Friendly Fire from an Apimondia Broadside

In recent times a new type of honey fraud has emerged, which involves systematic ‘drying’ of high-moisture honey – or perhaps more accurately, nectar – and recently the Internation Federation of Beekeepers’ Associations (Apimondia) took aim at it with release of the Apimondia Statement on Immature Honey Production. With honey moisture reduction common practice among the New Zealand honey industry, some of the statement’s wording risks tarnishing methods designed to improve honey quality while protecting beekeepers, honey traders and consumers alike.

Apimondia is the International Federation of Beekeepers, who advocate for honest honey production and trade, and their latest statement on immature honey production as a form of fraud is broad enough to include practices used in New Zealand despite fraud not being the intent.

“We want to protect you and all honest beekeepers around the world,” explains Norberto Garcia author of Apimondia’s statement as the chair of their ‘Scientific Commission on Beekeeping Economy’.

“This publication by Apimondia is not targeted towards New Zealand and honest beekeepers. We know perfectly that you have a very honest and well-developed beekeeping industry.”

Instead “many Asian countries” are the only areas specifically outlined in the four-page statement as home to beekeepers using fraudulent immature honey production techniques. However, the statement calls into question the use of vacuum dryers of honey, a practice used in New Zealand, even stating the consequence of their use is ‘the product does not comply with the recognized regulations and therefore, may not be called honey’. Honey ‘dehydration’ by storing of honey in boxes and frames in a hot room prior to extraction where ‘the honey in combs may lose a slight fraction of its water’ is permitted in the statement. However, there is no such exemption for ‘dehumidifying’ of honey after it has been extracted, which – along with the alternate method of ‘vacuum drying’ – is also undertaken in New Zealand.

The Real Target

Apimondia’s statement begins by describing the ‘Biology of Honey Production’, a process involving passive and active methods of nectar dehydration.

Some beekeepers in Asia are undertaking honey fraud by harvesting freshly stored nectar from hives and vacuum drying it in factories to create what Apimondia calls “dried nectar”.

‘Active dehydration occurs when worker bees concentrate droplets of regurgitated nectar with movements of their mouth-parts. Passive dehydration of nectar occurs through direct evaporation of water from nectar inside the beehive,’ the statement reads, before later concluding ‘Hence, removing water from nectar is part of the maturation and ripening process that results in honey – it is solely achieved by the bees and is an all-natural process’.

Why is it important bees carry out this process, without human intervention?

“Honey in conception is a product of the interaction of the plant kingdom and the animal kingdom,” Garcia explains.

“Honey has many qualities that can originally be found in the nectar of the flowers which the bees visit but then – and here comes the interaction – the bees have substances of their own and the chemical reactions with them produce particular substances which may be found in the honey, that were not found in the nectar. For maturation to occur you have to give significant time to the bees to do that.”

However, Apimondia contends the bees are not being given the time or space to do this by some beekeepers in many Asian countries.

“The bees are simple collectors of nectar, but once they bring that nectar into the hive the process is fastened by the beekeeper harvesting every day or two days and the hive is just in one box, so there is no space to mature that honey. The rest is done in a factory where they dehydrate the nectar. The quality of that honey is not the same, it should be called dehydrated nectar, which is not honey,” Garcia says.

New Zealand’s Methods

New Zealand beekeepers are in the fortuitous position of selling the world’s most valuable honey, mānuka, and thus beekeepers strive to separate their mānuka crops from other floral varieties in an effort to ensure purity, or as close to it as practically possible. Then, there is the New Zealand environment and climate, which can challenge the bees’ efforts to dry their honey.

“Apimondia’s intent is to protect honest, hardworking beekeepers from wholesale, industrialised food fraud,” says Tony Wright, chief executive of UMF Honey Association whose members export around 70% of the country’s packed mānuka honey.

“So, if a beekeeper needs to pull their frames off earlier because they are going to lose a high value crop due to it being diluted out by pasture honey, well then it is a similar sort of argument. It is the practicalities of beekeeping.”

This practice can result in honey being removed from hives when frames are not 100% capped with the wax lid which honey bees apply when they are satisfied with their moisture reduction efforts, and they wish to prevent it from taking on any further atmospheric moisture.

