaking it should have my name on the label too.............despite it having my trading Co name and full postal address.

Not sure what the commercial class was but I entered the "6 Jars for sale class" (6Jars labelled ready for sale) last year and wondered if they would pull me up for having no batch / lot number but using a dd/mm/yy as Best before date instead.

Nope won 1st and Supreme Champion of the whole show with it!
 
Not sure what the commercial class was but I entered the "6 Jars for sale class" (6Jars labelled ready for sale) last year and wondered if they would pull me up for having no batch / lot number but using a dd/mm/yy as Best before date instead.

Nope won 1st and Supreme Champion of the whole show with it!

If you have day/month/year on your labels therre is no need for a separate batch number (the logic isif the day can be identified then so can a record of what was produced that day) you only need a B/N if you have BBE month or year
 
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Yes it was the 6 jars ready for sale class............... this was a local show and the judge was sticking to national honey show rules apparently, when I have the enthusiasm I will have a look and check
 
Yes it was the 6 jars ready for sale class............... this was a local show and the judge was sticking to national honey show rules apparently, when I have the enthusiasm I will have a look and check

I notice the rules for that class have changed this year, the 6 jars will be not be labelled ready for sale and instead the labels should be supplied in a separate envelope to be affixed by the stewards!
Hmm how do the stewards know how I fix my labels / tamper proof seals?
 
I think the limiting factor is not the honey but the lid rusting
The container being limiting factor is quite common in tinned goods.
 
I notice the rules for that class have changed this year, the 6 jars will be not be labelled ready for sale and instead the labels should be supplied in a separate envelope to be affixed by the stewards!

Hmm, maybe someone moaned that there was favouritism going on? bit daft, as the commercial classes ae all about how you present your honey to the public- as well as wht the honey looks/tastes like. There is a similar class in the Royal Welsh called the 'gift class' only one jar required, no labels, but at the end of the show the labels are affixed and the honey sold
to raise funds.
 
In a commercial class (honey as for sale) the presentation (which includes the design of the jar chosen, tamper seal and label) are all assessed along with the honey in the jar. As a judge I have to be impartial and not influenced by the name on the label no matter how well known they are. However I much prefer unique labels (if well done) designed by the exhibitor over those bought from the cataloque by hundreds of beekeepers throughout the country.
 
At our local show recently, the judge asked the steward to bring out the commercial class entries "backwards", ie so that he couldn't see the (detail on the) exhibitors' labels. He assessed the honeys first, then the labelling etc. The disadvantage seemed to be that he spent time judging honeys in jars with labels that weren't compliant...
 
Quite often the commercial class is not judged on the elimination method used for most classes but on a points system so an entry with a noncompliant label would not gain many (if any) points for the label but if the honey had exceptional flavour and aroma and debris free it might score more points in total than a nondescript honey poorly presented but which had a complaint label.
 

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