Authenticity of honey

Abstract

Honey is a completely natural product. Although most commercially distributed honey has been subjected to some degree of physical processing, raw honey can be used straight from the comb as taken from the beehive. The distinction of honey as a pure natural product is maintained by food regulations worldwide: anything sold as honey has to have been produced by bees from the secretions of plants, and be free from any additives and contaminants. Nevertheless, the fraudulent practice of selling adulterated or simulated honey is widespread and has gone on since ancient times. To understand the challenge presented in detecting such fraud it is necessary to be aware of the complexity of honey, a natural product with a very varied nature resulting from the wide variability of its sources.