- Joined
- Sep 23, 2010
- Messages
- 4,727
- Reaction score
- 4,859
- Location
- North London, West Essex and Surrey
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 70
Although there is no UK law preventing the use of the word raw it is regarded as without merit by ACTSO, the Association of Chief Trading Standards officers, who discussed the matter in 2017.Please don't let's argue this point again. It is not against any regulations. It is personal choice!
Beecraft reported the meeting and interpreted the verdict:
They didn’t like the term raw because they thought it implied properties above and beyond ‘honey’. They consider that the composition of honey is not altered by the usual permitted heat application (up to about 45 °C), and that the term ‘raw’ could therefore be applied to all honey. If it is heated to the point where enzymes are destroyed (temperature undefined), it becomes ‘baker’s honey’. Therefore, raw honey has no special characteristics and the term becomes misleading.
The weak point of this determination is that the Chief TSOs have no authority (it would seem) to direct TS officers in England and Wales to enforce the conclusion of the meeting.
Instead they left it to the discretion of each TS department to enforce or not as the whim takes them, with the result that producers end up in a no-man's-land of fluffy nothing where you can do what you like. Occasionally a TS will perk up and take action, and I know of one honey producer who was issued with a TS enforcement notice and told to cease the use of the word raw.
Given the fog of confusion surrounding the definition of the word by both producer and consumer you may conclude that it's best avoided; beefarmer Neil Pont agrees and has this to say: Our honey is extracted without heating. It is not pasteurised. It is not filtered – only coarse strained. Some people choose to describe honey produced by this method as ‘Raw Honey’. By this definition all honey sold legally in the UK would be described as “raw”, however at Ponts’ honey we see no need to over emphasise the quality of our honey and mislead customers. The taste of our Pure English Honey speaks for itself.
Well put?