by Véto-pharma As part of the European Green Deal and the “Farm to Fork” strategy, the European Union aims to guarantee consumers more precise information on the origin of the honey they buy. The revision of Directive 2001/110/EC on 14 May 2024 aims to improve transparency, combat fraud, and preserve the quality of honey.
Honey is the natural sweet substance produced by bees of the species Apis mellifera from the nectar of plants or secretions from living parts of plants or excretions left on them by sucking insects, which they collect, transform, combining them with specific clean materials, deposit, dehydrate, store and go to ripen on the honeycomb. Except for filtered honey, no pollen or constituent specific to honey may be removed, except where this is unavoidable when removing foreign inorganic and organic matter.
Honey in Europe is defined by regulation. Council Directive 2001/110/EC of 20 December 2001 sets out the legal sales names for the different varieties of honey and specifies the labelling and presentation requirements, as well as the compositional characteristics of the products.
Annex II of the current decree sets out the defined criteria that ensure honey complies with standards and is of optimal quality:
1 – More precise labelling of the origin of honey
This is to guarantee more detailed information for consumers and avoid labelling that is too vague and could be misleading.
Until now, the labels of imported or blended honey could mention general indications such as “blend of honey originating and not originating in the EU”, which did not allow consumers to know the precise origin of the products.
With the new regulations:
2 – An exception for small packages
To ensure transparency even for small formats without cluttering up the packaging.
The EU recognises that small packages of 30 g or less pose a problem regarding space for labelling. To make it easier to indicate the origin of honey in these small formats:
3 – Combating fraud and strengthening controls
To ensure better quality honey by preventing the marketing of non-compliant or adulterated products.
The European Commission’s investigations (particularly the “Honey Authenticity Control Plan” and “From the Hives” programmes) have revealed a high rate of honey suspected of being adulterated in the European market.
To limit this fraud:
4 – Introduction of enhanced traceability
To enable better monitoring of the honey’s journey and prevent dubious products from entering the European market.
The EU wants to ensure that information on the origin of honey remains accessible throughout the supply chain, from producer to consumer.
To this end:
5 – Preserving the quality of honey
To ensure consumers buy authentic honey that has not lost its natural properties.
In addition to transparency about origin, the EU wants to protect the quality and authenticity of honey, in particular:
These new rules should benefit European beekeepers who produce authentic honey and consumers looking for quality products while avoiding the deceptive practices of imported adulterated honey.
Decode the label: Carefully examine the labelling before buying a honey jar. The mandatory information includes the sales name, the list of ingredients, the best-before date (BBD), and the contact details of the producer or distributor.
Beware of misleading information: Certain terms such as ‘natural honey’ or ‘pure honey’ are prohibited by law. Also, beware of vague geographical indications or unmentioned additives that could alter the quality of the product.
Find out more about EU regulations:
Photos credit : Adobe stock – Freepik
by Gordon Wardell 
by Véto-pharma 
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