Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of labelling honey products with (a) country of origin, (b) percentage of honey from each country and (c) percentage of adulterated honey.

All honey on sale in England, regardless of where it comes from, must comply with the Honey (England) Regulations 2015. The general requirement in regulation 17 of the Honey (England) Regulations 2015 is that honey cannot be sold in England unless the country of origin where the honey has been harvested is indicated on the label.

However, for reasons of practicality special provisions apply to ‘blended’ honeys where honey producers can opt for alternative wording indicating that the honey is a blend from more than one country. The mix of different honeys in blended honeys may change frequently throughout the year, depending on availability, price, and seasonality of the various types of honey. Requiring producers to change their labels for every alteration would place additional burdens and lead to increased prices and packaging waste.

Although the Government has no immediate plans to change the rules on honey labelling, we keep all laws under review as part of our commitment to carry out post implementation reviews. We will consider the need for further labelling measures as part of the next review of the honey regulations which is due by 2025.

Honey should not be adulterated by any means, and the law states that nothing should be added or taken away. Adulterated honey is not permitted for sale under any circumstances.