Counterfeit honey is available in supermarkets

Be careful and choose genuine honey produced in Latvia! When you buy meadow honey from our natural meadow farmers, you can be sure that it is a genuine, natural meadow product. After testing honey samples purchased from 20 Latvian supermarkets, it turned out that only 6 of them met the honey standard – according to the Latvian Beekeepers’ Association. Read about it in this article!

Towards the end of 2024, the Food and Veterinary Service (PVD) took several samples of honey from shops on the grounds of suspicion that counterfeit honey was being sold. DNA analyses carried out at a laboratory in Estonia revealed that some of the honey sold in shops had been industrially produced rather than collected by bees, and is therefore an artificial rather than a natural product, and consequently does not comply with the EU directive stipulating that honey is a natural, sweet substance produced by bees (Apis mellifera) from plant nectar. At the same time, the PVD points out that there is currently no official EU-wide methodology for evaluating the results of honey DNA tests.

The Minister for Agriculture, Armands Krauze, has instructed officials from the Ministry and the Food and Veterinary Service to begin negotiations with the European Commission without delay, with a view to establishing controls on the authenticity of natural honey, so that consumers who wish to include natural honey in their diet, and businesses that use it in food production can be confident of the natural origin of the honey they purchase.

Armands Krauze: “For many years, beekeeping was one of the areas of my agricultural activity, so I have a good understanding of the challenges facing the honey production sector both in Latvia and elsewhere in Europe. The European Commission is currently planning to bring honey quality monitoring into line by 2028. Taking so long to resolve this issue is unacceptable; it must be resolved much more quickly so that uniform methods and criteria for determining the authenticity of honey can finally be established. Laboratory methods for determining the authenticity of honey must be accredited as a matter of urgency, so that shops selling counterfeit honey face severe penalties.”

Last week, the Latvian Beekeepers’ Association (LBB) announced the results of tests carried out on samples of honey available in retail outlets, which were conducted at a laboratory in Estonia. The LBB believes that some honey producers and retailers are engaging in unfair commercial practices, namely, of the honey samples purchased in Latvia, 70%, or 14 out of 20, did not meet the standard for authentic honey according to the analyses carried out by the LBB.

The PVD emphasises that, in accordance with current EU regulations, honey sold at retail in Latvia meets quality and safety requirements and can be consumed in the same way as jam or any other industrially produced food product. According to the results of non-accredited DNA testing methods, some of the honey available for purchase is an artificially produced food product and, as soon as a method for verifying the authenticity of natural honey is accredited, such honey may only be sold in shops with a label stating that it is artificial honey.

Source: https://www.zm.gov.lv/lv/jaunums/partikas-un-veterinarais-dienests-veikalos-konstate-viltotu-medu