About half of the honey imported into Europe may not be what it claims to be. That is the conclusion of the European Commission’s report, titled “From the Hives” and published on March 23, 2023: of 320 honey samples collected at EU borders and analyzed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), 46% (147 samples) are strongly suspected of adulteration, notably by syrups derived from beet, rice, or wheat. One in two honeys, secretly cut. The sort of statistic that makes you flip the breakfast jar to check the label.
Key takeaways
- Fraud techniques are evolving: modern syrups made from rice and beet sugar are nearly undetectable by standard laboratories
- China, Turkey, and the United Kingdom rank among the largest exporters of suspect honey to Europe
- French and European beekeepers face unfair competition from counterfeit honeys imported at low cost
An Investigation Conducted at Europe’s Borders
The operation is not a recent development. It began between November 2021 and February 2022. At Europe’s borders, authorities seized 320 shipments of honey originating from twenty exporting countries. Sixteen member states took part in the crackdown, aided by Switzerland, Norway, and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). Nothing improvised here: this was the largest control operation ever carried out on this product in Europe.
The outcome marked a clear break with the past. The rate is far higher than in a previous control action conducted in 2015: 14% (i.e., 17 non-conformities). In seven years, the suspected fraud rate more than tripled. Either the fraudsters have grown bolder, or detection methods have finally been updated. Probably a bit of both.
The Trick? An Almost Undetectable Syrup
The fraud technique has evolved over time, much like a cat-and-mouse game between cheaters and laboratories. In the past, fraudsters diluted honey with sugar syrups based on corn or cane starch. Knowing they were being watched, they shifted to syrups manufactured mainly from rice, wheat, or sugar beet, which the JRC methods managed to detect. These new syrups mimic honey’s chemical composition far more finely, making detection nearly impossible for standard laboratories.
The economic logic is brutally simple. The average value of imported honey stood at €2.32/kg in 2021, versus €0.40–€0.60/kg for rice-based sugar syrups. Diluting a noble product with a syrup four to five times cheaper, then selling it at the price of genuine honey, yields margins that soar while the risk of getting caught remains minimal. A calculation that, on paper, resembles a business plan.
China, Turkey, United Kingdom: the Poor Performers
Not all exporting countries are treated equally. About 74% of the 89 honeys originating in China were deemed suspect, as were almost all honeys imported from Turkey (14 out of 15). All ten honeys entering the United Kingdom were considered non-conforming, “likely due to blends of honeys produced elsewhere before re-export.” The United Kingdom might not produce the counterfeit honey itself, but rather acts as a transit hub for suspect blends that are re-exported to the continent.
The harm extends beyond the shelves of a single country. Of the 63 samples collected in Belgium, nearly 20 suspect lots were destined for the national market. Landed at the port of Antwerp, a hub for various illicit trades, other non-conforming EU-compliant honeys imported into Belgium were intended for France, Germany, and Spain. The counterfeit honey travels, transits, and dilutes through the continent’s logistics networks before ending up in our cupboards.
80,000 tonnes of fake honey per year: the equivalent of 13 Eiffel Towers
When expressed by volume, the figure is staggering. The NGO foodwatch calculated: if 46% of imported honeys are potentially fraudulent, that amounts to more than 80,000 tonnes of counterfeit honey being sold and consumed in Europe each year. And this is a lower bound, as it only accounts for imports from outside Europe, not counting intra-European fraud that would push the figure higher. To picture the scale, 80,000 tonnes of “fake honey” consumed each year in Europe is like the weight of 13 Eiffel Towers swallowed annually by consumers who believed they were buying a natural product.
Thirteen Eiffel Towers’ worth of rice syrup disguised as honey, gulped spoon after spoon without a second thought. The image is striking, almost comical if the subject weren’t so serious for the economic health of the beekeeping sector.
Because French beekeepers, for one, are taking a direct hit. France’s honey production cannot cover the annual domestic consumption, which stands at around 45,000 tonnes according to FranceAgriMer, while imports exceed 30,000 tonnes each year. How can a Norman producer, dependent on climate, bee colonies, and a limited annual harvest, compete with factory-produced rice syrup priced at less than €1 per kilo? This is not rhetoric: it is precisely the issue repeatedly raised by European beekeepers for years.
Controls Are Improving, but Remain Incomplete
The Commission did not sit idly after the report’s release. Among 44 importing companies investigated, nine have already been sanctioned: ranging from product refusals to recalls or destructions, and also financial penalties. A first step, but far from sufficient given the scale of the phenomenon revealed by the inquiry.
The snag is that the method that enabled fraud to be uncovered is not yet standard practice. This methodology is not (yet) used by official laboratories within the member states or by private labs that perform tests for the industry. Without this technique developed by the JRC, a large share of these frauds would have gone entirely undetected, as it likely did for years before 2021. Some researchers, including within the JRC itself, have since published work questioning certain markers used (such as mannose, naturally present in linden or chestnut honeys), evidence that the science of detecting counterfeit honey remains a work in progress.
Sources: foodwatch.org | foodwatch.org
