British beekeepers and scientists tackle tricky problem of honey fraud

HIGHBRIDGE, United Kingdom (August 6): Lynne Ingram cuts a peaceful figure as she tends a row of buzzing beehives in a leafy corner of Somerset, southwest England.

But the master beekeeper, who has had hives for more than 40 years, found herself facing a formidable and constantly evolving enemy: honey fraudsters.

The practice of adulterating honey is well known and historically adulterants such as ash and potato flour have been used.

Today, technological and scientific advances have made this much easier, with “custom, engineered or bioengineered” syrups used as diluting agents capable of fooling authenticity tests, Ingram said.

She founded the UK Honey Authenticity Network (HAN UK) in 2021 to raise awareness of natural honey and warn of the threat posed by fraud.

“One of the effects we’re seeing all over the world is beekeepers going out of business,” she said.

Adulterated honey can be sold to retailers at prices several times lower than what genuine producers can afford.

In addition to producing their own honey, many large-scale beekeepers have crop pollination contracts with farmers, delivering thousands of colonies to growers across the country.

If these companies go bankrupt because of unfair competition, this natural and vital method of pollinating crops is reduced and food production suffers.

The British Beekeepers’ Association, which represents more than 25,000 producers and where Ingram is a honey ambassador, wants the risk of fraud to be recognised to protect the industry and consumers.

“I would like to see recognition that there is indeed a problem here,” she said.

– Better labeling –

In May, the European Union updated its honey regulations to ensure clearer product labeling and a “honey traceability system” to increase transparency.

On the labelling of blended honeys, for example, all countries of origin must now appear next to the name of the product, whereas previously it was only mandatory to indicate whether blending had taken place.

Labelling in the UK, which has now left the EU, is not as strict and Ingram believes consumers are being “misled” by vague packaging.

Behind the EU’s action lies an apparent increase in the arrival of adulterated honey into the 27-nation bloc.

Substandard adulterated products can have adverse health effects on consumers, such as increased risk of diabetes, obesity, and liver or kidney damage.

Between 2021 and 2022, 46% of honey tested upon entry into the EU was flagged as potentially fraudulent, compared to 14% in the period 2015-2017.

Of the suspicious shipments, 74% were of Chinese origin.

Honey imported from the UK had a 100 percent suspicion rate.

The EU said the honey was likely to have been produced in third countries and re-mixed in the UK before being sent to the bloc.

The UK is the second largest importer of honey by volume in all of Europe. China is its largest supplier.

However, not all honey imported into the UK leaves the country. A considerable amount remains on the domestic market.

“We believe there is a huge amount on the shelves,” Ingram said, adding that adulterated honey was “widely available” in major supermarkets.

– Lasers –

Behind the closed blinds of a research laboratory at Aston University in Birmingham, central England, researchers fighting honey fraud are harnessing cutting-edge technology.

Aston scientists and beekeepers, including Ingram, use light to reveal the contents of honey samples at the molecular level.

This technique, known as fluorescence excitation-emission (FLE) spectroscopy, involves shooting lasers at samples.

The re-emitted light frequencies are then collected into a three-dimensional image – or “molecular fingerprint” – of the honey being tested.

Alex Rozhin, project leader and reader in nanotechnology, said the test “can track different molecules across the spectrum and confirm what kind of biochemicals are present.”

In the dark laboratory, the light from the different honeys is clearly visible.

The first gives off a bright green and the second a cooler blue, indicating distinct chemical compositions.

Using FLE technology, Rozhin says his team “can immediately trace a concentration of fraud within samples” with “different spectral bands corresponding to syrup (or) natural honey.”

Rozhin said the FLE is more accurate than existing tests and can provide results much faster, at a significantly reduced cost and without requiring highly trained personnel.

One of the goals of the Aston team is to create a version of FLE that can be used by honey producers or even consumers with minimal equipment or possibly just a smartphone.

Deploying the test in this way would also speed up the creation of a honeypot database that, through machine learning, could be used as a catalog of biometric signatures.

“If we get a new sample and it’s been tampered with and it’s different from how the database is built, we’ll know there’s something shady,” said Steven Daniels, a research associate at Aston who specializes in machine learning.

Ingram said the test could fill international gaps in testing methods by establishing a unified standard, but the government also needed to monitor the sector.

“We really need to address this issue,” she said. — AFP