In India, honey is currently regulated under three legislations:

• Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Rules, 1955, a mandatory standard, implemented by the Food Safety and Standards Authority (FSSAI).

• The voluntary Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) norm for extracted honey under IS4941:1994. Brands wishing to obtain the ISI mark will have to follow it.

• Honey Grading and Marking rules, 2008 under the Agricultural Produce (Grading and Marking) Act, 1937 (AGMARK), implemented by the Union Ministry of Agriculture.

All three define honey as a “natural product” and lay down standards for its composition and quality (like sucrose content, total reducing sugars and moisture content)—but there are no standards for antibiotics in honey. The main global standards that apply to the import and export of honey are the Codex Alimentarius, which define what honey is, set maximum levels for moisture content, sugars, and water soluble solids, list contaminants, and define hygiene and other standards. 

Honey is defined and described by the inter-governmental body for global food standards (the Codex Alimentarius Commission) as:the natural sweet substance produced by honeybees from the nectar of plants or from secretions of living parts of plants or excretions of plant sucking insects on the living parts of plants, which the bees collect, transform by combining with specific substances of their own, deposit, dehydrate, store, and leave in the honey comb to ripen and mature. Honey consists essentially of different sugars, predominantly fructose and glucose as well as other substances such as organic acids, enzymes, and solid particles derived from honey collection. The colour of honey varies from nearly colourless to dark brown. The consistency can be fluid, viscous or partly to entirely crystallized. The flavour and aroma vary, but are derived from the plant origin.

The Codex Alimentarius and European Union standards for organic honey stipulate that bees must be raised without the use of pesticides and other unnatural or harmful substances.

At anghaa, we extract honey in the mountainous areas of the uttrakhand where honey from the indigenous honeybee Apis cerana is collected from various apiary’s or from wild colonies of Apis dorsata and Apis laboriosa.

For honey, quality generally refers to its authentic provenance and labeling and the absence of adulteration, residues, heat damage, and other unwanted qualities.

The main environmental contaminants of honey are pesticides, fungicides, and heavy metals, while the main contaminants of honey from beekeeping practices are the pesticides and antibiotics used to control bee pests and diseases.

honey by anghaa is produced by bees that forage a diversity of nectar sources in largely unpolluted natural environments and the crops of subsistence farmers, who use only limited amounts of agrochemicals. Much of the honey from beehives is also unlikely to have unwanted contaminants and residues as it is produced with little or no use of modern inputs such as antibiotics and pesticides. The large amounts of wild honey produced by Apis dorsata, Apis laboriosa and other indigenous bee species provides pure honey which, if handled properly, is unlikely to contain chemical or pesticide residues and could fetch high prices on the international market.

For honey, quality generally refers to its genuineness and natural quality and the absence of adulteration, residues, damage from heat and storage, and other unwanted qualities.

Quality control measures in honey limit or ban the presence of residues from antibiotics and pesticides; minimize the levels of hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF – the high presence of which indicates that honey has been heated); set limits for moisture content, diastase, pollen, sugars, acidity, and the amino acid proline; and define required sensory values (taste, odour, and appearance) and handling processes.Adulteration, the authentic provenance of honey and the presence of residues and contaminants are major concerns of honey importers and consumers.

For honey, traceability begins with the conformation of each beehive and its identification through the stages of harvesting and processing and through the supply chain until the honey reaches the final consumer. To track the flow of honey from beehive to point of sale needs good collaboration between the actors at each stage of the production and distribution chain.

 The actors in the honey supply chain need to record information at each step to track the flow of the honey so that targeted and accurate withdrawals can happen if contamination or other food safety problems are identified. The actors include beehives and beekeeping equipment suppliers, beekeepers, honey processors, storage container suppliers, distributors, storage holders, wholesalers, and retailers.

Here at anghaa, we follow good beekeeping practices and replicate best practices in consultation with agriculture universities, local beekeeping groups and also alliance with groups across other geographies.