Naming honey/labelling/additives

[Norton Caff]

Someone has put the attached picture on Facebook. The "raw" caught my eye but also the fact that the product has additives. I presumed that honey should be marketed straight and not adulterated, and then I got confused. What are the rules about all of this.?I was looking at The Honey (England) Regulations 2015, Schedule 1 describing compositional criteria

5. No food ingredient has been added, including any food additive.

6. No other additions have been made to the honey except for other honey.

Can someone enlighten me please on this?

Thanks - Yours pedantically, Cath!

 

[Apple]

Trading Standards are the people to ask.
"Raw" is not one of the very specific descriptors used in the 2015 Honey ( England) Regs. Neither is "vitamin"

There are a number of products on the market which are Honey infused with or Honey with crystallised ginger etc.

Obviously a clever marketing ruse to make the product more saleable.... what does the rest of the label say?
What other Honey products are being sold under this label?

Chons da

 

[Apple]

https://www.insidermedia.com/news/north-west/natural-drink-brand-secures-six-figure-investment
OK
When you have a few million££££ of investment behind you ... who needs regulations?

Here comes the "Chlorinated Chickens" and USA's super hormone beef!

My family are in the fortunate position of growing most of our own food and can buy locally other veg, milk, and meat from organic producers.
Just could not afford a pineapple from Helligan... but have been given a bottle of Gin infused with the pineapple and our own honey!!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

You can sell honey infused drink, same as you can sell honey with additives - difference being the products then don't come under the honey regulations but the much stricter general food regulations.

 

[Norton Caff]

You can sell honey infused drink, same as you can sell honey with additives - difference being the products then don't come under the honey regulations but the much stricter general food regulations.

Ah. So it's not honey any more?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Ah. So it's not honey any more?

zackerly, I know a few bee farmers who also sell honey with additives, perfectly legal, as long as you follow the regs.
The PITA starts if you decide to do things like walnuts in honey and such like. you then have the choice of either having 'warning may contain nuts' on all your labels, even for your bog standard not mucked about honey, or you have to have a totally separate kitchen for your nut products.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

https://www.insidermedia.com/news/north-west/natural-drink-brand-secures-six-figure-investment
OK
When you have a few million££££ of investment behind you ... who needs regulations?

Here comes the "Chlorinated Chickens" and USA's super hormone beef!

My family are in the fortunate position of growing most of our own food and can buy locally other veg, milk, and meat from organic producers.
Just could not afford a pineapple from Helligan... but have been given a bottle of Gin infused with the pineapple and our own honey!!

Oh PLEASEI I've been drinking chlorinated water all my life! We even wash our salads in the stuff

 

[simonforeman]

Is it OK to sell honey with "Raw Honey" on the labels?

I have seen this frowned apon but what are the rules and laws?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Is it OK to sell honey with "Raw Honey" on the labels?

I have seen this frowned apon but what are the rules and laws?

Have a trawl through this thread
https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/buoyant-roadside-honey-sales-since-lockdown.47041/

 

[madasafish]

OK
When you have a few million££££ of investment behind you ... who needs regulations?

Here comes the "Chlorinated Chickens" and USA's super hormone beef!

Political death.. I am sure the Government are not THAT stupid..

err...on the other hand

 

[madasafish]

My honey is labelled as "Pure honey".
But advertised as "Raw Honey".

Just to confuse you.

 

[Anthony Appleyard]

What happens if it is the bees that do the adulterating - by picking up sweet liquid not only from flowers' nectaries but also from elsewhere?

 

[user 819]

What happens if it is the bees that do the adulterating - by picking up sweet liquid not only from flowers' nectaries but also from elsewhere?

They will have to be reprimanded and given a good ticking off .

 

[Apple]

What happens if it is the bees that do the adulterating - by picking up sweet liquid not only from flowers' nectaries but also from elsewhere?

Pollen analyses in unfiltered honey can show pollen from Hazel, Sweet chestnut, Beech, Walnut and probably many other plants to which some may have allergies.
I have a quite severe allergic reaction to Kiwi fruit of all things!

Trading standards advice to us with our "soil and meat/poultry/fish" free honey extracting and bottling rooms, was to put may contain nuts or nut pollen somewhere on the label... under the precautionary principle..... however did not require "Do not feed to babies under 18 months as may cause Botulism" !

The battery on my Harley~Davidson says... DO NOT DRINK THE FLUID IN THIS BATTERY ~ MAY CAUSE BURNS OR DEATH!
Dont mention nuts tho!

Chons da

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I have a quite severe allergic reaction to Kiwi fruit of all things!

Don't blame you, disgusting things.
Another thing the New Zealanders have convinced us to 'like'

 

[Erichalfbee]

Don't blame you, disgusting things.
Another thing the New Zealanders have convinced us to 'like'

I quite like the golden ones.

 

[enrico]

Can I join in this one? RAW HONEY.......ha ha the last thread went on for weeks......join the RAW HONEY GROUP. I want to be leader!!!!!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Can I join in this one? RAW HONEY.......ha ha the last thread went on for weeks......join the RAW HONEY GROUP. I want to be leader!!!!!

POST 9

 

[charlievictorbravo]

What happens if it is the bees that do the adulterating - by picking up sweet liquid not only from flowers' nectaries but also from elsewhere?

Sorry but I don't have any jokes or 'bon mots' but here is the definition of honey from the 2015 Honey Regulations:
In these Regulations “honey” means the natural sweet substance produced by Apis mellifera bees from the nectar of plants or from secretions of living parts of plants or excretions of plant-sucking insects on the living parts of plants which the bees collect, transform by combining with specific substances of their own, deposit, dehydrate, store and leave in honeycombs to ripen and mature.

If it doesn't meet that definition, you cannot call it honey. So it's not honey if it's not produced by Apis mellifera and it's not honey if you feed your bees with sugar syrup (or corn syrup) and they store it in a honey super, then you extract it. As to the use of the word "raw" on a label, I think you'd get away with it if you described what you mean by "raw". One of my customers asked me the other week where he could get raw honey. I told him it was on the counter in front of him. He did not really know exactly what he meant by raw honey but he'd read about it. I told him what I thought raw honey was and that most "direct from the beekeeper" honey is "Raw Honey" but that it wasn't an approved description.

Hope that helps.

CVB

 

[Swn58]

Pure....Raw.....Honey. Extracted.....filtered once. No heat treatment.

I cannot believe I am miss-advertising. My process is described on my website: www.woodside-bees.co.uk