Whether used as a natural sweetener in cooking, as a home remedy for a sore throat or simply for drowning your pancakes, honey is a staple in cupboards across the country.
But what’s the best stuff? What do you look for on the label? And can you get good honey in supermarkets?
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In the first of our new monthly series on buying products like a pro, we’ve got the answers from top experts.
The issue with supermarket honey
David Wagstaff, commercial beekeeper and founder of More Bees Please, told the Money blog the primary issues with supermarket honey were adulteration, lack of transparency and heavy processing.
A large proportion of cheaper supermarket honey is blended from imports, often labelled vaguely as “blend of EU and non-EU honeys”, he said.
“Many tests suggest this kind of honey may be diluted with cheap sugar syrups (like corn or rice syrup) or misrepresented as pure honey,” he said.
Industrial honey is often pasteurised and filtered for clarity and a long shelf life, Wagstaff added. This process can remove pollen, enzymes and antioxidants that are present in raw, unprocessed honey.
Could a £3 supermarket product labelled as honey not actually be proper honey?
“Yes, it can happen,” Wagstaff said.
“A £3 supermarket jar labelled as ‘honey’ is legally allowed to be sold, but it’s often very different from what most people imagine as real, natural honey.
“A £3 jar is typically priced that way because it is produced at massive scale, sourced globally and processed for consistency – not because it is raw, local or single-source.”
What should you look for on the label?
Dr Gino Jabbar, chairman of the Honey Guild of the United Kingdom, told the Money blog that consumers should always start by looking at the country of origin.
“Check if it’s from a single country or a blend from many regions,” he explained.
Single original honey is…
