Getting the honey weight right

[crazy_bull]

if believe ( and maybe wrong) the only time the trad. standards will knock on you door looking for you , is if they have recieved a complaint, i dont believe joe public will compain about having too much honey. but they will complain if your product makes them ill.

Unfortunatley thats not the case we get a bi-annual visit from an officer and and annual check up (this usually takes the form of a phone call to see if we have changed anything and to ask where they might buy a couple of jars from outlets we supply to test and check all is ok). During the visit they generally check our scales against standard weights and have a look at our records.

I actually welcome the tests as they pollen test the honey and give me a print off of what percentage of what flowers have made up the honey. Quite interesting.

 

[Poly Hive]

some of us are not getting the point here.

Trading standards protect the public yes and also other producers. If a producer is over filling and the public flock to buy his cheaper product, ie same price but more of it = cheap then he is cheating his fellow producers and the TS take a dim view of that. Hence it is as illegal to over fill as under.

And believe me once you are on their radar they watch you.

PH

 

[Frisbee]

if believe ( and maybe wrong) the only time the trad. standards will knock on you door looking for you , is if they have recieved a complaint, i dont believe joe public will compain about having too much honey. but they will complain if your product makes them ill.

If you are producing a food product for sale to the general public, then you need to register with Trading standards. I would like to say it is a legal requirement but wont for fear of another unecessary sarcastic diatribe........... Trading Standards are not stupid, they check food markets, farmers markets, farm gate sales, doorstep signs............If your name and address is on the label (another legal requirement but the above rule applies) then one day you will get a call. You may never have done anything wrong (apart from not registering) If you are planning on doing nothing wrong then there is no need to fear........Trading Standards are human beings and only want to help you to trade within the law. The rules are there to protect us all. They will put you right on any potential problems and will overlook minor indiscretions. But get caught unregistered with a dodgy product and expect to see another side of them..........You have to put effort into doing something wrong, why not go the whole hog and do it correctly.

Frisbee

 

[Poly Hive]

Spot on.

PH

 

[Finman]

.
Are you serious with that delicated discussion?

Train first with tea spoon and finaly with syringe or with pipette.

 

[match]

some of us are not getting the point here.

Trading standards protect the public yes and also other producers. If a producer is over filling and the public flock to buy his cheaper product, ie same price but more of it = cheap then he is cheating his fellow producers and the TS take a dim view of that. Hence it is as illegal to over fill as under.

And believe me once you are on their radar they watch you.

PH

This is probably true if there's malicious intent, however as I posted earlier (http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=23561&postcount=30) you're perfectly entitled to overfill by small amount if you are doing so to make sure you're not underfilling. I think for most small producers, this is the way to go, as its a defence in the law to do so (I'd guess we're talking tens of grams variation here). For large producers, you start to get into average weights and packing regulations.

Veg - sorry if we've side-tracked your original question! I guess it depends on whether you wanted to fill to an exact amount for trading standards reasons, or because of aesthetic reasons, such as showing

 

[VEG]

Match i am glad of all the replies to this thread if only to make others aware. My question has been answered about using a syringe to top up or remove excess. A lot more info has now been posted that is all relavent.

 

[oliver90owner]

Finman,

A bit too precise? A five decimal place assay balance! Door needs to be closed for taking the actual mass, by the way. I used 6 figure balances back in the 1960s. We waited about 20 mins for the temperatures to equilibrate before taking a reading. I daresay they are a little quicker now.

Regards, RAB