Celebrating UK National Honey Day

The British Beekeepers’ Association (BBKA) celebrates National Honey Day on 21st October each year.

According to the International Trade Centre, the UK imported an average of 50,917 tonnes of honey in 2023.  Some of this will have been adulterated and may feature a blend of products from a number of different countries.

Honey adulteration is a major issue. For the last year, third party countries exporting honey and other apiculture products to the EU for human consumption must be registered, and consignments may only enter the bloc if they are despatched from, obtained and/or prepared in accordance with Article 127 (3) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625. Find out more here.

As spokesman from the BBKA commented: “We want people to be able to recognise honey produced here in the UK and be able to have a choice in what they are buying. Local honey means real honey – made by bees collecting nectar from the surrounding environment and featuring all the goodness that comes with keeping the final product as close to nature as possible. As the product is extracted and sold within the community the money spent on a jar of honey is invested back into the local economy too.”

Honey and bee products clearly present concerns when it comes to adulteration; to find out more about how many labs use Sercon systems to test for these using our HS2022, IsoEArth and Integra2 instruments and prep systems, just email sales@sercongroup.com, we’d love to hear from you.

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