Soft-set seed and blended honey

[W0otz]

I was in Lidl earlier and spotted some soft-set French lavender honey (£3.99/375g). Knowing (perhaps incorrectly?) how particular the French are about their food and controlled regions of origin etc I'm more confident that this is "proper" honey than soft set from Rowse/Hilltop.

If I were to use this to seed my own soft-set I'd have to label the honey as a blend of EU and non-EU honeys.

Assuming 10% French honey as the seed then it's absolutely a blend.
If I made another batch using 10% of the blend as the seed, the resulting soft set is 99% mine and 1% French - does it still need to be labelled as a blend?
Are all subsequent batches "tainted" and must be labelled as blends? If so I'm going to start selling vast quantities of "homeopathic" Manuka...

Where's the cutoff?

 

[The Poot]

I don’t know. Now, having read your post, I’m just glad I used Tesco Finest English Multifloral Honey as seed.

 

[David1976]

I use this as a seed.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I was in Lidl earlier and spotted some soft-set French lavender honey (£3.99/375g). Knowing (perhaps incorrectly?) how particular the French are about their food and controlled regions of origin etc I'm more confident that this is "proper" honey than soft set from Rowse/Hilltop.

If I were to use this to seed my own soft-set I'd have to label the honey as a blend of EU and non-EU honeys.

Assuming 10% French honey as the seed then it's absolutely a blend.
If I made another batch using 10% of the blend as the seed, the resulting soft set is 99% mine and 1% French - does it still need to be labelled as a blend?
Are all subsequent batches "tainted" and must be labelled as blends? If so I'm going to start selling vast quantities of "homeopathic" Manuka...

Where's the cutoff?

View attachment 33734View attachment 33733

Splitting hairs.
Stick your own label on it and be done with

 

[Beekeeper Brownie]

Out of interest does it actually smell like lavender?

 

[W0otz]

Out of interest does it actually smell like lavender?

I think there's a hint of lavender smell and taste, though not sure if it's just suggestion playing tricks on me. It's nice though.

I made some lavender infused honey and it really packs a lavender punch! After straining the lavender back out I've got the infused honey for toast/yoghurt and kept the honey-coated lavender for making tea. I'm not even a huge fan of lavender, but I had a fair bit after dead-heading and pruning - mostly kept for smoker fuel.

 

[Nige.Coll]

I use my own Osr honey it doesn't need seeding.

 

[PeaBee]

10% as a constituent of the product is quite high, I would expect if trading standards became aware they may take a dim view. The gov website actually gives France as an example:
"For example, a blend of UK and French honey placed on the market in England and Wales would either need to:

• list both countries
• use the words ‘blend of EU and non-EU honeys’"

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/food-standards-labelling-durability-and-composition#honey
You are doing it for seeding purposes and using what might be a quality product but in the eyes of the regulators doing so with unlabelled/undeclared foreign honey is no different to "bulking out" your honey crop with 10% of any cheapo honey and not informing the consumer. Can you not make things simple for yourself and get hold of some British soft set?
With 1% although the same principles apply unless the TSO is particularly pedantic I see less of possibility that they would want to pursue it.
Nice Idea with the homeopathic Manuka but the regulation only allow you to name the floral source if the product comes wholly or mainly from the indicated source. This also means you would not be able to benefit from labelling the blend as lavender blend.
As always you will get a range of opinions from the forum and the choice is yours, I would suggest that your local trading standards would be able to answer your query and let you know what view they would take of it.

 

[PeaBee]

Splitting hairs.
Stick your own label on it and be done with

If one of the big packers was found to be adulterating UK honey with 10% foreign and not labelling it British amateur beekeepers would be grumbling about it and the thread on here would go on and on, so why is it ok for an amateur to mis-label their honey and adulterate it?

 

[Ian123]

Just buy some English set and be done with it most super markets will have it for sale. Of course you can’t then put a county on the label

 

[Erichalfbee]

If one of the big packers was found to be adulterating UK honey with 10% foreign and not labelling it British amateur beekeepers would be grumbling about it and the thread on here would go on and on, so why is it ok for an amateur to mis-label their honey and adulterate it?

A valid point so what I do is set 3lbs of my own honey with 12 oz of gales then set a 30 lb bucket with that, keeping back 3lb of that to set the next. Would that be acceptable?

 

[rusper]

Or make your own seed, from your own granulated honey.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Or make your own seed, from your own granulated honey.

Yes if time and inclination allow.

 

[PeaBee]

A valid point so what I do is set 3lbs of my own honey with 12 oz of gales then set a 30 lb bucket with that, keeping back 3lb of that to set the next. Would that be acceptable?

I don't know what is acceptable, by the letter of the law it is not acceptable to to say it British honey if the gales is a blend of Eu and none EU. But the ratio is reduced and 12 oz to 30lb (so about 1 in 40 jars?) is not going to bulk out your honey to the extent that you are making a noticeable profit from it, so any allegation that you are misleading for gain would most likely not stand up. However 10% like the OP said strikes me as quite significant. If I did that with my my OSR crop that would be over 10 extra buckets of honey I would have. If I got that as imported soft set (0.99p/lb at aldi (might need a few trips!)) and "seeded" it into mine then sold it with my labels at my normal price (£4.5 for 12oz = £6 /Lb) the £5 profit per lb would be a tidy profit.
Not sure the defence of " I was only seeding my honey" would stand up in court with £1.5K fraudulent profits on the book!

PS anyone want 300 second hand jars, you can peel the label off yourself- asking for a friend!!!!

 

[W0otz]

Or make your own seed, from your own granulated honey.

I haven't got any granulated honey... I've got a super hopefully filling with ivy honey and it's said to crystallize rapidly so I was hoping to seed it before it naturally crystallizes so I can control crystal size.

I don't know what is acceptable, by the letter of the law it is not acceptable to to say it British honey if the gales is a blend of Eu and none EU. But the ratio is reduced and 12 oz to 30lb (so about 1 in 40 jars?) is not going to bulk out your honey to the extent that you are making a noticeable profit from it, so any allegation that you are misleading for gain would most likely not stand up.

That's the gist of my original post - where's the cutoff for the requirement to label as a blend?
10% as a seed would need to be labelled as a blend.
Using the resulting blend to seed another batch, again at 10%, would leave 1% of the "contaminant" honey - still a blend or now ok to label as local?
What about the next "generation" with 0.1% of the "contaminant" honey?


I won't be using the French honey - I've bought a jar of soft-set from another local beek to eliminate any possibility of labelling issues.

 

[PeaBee]

There is no cut off or recommendations that I can find. If the letter of the law is applied and you know it contains foreign honey, then I guess the onus is on you to label it. Once the ratios get tiny I can not imagine even the most pedantic of officers getting too excited about it if you don't.

Buying local and supporting a fellow beekeeper is probably far simpler.

 

[blackcloud]

Not the immediate answer, but always keep a small bucket of this year's yeild back and use it next year.
Or the year after.
Cost effective,very satisfying and no pedants were harmed in the making of this motion picture.

 

[Brenda]

I use this as a seed.

I always kept some of my last years honey to seed. Never risked anyone else’s just in case. When you have a good seed of your own keep some back.

 

[Just Steve]

PS anyone want 300 second hand jars, you can peel the label off yourself- asking for a friend!!!!View attachment 33753

With the cost of jars rising there might be a time when buying jars of food stuff from a supermarket and ditching the contents to get the jar works out cheaper than we can purchase jars in the relatively small amounts that beekeepers use.