🍯 Honey

Honey is the natural sweet substance that Apis mellifera bees make from plant nectar or from secretions of living plant parts and excretions of plant-sucking insects. The bees collect it, transform it with substances of their own, dehydrate it, store it and leave it in the honeycomb to ripen. This is the definition in EU Directive 2001/110/EC.

By origin, Blossom and honeydew honey differ: the first comes from nectar, the second mainly from excretions of plant-sucking insects. Honey from the nectar of one plant is Monofloral honey. By production and presentation it can be comb honey, chunk honey (cut comb in honey), drained, extracted (centrifuged), pressed or filtered, plus baker's honey, an ingredient for industry labelled "intended for cooking only". It may be fluid, viscous or partly or fully crystallised, and its colour runs from almost colourless to dark brown. Honey crystallisation is natural. Nothing may be added to honey, and it must not be heated so that its natural enzymes are destroyed.

According to USDA data, 100 g of honey contains 17.1 g water, 82.12 g total sugars (fructose 40.94 g, glucose 35.75 g, maltose 1.44 g, sucrose 0.89 g), 0.3 g protein and 304 kcal. In other words, it is mostly sugar.

EU rules set quality limits: moisture is normally at most 20 % (23 % for heather and baker's honey) and HMF at most 40 mg/kg. According to FAO, honey with under 18 % water can be stored with little risk of fermentation, and HMF is virtually absent in fresh honey but forms from fructose during storage or heating.

The label must give the country where the honey was harvested. From 14 June 2026, blends from several countries must list them in the main field of vision in descending order of weight, with the percentage of each (5 % tolerance). The Commission's coordinated action "From the Hives" (2021–2022) found that a high percentage of honey on the EU market is suspected of being adulterated; harmonised detection methods are due by 14 June 2028.

The EU protects many honey names, among them Miel de Provence from France and Kraški med from Slovenia. Honey also sits among Bee products alongside Propolis. Honey is the base of Miód pitny and Honey liqueur.

Why this matters to you. Honey is mainly sugars: WHO counts the sugars in honey as free sugars and recommends keeping them below 10 % of energy intake, ideally below 5 %. Babies under 1 year should not be given honey, because it can contain bacteria that produce toxins in the gut and cause infant botulism (NHS). Crystallised honey is not spoiled, and the label shows the country of origin.