Tesco’s Honey

[Erichalfbee]

LOL...I'd be out of business if that was a rule. We do not pack a single jar. All goes off via a trader to packers and a lot to other beekeepers who do not produce enough of their own.

Once saw 7 brands of heather honey in a shop in Edinburgh. We were supplying them all with honey. Saw 3 in Waitrose too. All were ours...and we know that because sourcing from us was in the product specs of all three. Interesting price variation and quality of finish on the honey..all left us the same with hmf <3. One brand was well darkened...

If course but I’m talking about a hobby beekeeper with a few hives here not a bee farmer.
I think the two are worlds apart.

 

[pargyle]

Suits me to think of it that way but...the majority of our buyers (by number) of honey do just that...though that will actually be a tiny minority by tonnage.

Beekeepers sell each other honey all the time...never seen a label that flags that up.

Notwithstanding that it may happen - it does not make it right. If your branding claims the honey is produced from bees within a specific location say Fareham Honey, but in order to meet the demand you buy in honey from somewhere else but continue to market it as such then you are in breach of the Trades Description Act ... It's a bit of a minefield of legislation and the likelihood is that it would be a difficult case to prove but it's only a short step to substituting any old foreign honey and purveying that ..., and it then becomes an offence under the Honey labelling regulations and you are into serious fines if you get caught - and people have been caught.

If the labelling only says 'Smiths Honey' and produce of the UK and you can provide UK provenance then you could avoid the consequences - but you are then competing with the supermarket shelves and most of us on here would prefer to retain an element of locational exclusivity for our honey - and enjoy the price premium that commands. Falsely taking advantage of the perceived exclusivity by buying in and selling on a false premise is not really something I would suggest is legtimate trading.

 

[user 20297]

Before I even kept bees or had read all that I have now seen about adulteration of honey, I had already worked out that I might as well put the honest and distinctively tasting product called "Golden Syrup" on my porridge, rather than the unsatisfying goo that all of the "Basics"-style honey products are. Having said that, I've tasted some fairly expensive British honeys from reputable sources, which also leave me feeling there's something amiss.

For me, consistently, the best honey I've ever had, before keeping bees myself, is Greek honey. The best stuff can be bought by the roadside in most parts of Greece. But even the Greek honey from Lidl, which is not the cheapest, but is not expensive, is more like the honey I remember from my childhood than any of the products at a price-point that I can justify buying from the supermarkets' shelves.

 

[steve1958]

What tastes nicest?
The bottle/jar/packet costing £1.00
Or the bottle/jar/packet costing £12.00

Everyone knows that the £12 one is going to be better.
However when the difference in price is less than £4 we can convince ourselves that we have a bargain.
I think we should be selling honey at a price that reflects it's true value.

 

[Brian Bush]

Comment on supermarket honey from my friend who consumes 12oz of honey a week.
'They had the decency to make it sweet and runny!!!!'

 

[Murox]

Comment on supermarket honey from my friend who consumes 12oz of honey a week.
'They had the decency to make it sweet and runny!!!!'

Give him a jar filled with Lyle's Golden syrup and ask for his opinion.

 

[mbc]

Suits me to think of it that way but...the majority of our buyers (by number) of honey do just that...though that will actually be a tiny minority by tonnage.

Beekeepers sell each other honey all the time...never seen a label that flags that up.

Yup, as a small player I'm set up to market only so much, when seasons like 2018 and 2019 turn up I've got so much surplus it has to be offloaded, it makes sense to keep a little as spill over in case a season is down on the average (2020!), but most needs converting into cash to keep the bank manager happy, and the easiest customers are other beekeepers. Problem is, likelihood is that if my seasons been bumper then so has theirs.

 

[Martinreed]

Related to the comments about Tesco's honey I have had an on/off correspondence with them about the 'non EU' honey in their honey and the claim they made when it was withdrawn from their shelves that ' Tesco brand honey is 100% pure, natural and can be directly traced back to the beekeeper'
They wouldn't tell me the origins of the honeys in their honey.
I also asked to prove they could trace the honey to a specific bee keeper
They asked for some details from the jar but dispite this they eventually they said
' We will not share our suppliers details as this is company sensitive information '

 

[Colin buckingham]

How do you report a seller that
Sells his honey as
Local village honey but buys it in bulk from Turkey ?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

How do you report a seller that
Sells his honey as
Local village honey but buys it in bulk from Turkey ?

trading standards - take along a jar with you for them to test

 

[Colin buckingham]

trading standards - take along a jar with you for them to test

Thank you I did think so

 

[Erichalfbee]

Thank you I did think so

Two jars and preferably a receipt

 

[thorn]

I'm having an on-going argument with my wife on this topic. The honey from my garden apiary is sold under the name of The Headingley Hives, although it's described as the produce of Leeds. It's all sold to neighboursThis spring I'll be setting up a larger apiary just under three miles away as the crow flies, so no longer in Headingley, although just across the road from the Headingley Golf Club. My wife argues that we shouldn't mix the honey from the two apiaries, and should find a new name for the produce of the new site, as my neighbours like to think that they're getting honey from bees that have visited their gardens.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I'm having an on-going argument with my wife

don't we all?

 

[Apple]

trading standards - take along a jar with you for them to test

Our TS in Cornwall used my own and other Cornish keepers of native black Cornish bees with samples of honey taken over the season for pollen analysis .

The foreign imported honey has pollen such as Black Acacia and Chinese pox wort in it that does not grow in Cornwall ... not even in the Manuka forest of Tregothan!

 

[mbc]

don't we all?

Speak for yourself, I've never met thorn's wife

 

[Apple]

I'm having an on-going argument with my wife on this topic. The honey from my garden apiary is sold under the name of The Headingley Hives, although it's described as the produce of Leeds. It's all sold to neighboursThis spring I'll be setting up a larger apiary just under three miles away as the crow flies, so no longer in Headingley, although just across the road from the Headingley Golf Club. My wife argues that we shouldn't mix the honey from the two apiaries, and should find a new name for the produce of the new site, as my neighbours like to think that they're getting honey from bees that have visited their gardens.

Simples.... keep your main label and fix another one to the new apiary honey with the apiary name......

 

[thorn]

Simples.... keep your main label and fix another one to the new apiary honey with the apiary name......

You're on my wife's side.

 

[ldwgs]

Can’t believe it... mine is around £5 a jar!

possibly not actually honey

TESCO'S own-brand honey has been mixed with cheap syrup made from sugar, according to research.

The alarm has been raised by trading standards officers who commissioned tests on a Tesco set honey from a laboratory.

The National Food Crime Unit, the Times

 

[Newbeeneil]

I'm having an on-going argument with my wife on this topic. The honey from my garden apiary is sold under the name of The Headingley Hives, although it's described as the produce of Leeds. It's all sold to neighboursThis spring I'll be setting up a larger apiary just under three miles away as the crow flies, so no longer in Headingley, although just across the road from the Headingley Golf Club. My wife argues that we shouldn't mix the honey from the two apiaries, and should find a new name for the produce of the new site, as my neighbours like to think that they're getting honey from bees that have visited their gardens.

Sorry to say I agree with your wife, the locals from around the new apiary will also want the honey as local as possible and will pay a premium for it.
Why not have a chat with the golf club bar and get some in there? That's what one of my mates does. He reckons it's bought by golfers who have spent too long in the bar and are late home for Sunday lunch - a sort of peace offering!