Collaboration set to develop tools to defeat honey fraud

With support from the British Beekeepers Association and the Honey Authenticity Network UK, they are developing technology to detect if honey has been blended with ingredients including sugar syrup.

Globally honey adulteration is the second most common food fraud, following milk. According to Iain Millar, director of The Scottish Bee Company, honey fraud has far reaching implications for food security, land use and biodiversity. 

Earlier this year the EU study From the Hives revealed the extent of honey fraud from 320 samples. It found that 10 samples of honey exported to the EU from the UK were all suspected of being adulterated. Although they have been blended or packaged in Britain, the honey might have originated overseas, which was likely the result of honey produced in other countries and further blended in the UK before its re-export to the EU. Overall, 46 per cent of the samples in the study were found to be adulterated.