Discover the honey deception! Although the Chinese honey consumption in Spain it is more than 30% of the total consumption the origin of this country does not appear on the product labels. All this has made the OCU and Coordinator of Farmers and Livestock Organizations (COAG) have done an investigation. As a result, they have lifted the "legal deception" to cover this information to the consumer.
Legislation currently admits that honey harvested in China e imported by a Portuguese operator can be labeled as Spanish, International. All because the mixture of different honeys is considered as a process. In this way the law allows this honey to be labeled with the origin that has more than 50%. So a honey can have a 49% of Chinese origin or with a 51% spanish and be considered in the labeling as Spanish honey.
Deception, confusion and little transparency in honey
This is the reason why it is increasingly difficult to find Chinese honey at the origin of the label, according to those responsible for the OCU y COAG. In this way, the wholesalers and packers of this product use the standard that says that "The origin of a mixture will be the country of origin of the materials that represent more than 50% by weight of the mixture". The person in charge of beekeeping sector of the employer association COAG Pedro Loscertales clarifies that “We do not believe that they are committing any illegality. We believe that both the application of the community and state regulations analyzed make it easier ”.
What is clear is that the table you do not receive the actual information. In addition, these standards encourage confusion and deception. Also when heating honey in the mixing process pollen is removed that provides the botanical information of the origin.
It seems surprising that in 2021 we still continue to use only physical labeling in the standard and not digital through QR codes for instance. There is fear of the transparency of the traceability, of the analytics and of giving light to the whole process to the consumer, treating him as little capacity to understand what is behind the product.
