More than 46 per cent of honey imported into the EU is fake, a report reveals.
European Commissioners tested 320 samples of honey.
They found 147 batches had been tampered with.
Most had been adulterated with sugar syrups made from wheat, rice and sugar beet.
The participating countries in the survey were Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Spain, and Sweden, as well as Norway and Switzerland.
All the 10 honeys entered via the United Kingdom failed and were marked “non-compliant”.
The report shows that honey imported from the UK had a suspicion rate of 100%.
However, the honey may have been produced in other countries before being processed in the UK and re-exported to the EU.
Most fake honey is brought from Turkey (93%) and China (74%).
The investigation was carried out by the EU’s fraud office OLAF and other agencies.
An OLAF statement read:
“Honey naturally contains sugars and, according to EU legislation, must remain pure – meaning that it cannot have ingredients added to it.
“Adulteration occurs when ingredients such as water or inexpensive sugar syrups are artificially added to increase the volume of honey.
“While the risk for human health is considered as low, such practices defraud consumers and put honest producers in jeopardy as they face unfair competition from operators who can slash prices thanks to illicit, cheap ingredients.”
Ville Itälä, Director-General of OLAF, added:
“The EU is an importer of honey as the internal demand is higher than our domestic production.
“It is important that we remain vigilant against any abuse.
“The most frequent type of fraud with honey happens via adulteration, meaning by adding cheap ingredients instead of keeping the honey pure.
“But we also found instances of origin fraud, with labels claiming false origins of the product.
“This action served to raise attention, call for order, and deter any fraudulent practices.”
The world’s biggest honey buyers are the United States and Europe.
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said:
“The UK government takes any type of food fraud very seriously – including honey adulteration.
“There is no place for adulterated honey which undermines consumer confidence and disadvantages responsible businesses.
“We work closely with enforcement authorities to ensure honey sold in the UK is not subject to adulteration, meets our high standards – and maintains a level playing field between honey producers.”