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EU coordinated action to deter certain fraudulent practices in the honey sector
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EU coordinated action to deter certain fraudulent practices in the honey sector

Analytical testing results of imported honey

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In the frame of the EU coordinated action 15 EU Member States (BE, BG, CZ, DE, DK, EL, ES, FR, HU, IE, IT, LT, PL, RO, SE) plus CH and NO randomly sampled 320 honey consignments originating from 20 exporting countries, which were sent to JRC for analysis to detect the presence of exogenous sugar syrup in honey. Several methods (EA/LC-IRMS, HPAEC-PAD, 1H-NMR) were used by the JRC to detect markers indicative for the presence of exogenous sugar syrups. Of the 320 samples received from the competent authorities of the participating countries, 147 (46 %) were suspicious of being non-compliant with the provisions of the EU Honey Directive 2001/110/EC. The suspicion rate was considerably high in comparison to an earlier EU-wide coordinated control plan conducted in 2015-17, where 14 % of the analysed samples did not comply with established benchmark criteria to assess honey authenticity. However, a different set of methods with improved detection capability was used in the present study, which may explain this difference. Stable carbon isotope ratio analysis by EA-IRMS (AOAC method 991.41), a method that has frequently been used in the past to detect sugar syrups made of maize starch or sugarcane, was not effective in detecting honey suspicious of being adulterated. This is a clear indication that such sugar syrups are no longer used to extend honey and have been replaced by syrups made mostly from rice, wheat or sugar beet. The highest absolute number of suspicious consignments originated from China (66 out of 89, 74 %), although honey originating from Turkey (14 out of 15, 93 %) had the highest relative proportion of suspicious samples. Honey imported from the United Kingdom had an even higher suspicion rate (10 out of 10, 100 %). However, the available traceability information suggests that this could be the result of honey produced in other countries and further processed in the United Kingdom before its re-export to the EU. Although a substantially high number of honey consignments imported into the internal market was tested, the obtained results represent the situation during the sampling period (10/2021 to 02/2022) and shall not be generalised or extrapolated to other situations.
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ISSN 1831-9424
ISBN 978-92-68-01292-5
DOI 10.2760/184511
Kataloga numurs KJ-NA-31-461-EN-N
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ISSN 1831-9424 ISBN 978-92-68-01292-5 DOI 10.2760/184511 Kataloga numurs KJ-NA-31-461-EN-N
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