The Buzz About Fake Honey: How to Spot the Real Deal

Honey has long been revered as a golden, natural gift—drizzled on toast, stirred into tea, or used in skincare and home remedies. 

But beneath the golden glow lies a growing problem that many consumers are unaware of: fake honey.

Supermarket shelves are increasingly stocked with adulterated honey products—some watered down with sugar syrups, others containing little to no real honey at all. So how can you tell what’s real and what’s not? Let’s take a look.

What Is Fake Honey?

Fake honey (or adulterated honey) is typically diluted with substances like:

Glucose syrup

High fructose corn syrup

Rice or beet syrup

In some cases, flavourings and colourants

It’s often done to cut costs and boost profits while making the product look and taste like genuine honey.

Why It’s a Problem

Deceptive labelling – Some products labelled as "pure honey" may contain undeclared additives.

Nutritional loss – Real honey is packed with antioxidants, enzymes, and trace minerals. Adulterated versions lack these benefits.

Damage to beekeepers – Honest beekeepers struggle to compete with cheap, fake imports.

Consumer trust – Food fraud erodes confidence in natural, healthy products.

How to Identify Fake Honey

While lab tests are the only definitive way to confirm purity, here are a few tricks consumers can use at home or when shopping:

Check the Label

Look for “100% raw honey” or “unfiltered honey.”

Avoid products listing glucose, fructose, or “honey blend” in the ingredients.

Country of origin: Some imported honey has been flagged for fraud—check where it comes from.

The Spoon Test

Dip a spoon into the honey and let it fall back into the jar. Real honey:

Falls in a thick stream

Doesn’t splatter or run like water

Settles into itself without separating

The Water Test

Drop a spoonful of honey into a glass of cold water:

Fake honey dissolves or disperses quickly

Real honey settles at the bottom in a blob

The Flame Test (use caution!)

Dip a cotton bud in the honey and try lighting it with a lighter:

Real honey may burn slightly

Adulterated honey often won’t ignite due to water content

Support Local Beekeepers

The best way to ensure you're buying authentic honey is to purchase from:

Local farmers’ markets

Beekeepers’ stalls

British honey producers with traceable, transparent supply chains

What’s Being Done?

Some UK supermarkets have pledged to improve their sourcing, and trading standards have begun cracking down on fraudulent imports. However, testing can be costly, and loopholes still exist.

As awareness grows, more consumers are demanding transparency—which is good news for ethical producers and honey-loving households alike.

Final Drizzle

If you’re serious about honey, don’t be fooled by a pretty label or a rock-bottom price. Knowing how to spot fake honey empowers you to make better, more sustainable choices.

Because when it comes to honey, you deserve the real thing.

Lynne Ingram, Chair of the Honey Authenticity Network UK, an international organisation fighting 'Fake honey' to help honey producers, consumers and bees told That's Food and Drink: “UK consumers have the right to make informed choices when purchasing honey. If a product is labelled as honey, it must be exactly that—genuine honey, naturally collected and ripened by bees.

" It should not be a factory-processed product, artificially dried or containing added syrups. Transparency is also essential when it comes to labelling. Vague statements like 'a blend of EU and non-EU honeys' are unhelpful and misleading. Consumers deserve clear information about the true country of origin. 

"We are calling on the authorities to take urgent action to stop the influx of cheap, adulterated honey into the UK. This includes robust testing and strong enforcement to protect both consumers and honest producers.”

Black Bee Honey's range of award-winning 100% British 'flower to jar' honeys are single source with the location and name of the beekeeper printed on every jar, so it's fully traceable.  Since 2020 they have been donating 2% of its turnover to the charity Plantlife for the creation of wildflower meadows, and so far have helped create over 25 acres of meadows. This work has enabled them to establish a circular business model where every jar bought creates wildflower meadows, which in turn helps bees to create honey. 

Black Bee Honey is currently listed with Ocado, Holland & Barrett, Abel & Cole and Harrods.  Their honeys are also available online at blackbeehoney.com.

Is the Honey You are Buying Fake? Black Bee Honey Calls for Urgent Government Action

That's Food and Drink has already recently posted about World Bee Day. But we have received some news that has genuinely disturbed us.

Because as World Bee Day approaches, on the 20th May, award-winning B Corp certified British beekeeper collective Black Bee Honey is on a mission to highlight the fact that fake honey being sold to shoppers in UK supermarkets by campaigning for more independent testing to be performed on imported honey.

Around half a million tons of honey are sold in the UK every year but its quality and its environmental impact is poor. 

Most of the honey on offer in our supermarkets is imported, with its origin often listed as “a blend of EU and non-EU honey”.  Many consumers believe the honey they're buying is 100% pure when it's actually a mix of imported blended honey.

Black Bee Honey was founded in 2010 by beekeepers Paul Webb and Chris Barnes who met in a design office 20 years ago. Their passion for bees and honey began with hives in their own back gardens and they soon discovered how delicious honey tasted straight from the hive - worlds apart from the imported honey found on supermarket shelves. Inspired, they soon left their design jobs for the rooftops and gardens of London where they cared for over a million bees and established Black Bee Honey.  

Co-founder Paul Webb told That's Food and Drink: “Adulterated or fake honey being imported into the UK has been happening for many years but it's only now coming to light. 

"It's had a massive, negative impact on UK honey producers, artificially lowering the price expectation of a very special product which takes a huge amount of time and energy to produce by bees and beekeepers. The public have been unwittingly eating sugar syrup when they think they're eating real honey which devalues the real thing further due to lack of flavour and it's also a health concern."

Pauyl went on to tell us: "We're asking for more independent testing on honey to begin to reverse the trend towards more and more cheap, fake honey and to get quality British honey back on the supermarket shelves. That's why Black Bee Honey was founded and why we'll continue to fight for British Beekeepers, their bees and the great honey they produce”.

Lynne Ingram, Chair of the Honey Authenticity Network UK, an international organisation fighting 'Fake honey' to help honey producers, consumers and bees added: “UK consumers have the right to make informed choices when purchasing honey. 

"If a product is labelled as honey, it must be exactly that, real, genuine honey, naturally collected and ripened by bees. It should not be a factory-processed product, artificially dried or containing added syrups. 

"Transparency is also essential when it comes to labelling. Vague statements like 'a blend of EU and non-EU honeys' are unhelpful and potentially misleading. Consumers deserve clear information about the true country of origin. We are calling on the authorities to take urgent action to stop the influx of cheap, adulterated honey into the UK. This includes robust testing and strong enforcement to protect both consumers and honest producers.”

Black Bee Honey's range of award-winning 100% British 'flower to jar' honeys are single source with the location and name of the beekeeper printed on every jar, so it's fully traceable.  

"Since 2020 they have been donating 2% of their turnover to the charity Plantlife for the creation of wildflower meadows, and so far have helped create over 25 acres of meadows. This work has enabled them to establish a circular business model where every jar bought creates wildflower meadows, which in turn helps bees to create honey. 

Black Bee Honey is currently listed with Ocado, Holland & Barrett, Abel & Cole and Harrods.  Their honeys are also available online at blackbeehoney.com

That's Food and Drink will be looking out for Black Bee Honey the next time we have a Holland and Barrett visit planned!

Here is the link to our previous coverage of World Bee Day https://thatsfoodanddrink.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-buzz-about-world-bee-day-vital-for.html