We had our honey tested

We were interested to know more about the honey our bees make in rural Newfoundland, and about whether it would meet legal criteria for sale in Europe.  Also, we want to contribute to global efforts to stop honey adulteration which entails the addition of sugar syrups, artificial ripening of honey, and other cheating methods that depress honey prices and undermine public confidence in our product.

We had our honey tested twice so far for authenticity and floral source: by True Honey Buzz in Abbottsford, B.C. (2020), using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) technology; and by CETAM-Lorraine in Guénange, France (2018-19). 

Click here to read the True Honey Buzz test results.

Click here for the CETAM-Lorraine results (received 23 May 2019). Note that many of the terms are the same in French and English, so it’s possible to make sense of this report even though it’s in the former language.

Here’s some notes from the CETAM-Lorraine report.

Moisture content

The moisture content is 16.9%.  Regarding legal and recommended moisture content in France, the notes say “In general ≤20% (recommended ≤ 18%) except calluna heather honey ≤23%.”  Honey will start to ferment when the moisture content is above 20-21%.

HMF (hydroxyl-methyl-furfural)

The HMF analysis of our honey sample gave a value of 0.9.  The notes say, this value must be in general ≤40 mg/Kg (recommended ≤ 15 at the end of the 1st year) unless it’s honey from tropical regions where the value should be ≤ 80 mg/Kg - Si 3 ≤ diastasic activity ≤ 8 - HMF ≤ 15 mg/Kg. 

The presence of an appreciable amount of HMF is evidence of alteration of honey by heat.

Sugar content

Fructose - 40.6%

Glucose - 35.5%

Sucrose - 0.3%

Pollen content (floral sources)

Solidago rugosa (rough-stemmed goldenrod) - 48%

Trifolium repens (white clover) – 35%

Rubus sp (raspberry) 5%, Phacelia tanacetifolia (purple tansy) 4%, Asteraceæ liguliflora (aster sp.) 4%

Other pollens ≤3% - Euthamia graminifolia (grass-leaved goldenrod), Epilobium angustifolium (fireweed), Lotus sp (alfalfa), Vicia sp (vetch), formes avortées (aborted forms), X… (unidentified)

Honeydew elements?

The electrical conductivity of the sample is 607.  Regarding legal and recommended criteria, the notes say, the conductivity should be ≤ 800 μS.cm-1 for nectar honeys and ≥ 800 μS.cm-1 for honeydew honeys. In practice there are many exceptions depending on the botanical origin of honey.   The notes also say with respect to sugar that the content must be ≥ 60.0% for nectar honeys and ≥ 45.0% for honeydew honeys.”  We interpret this to mean that there are few to zero honeydew elements in the honey sample.

Legal conformity (in France)

“The parameters evaluated are in accordance with Decree No. 2003-587 of 30 June 2003 adopted for the application of Article L. 214-1 of the Consumer Code regarding honey.”  This means that the honey conforms to the French government’s definition of honey. The honey is not adulterated. See https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=LEGITEXT000005634642

Proposed description (label) for this honey is “wildflower.”

This is 100% consistent with the description of the floral source you find on our honey labels even though 48% of the pollen found in the sample is Solidago rugosa (rough-stemmed goldenrod).  Note that the pollen content will vary from year-to-year depending on climatic and other variables.