Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture provided the Food and Drug Administration with a report, as required by the 2014 Farm Bill, wherein 89% of 85 respondents identified a need for a national honey standard, but disagreements about what that standard should entail has halted any progress.
- Without a national standard, inferior honey can flood the market, putting small honey makers out of business.
- The report found "disparate opinions about how to frame" the honey standard, such as whether to define filtration levels or require a measurable pollen count to identify floral sources.
Dive Insight:
Honey makers and other interested parties brought this issue up in a 2006 petition, which the FDA rejected. The FDA reiterated that a sufficient definition of honey is "a thick, sweet, syrup substance that bees make as food from the nectar of flowers and store in honeycombs."