WHAT DO YOU CALL "HONEY" THAT ISN’T HONEY?

(Answer: A Fraud)

That leading question was recently raised on Facebook by a successful, award-winning commercial beekeeper who lives and works in my area.

“What,” she asked, “if we came up for a new name for what is legally allowed to be called honey but is, in fact, honey-flavoured syrup?”

If that stuff that you will find in rows on the supermarket shelves was labelled with a different name, she argued, consumers would know the difference between genuine honey and the fakes that are routinely sold throughout Britain.

“Fakes? Frauds?” is that fair?

You’d better believe it.

A recent report claimed that “more than 90% of sampled products bought from large British retailers failed pioneering authenticity tests”. In other words, they weren’t honey. They were fakes. Con jobs.

Honey that deserves the name is both easy to define and easy to recognise.

1)    Honey is made exclusively by bees in colonies out of their extractions from plants and their own industrious labours in the hive. Nothing that doesn’t come entirely from bees ought to be called honey.

2)    Honey isn’t cheap. The labours of the bees and of the beekeepers make it a costly commodity. If the price on the jar is less than £7 per 340g you may be fairly sure that what you are looking at probably isn’t pure honey

Real honey has a water content of 20% or lower. It also has a pH (acidity or basicity) of 3.5-6.0. Those figures are routinely exceeded in the jars on the shelves which cost £5 or less. That’s because the honey content in those jars will have been diluted with water and/or adulterated with cheap syrup in an industrialised manufacturing process

Real honey, straight from the hive, will inevitably contain some impurities such as bee residues, propolis, beeswax and pollen. If those elements have been filtered out, the end product still deserves to be called honey but, as a general rule, the one to conduct that process should be a beekeeper not a factory operative. If the jar bears the name and address of a local beekeeper, it is likely to be genuine, legitimate, kosher. If it bears the brand of a corporation, be on guard.

Honey manufacturing is big business and growing. The worldwide fashion for health foods and the universal passion for protecting the environment make honey a prime target for corporate sales directors everywhere. At the same time, a rapidly accelerating demand for bee products - such as pollen, propolis, royal jelly, and other supplements - is further driving commercial expansion. The global market is now said to be worth $10bn which may be small potatoes compared with the $200bn+ of the computer games market but it is still big enough to generate all the corruptions, falsehoods and scams that commonly go along with substantial profits.

It is hair-raising, for example, to listen to members of national and international judging panels and hear the mischief they have to fend off in awarding their prizes and awards for honey. It is now a commonplace event, apparently, for judges to be offered substantial bribes in return for endorsing this brand of honey or that type of bee-based health supplement. Who would have thought that lone beekeepers pottering quietly with their hives would be distantly connected with such Oscar-like machinations? Have you seen Best in Class?

In my limited local beekeeping circles, dark rumours also circulate of geo-political conspiracies. China (it’s always China, of course) is alleged to be despatching container ships across the oceans full of adulterated honey, presumably to weaken the resistance of western civilisation to their wicked schemings. Might be true for all I know.

How can you tell if the jar you have bought contains pure honey or is fake?

There are many simple tests. They are all based on roughly the same stickability principles.

1)    The hot spoon: mildly heat a stainless-steel spoon and dip it into the jar. If the stuff sticks to the spoon when you take it out, you’re looking at real honey. If it slides off the spoon, it’s a counterfeit.

2)    The finger test: stick a finger (freshly washed, natch) into the jar. If the stuff stays largely in place on your finger when you take it out, it’s probably real honey. If it spreads around or falls off, it probably isn’t.

3)    The paper test: pour some drops of honey on a piece of paper. Go and make a cup of tea then come back and inspect. If an area of damp has spread around the droplets, that’s water from adulterated honey. If not, not.

4)    A similar test can be conducted with dry bread or toast. If the bread softens, the honey contains excess water and is bogus. This experiment has the advantage that you can eat the test specimen.

5)    The dissolving test: drop a spoonful of the jar’s contents into a container of water and leave it for a while. Real honey will fall to bottom and form clumps. Fake honey will soon dissolve.

To avoid all this chemistry-lab hassle, simply buy your honey from a local beekeeper who is following the rules and labelling his jars with the weight, contents and place of origin. Your local beekeeping club will point you in the right direction.

Alternatively, you could put your trust in M&S and buy their “Single Apiary Premium Honey from selected trusted farms”. This fabulous stuff passes all the sticky spoon and finger tests and comes in 250g jars at £5 a jar which is certainly not cheap.

That (probably) guarantees it’s authentic.