It’s bee day! The world is celebrating and raising awareness about these pollinators that are so vital to food and agriculture – for better production, better nutrition, better environment and a better life! At Codex, Bee Day is also important for the honey that is produced by just 8 of the 20 000 species of bee. The safety and quality of honey produced by these honeybees is the subject of the Codex Standard for honey (CXS 12-1981).

The Standard for honey, crucially, provides a definition and description of honey. Furthermore, it provides essential composition and quality factors, including the moisture and sugar content and the content of water insoluble solids. The standard also addresses labelling. The definition, quality factors and labelling provisions are of vital importance to ensure that products traded as honey are authentic. Food fraud is very common in the trade in honey, with cheap, sugar syrup-based alternatives sold as honey across the globe.

CXS 12-1981 also provides that no food additives are permitted in honey. The standard refers to other Codex texts in regard to safety issues such as hygiene, contaminants, and residues of pesticides and veterinary drugs. For example, the General standard for contaminants and toxins in food and feed (CSX 193-1995), provides the safe maximum level (ML) for lead in honey.

To respond to the challenge of food fraud in food trade, the Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems (CCFICS) is developing Guidelines on the prevention and control of food fraud. These guidelines will provide guidance to competent authorities and food business operators on the prevention, detection, mitigation and control of food fraud.

“The honey standard is of major importance to the beekeepers, honey traders and national authorities around the world to ensure the quality, safety and authenticity of the honey that we buy and consume,” says Hilde Kruse, Senior Food Standards Officer in the Codex Alimentarius Secretariat. “On a personal note, my mum, who is 92, takes honey every single day in her tea and I want to make sure what she gets is real and safe honey!”

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Photo © FAO / Javid Gurbanov