The internationally recognised Codex Alimentarius definition of honey requires moisture content ‘not more than 20%’ for all except heather honeys, for which the limit is pushed to 23%. At those levels fermentation is a serious concern though, and Apimondia’s statement includes a table which details ‘tendency to ferment’. Greater than 20.1% is ‘always a danger to ferment’, 18.1-20% is safe if yeast counts are less than 10g, 17.1-18% is safe if yeast is less than 1000g and below 17.1% is said to be safe regardless of the honey’s yeast levels.

Is There a Right Type of Drying?

At Mānuka Orchard in the Bay of Plenty they see a lot of honey, collected from all over New Zealand. Alongside extraction and storage, a honey drying service is offered. This is essential to protecting both beekeepers, honey buyers and end consumers from the risk of fermentation says director Logan Bowyer. They test the moisture content of all honey and aim for 17% because between 18 and 20% they “can have issues”.

“There will be seasons where the honey is capped, every frame or very close to it, and it still won’t be 18%, and sometimes nowhere near it,” Bowyer explains.

“That is not scientific, but I have seen a lot of good honey coming down the line where moisture content tests out above 18%”.

Norberto Garcia, chair of Apimondia’s ‘Scientific Commission on Beekeeping Economy’ and author of their statement on immature honey production has confirmed New Zealand is not a target and amendments could be made.

For that reason, dehumidification is used to reduce moisture counts of extracted honey from around 20% to closer to 17%. Technically this falls afoul of Apimondia’s position though, which only allows dehumidification of honey while it is still stored in frames, prior to extraction. Bowyer believes this position, in New Zealand’s case at least, is inconsistent with creating the best quality, traceable and authentic honey.

“When you are drying in the box you have no idea what moisture level you are starting with and you are also drying your boxes and pallets, along with a large amount of air flow in the warm rooms. Therefore, you have no idea how much moisture has been taken out of the honey,” the honey drying expert says.

“With honey only you measure the moisture content before starting, you know exactly how much to take off, and I can clearly state the honey was honey before we started, because it is not 25% moisture or something ridiculous.”

And those starting moisture levels count, Garcia says.

“A 20% honey with risk of fermentation can be reduced to 18%. It is not the same to reduce a couple of points as it is to reduce 10 percent,” the statement’s author clarifies.

“The aim of the honest beekeeper is to avoid fermentation, not for economic gain.”

Leave us Out

Indeed, one of four criteria required to constitute food fraud – as stated by the European Commission in 2018 and repeated in Apimondia’s recent statement – is ‘economic gain’.

“In New Zealand we remove moisture from honey not for economic gain, but to avoid economic loss, because if you don’t take it out the honey will ferment. It actually costs money to take it out, but it protects it from fermenting and blowing up,” Wright says.

“We are not talking about crazy high moisture levels in New Zealand, it is not economically motivated, it is consumer and product protection.”

The UMFHA CEO says he understands “where they are coming from”, but would like assurances from Apimondia that New Zealand is not the target of the latest broadside.

“They are trying to protect their industry and beekeepers from what they see as a threat from foreign producers basically harvesting nectar and turning it into honey. I totally get their intent and it makes sense from their point of view. But from our point of view, the detail around it is not quite right,” Wright says.

While the statement itself sets no regulatory standards to any markets, given the weight of Apimondia as a federation of many international beekeeping groups, it has potential to influence rule makers, honey traders and even the end consumer.

“It would be good for us to get it confirmed we are not the target of this document. I don’t think we are, but the way it is written it seems as if they are saying we can’t do what we are,” Wright says.

If the moisture content of honey is not managed appropriately, by either bees or humans, fermentation is a risk and thus honey drying is practised in New Zealand.

Ready to Listen

Garcia’s spoken words since the release of the statement have made clear that New Zealand’s honey industry is not the target, but he stands by the need for a written position of Apimondia on the issue of immature honey – or perhaps more accurately nectar – harvesting and drying.

“Sometimes beekeepers with the best intentions may surpass the limits. The limits sometimes look unfair, but are necessary,” the Argentinian professor of apiculture says.

“We represent beekeepers around the world and there are thousands of honey types and conditions. It is impossible to set a rule which suits every situation, every type of honey and region.”

If the New Zealand honey industry wishes for a clarification or addition to be made to the statement, “to remove misinterpretation” he says Apimondia “would be pleased to discuss it”.

“There may be exceptions, but those exemptions must be well surrounded by technical and scientific work,” Garcia says.

Should New Zealand’s honey industry wish to help tighten up the statement, Garcia says he will happily take the call.

“These statements are dynamic, not eternal. There is no final proof,” he says, adding, “there may be new conditions that make us change things”.