Statement on the press release of the European Professional Beekeepers Association and the German Professional and Commercial Beekeepers Association

Oct 10, 2024 | Speeches and publications

Dear Sir or Madam

FoodQS GmbH is an internationally active, accredited service laboratory with more than 25 years of experience in the field of honey analysis. Testing honey samples for the unauthorized addition of foreign sugars using the latest technologies is part of our daily routine, with over 10000 samples per year from all over the world. Our high level of investment in research and development, participation in national and international committees and attendance at specialist conferences ensure that we are always up to date with the latest developments in the field of adulteration analysis.

We recently learned of the presentation published by the European Beekeeping Association on September 28, 2024 entitled: ‘80% OF FAKE HONEY IN GERMANY – European Professional Beekeepers Association – EPBA action “Clean up the honey market ”, which has since been reproduced many times via various channels (social media, national and international press releases, private and public media, websites, etc.).

In the following, we would like to make a statement on this in order to provide our perspective on the claims made in the video. As the topic is extremely complex, we will first summarize the main conclusions of the statement in brief bullet points. The appendix features the in-depth version, going into aspects in detail, which are backed up with the respective sources.

  • 30 honeys from German supermarkets are not representative of the entire German honey market. Therefore, sensational statements such as “80% OF FAKE HONEY IN GERMANY” are false!
  • The honey database used by the Estonian laboratory does not provide a comprehensive and reliable overview of honeys in international trade and blends of these.
  • The DNA method used lacks decisive information regarding method validation, accreditation, evaluation and the underlying database.
  • No information is available on whether and how well the method is suitable for detecting adulteration, as is usual for other established methods (e.g. spiking tests with syrup).
  • It is questionable to what extent the criteria DNA profile, DNA quantity or DNA quality allow clear conclusions to be drawn about adulteration. There is a lack of solid scientific evidence.
  • Statements that adulteration can be detected solely on the basis of the taste of the honey sample are false and we consider them to be dubious.

In summary, we rate the presentation as extremely critical and harmful to consumers and all companies/institutions concerned. Finally, we would also like to emphasize that the unscientific approach shown here discredits the long, intensive and elaborate work of accredited service laboratories for honey analysis.

The FoodQS team

Detailed statement as download:

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