We all love honey and we are willing to buy more and more of it (not our words, but ISMEA’s) both for its sweet and melty taste, as well as for the unnumerous beneficial effects it has, to cite some: skin and scalp treatment, antioxidant agents stimulator, ideal energy source for athletes, healthier substitute of white sugar, etc. Before going in-depth on honey fraud methods, let’s understand the processes behind its production.
The beginning of the process is set by the bees by collecting the nectar from flowering plants, the latest is brought back to the hive. Inside the hives, the nectar is transformed into simple sugars. Thanks to certain conditions, such as the bees’ wings fanning and the honeycomb’s hexagonal shape, the simple sugar is encouraged to the next step, which is evaporation. the result of this process is the sweet liquid honey.
The honey market and the adulteration of honey food
Now let’s look at the size of the honey market, which has been estimated to be around $10,42 billion in 2021 and it’s expected to rise at a CAGR of 5,67% reaching USD 14,5 billion by 2027. Regardless of the honeybee population decrease and the honey food adulteration. The UE claims that honey is the third most adulterated product in the world, while a few years ago the cost of tools and operations for the falsification was more than the cost of the raw material. Recently, however, the falsification process became easier thanks to the technological advancement. Furthermore, the increase of frauds is backed up by the fact that honey, chemically speaking, is a complex substance, which makes it hard to test: the processes to verify the authenticity of the honey are both time-consuming and expensive and they require specific tools and knowledge.
After that we explored the honey structure and took an overview of the latest market, let’s look at some of the most frequent counterfeiting methods:
- Sugary syrups addition: honey is a mixture of: sugars (approximately 80%), including glucose, sucrose, and other types, water (around17-18%), proteins, and mineral salts.To increase profit, cheap syrups are used to dilute the honey, the most used ones are those made out by mais processing, cane and sugar beet, rice and high fructose inulin. The reason behind the usage of those specific syrups lies in the fact that not only do they have a lower price but also due to the fact that they have a similar colour, considering this they are nearly impossible to recognise without specific analyses.
- Hidden or disguised geographical origin: within the honey DNA, represented by the pollen, exist a bunch of information, which, through Melissopalynology, they allow us to know not only the plant from which the pollen was taken but also its geographical origin. The test to trace back the honey source, unfortunately, requires a big amount of data collected through the years, furthermore, there are few laboratories specialised in the field. Yet the big hardship lies in the fact that – and here is where the fraud comes in – the native pollen spectrum can be modified easily, either by mixing the honey with another one having a different origin or by adding a filtering process to eliminate the pollen trace. The fraud can be expanded even further by adding “fake” pollen to the honey and then selling it as honey originating from different plants or having chosen geographical roots.
- Industrial honey commercialised as regular honey: the Directive 2001/110/EC makes it possible to define “industrial honey” which: a) is suitable for industrial use or as an ingredient in other foodstuffs intended for further processing; b) may have an abnormal taste or smell, have started a fermentation process, be effervescent, or have been overheated. In short, it is honey whose defects do not allow its consumption as “pure”. Very often this type of honey is commercialised as honey meant for final consumption, and it bears the marks of a fermentation blocked before exportation and has a metallic taste, due to contact with unsuitable containers. Such honey should be excluded from consumption and defined as industrial honey; however, the Directive does not define specific criteria for fermentation or give precise indications on the evaluation of extraneous odours and tastes, So in fact its application loses value and honey for the industry is sold next to the “normal”.
- Unripe honey: when bees collect the nectar from plants, it usually has a high amount of water in it, a slice of the bees’ job consists in reducing the excessive humidity. If the honeycombs are removed before the bees have finished their job, the honey will not be fully ripe, meaning it will still contain more water. Instead of waiting for the bees to finish their task, the honey is dried artificially, in a shorter period of time, without allowing its natural maturation, and obtaining higher quantities intended for sale.