Reports about adulterated honey have been doing the rounds for days. TV and newspapers report almost daily about the shocking laboratory results of honey tests. In Germany, up to 80% of supermarket honey could be adulterated or manipulated. And many players who are active on the honey market in Germany are also active in Austria. It can therefore be assumed that the results for Austria will be similarly bad.
But adulteration is not a new phenomenon!
The topic has been coming up regularly for years, but unfortunately there is little antidote to criminal adulteration. We became aware of fake honey when we opened the honey business in 2016. At that time, the high-priced Manuka honey was particularly affected by counterfeits. Criminals put Manuka labels on syrup and low-quality honey and circulated it as premium honey. Anyone who knows the prices of Manuka honey knows how enormous the profit margins are for the fraudsters.
Since then, reports of fake honey have not stopped. The cheap discount honeys on supermarket shelves are currently suspected of being fake. If you look around on Chinese marketplaces and use keywords such as "honey", "syrup", "glucose for honey" or "honey fructose" you will come across industrial suppliers in China, Vietnam, Turkey and Cambodia who offer the corresponding raw materials for adulterating honey. They even have papers for import into the EU!
With prices of between EUR 1 and EUR 3 per tonne of chemicals, it is no wonder that greedy bandits are making use of the offers and importing them into the EU on a large scale, labelling them and offering them on the market.
But the consumer, the buyer of honey, is also partly to blame. Unfortunately, many people still think that honey has to be cheap. We know from our own experience that there are buyers who think of a price per kilo of 10 euros and don't want to pay more than that. And in reality, the discounters and supermarkets do nothing other than make these bargain hunters an offer. Buy my honey because it's cheap! The question of adulteration is not even raised.
And because honey fraud has been an issue in our company from the very beginning, there are principles that we strictly adhere to in our daily operations in order not to open the door to counterfeiters.
Why we don’t sell adulterated honey:
- We buy honey only from beekeepers, we do not buy honey from dealers or other sources
- Each honey jar contains the name and address of the beekeeper so that the supply chain can be traced
- Whenever possible, we travel to the beekeepers ourselves to convince ourselves of the quality and workmanship (e.g. we have an invitation from a beekeeper in Sweden who we want to visit in 2025)
- We do not have any honey "mixture of EU and non-EU countries" in our assortment
- Welthonig is an organic company and we are controlled by the Market Office / MA59 of the City of Vienna and by Austria Bio Garantie GmbH
By the way, wine, olive oil and honey are among the most counterfeited foods in the world. Counterfeits are easy and cheap to produce and difficult to detect.
Sources & selected reports:
Die Presse from December 17, 2024, DNA test reveals: Lots of adulterated honey in Austria's supermarkets, link to the online article -> https://www.diepresse.com/19183912/dna-test-deckt-auf-viel-gepanschter-honig-in-oesterreichs-supermaerkten
ORF. at Upper Austria from December 17, 2024, New directive against adulterated honey, link to the online article -> https://ooe.orf.at/stories/3285705/
Greenpeace Austria from December 10, 2024, Greenpeace warns: Possibly large quantities of counterfeit honey on the Austrian market, link to the online article -> https://greenpeace.at/presse/greenpeace-warnt-moeglicherweise-grosse-mengen-gefaelschter-honig-auf-oesterreichischem-markt/