Origin labelling for honey

Percentages of the countries of origin of honey in future instead of "EU/non-EU"

Dec 2025. The recent mandatory labelling of the origin of honey placed on the market only provided an imprecise indication of the country or countries of origin. The Europan Union now legally provides the indication of the country or countries of origin on the honey packaging including their percentage portion^[1].

We determine the type and origin of your honey using microscopic pollen analysis.

Why specify the labelling of origin?

Honey is a valuable and popular natural product. To meet demand, around 80% of German honey is imported from other countries. Both, imported and domestic honey must meet all the legal requirements of the European Honey Regulation.

Local beekeepers are under increasing competitive and price pressure from cheaper and allegedly inferior imported honey from outside the EU. The recent labelling requirement did not allow consumers to make an informed choice about the country of origin as it was not explicitly stated. As a result, the European Union introduced stricter guidelines for the labelling of honey.

What is changing?

At the end of January 2024, the European Parliament and the countries of the European Union agreed to not only identify the exact origin of honey, but also to indicate the percentage of honey from each country on the packaging of honey. The EU Honey Directive has been specified by amending directive (EU) 2024/1438 of 14 May 2024. Statements such as "blend of honey from EU countries and non-EU countries" are no longer permitted. The countries of origin of honey blends must be listed on the label in descending order, with the percentage of each country's origin. For packages containing 30 grams or less, the country of origin can be indicated with a country code. A tolerance range of 5% applies to blends.

The provisions of the directive must be transposed into national law by 14 December 2025 and applied from 14 June 2026 onwards.

How to determine the proportion of each country in the honey blend?

Eurofins Food Integrity Control Services GmbH is the Competence Centre for Honey Analysis of the German Eurofins Food & Feed Testing laboratory network and assists you in verifying the countries of origin and their proportions. We use globally recognised microscopic pollen analysis to determine the type and origin of your honey. For example, we compare your sample with the individual samples of raw materials you have provided, stating the mixing ratio, to confirm the accuracy of the labelling.

This is the aim of the new guidelines:

provide additional information on country of origin to help consumers make more informed purchasing decisions
protect consumers from poor quality honey
reduce fraudulent practices and increase transparency in the food chain
establish a traceability system and a reference laboratory to improve controls and detect fraud through systematic testing

Do you have any questions?

If you have any questions about the legal requirements for labelling honey or honey analysis, please get in touch with your personal account manager or contact our expert Dr Ghalia Kassem.

Relevant source:

[1] Directive (EU) 2024/1438 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 May 2024 amending Council Directives 2001/110/EC relating to honey, 2001/112/EC relating to fruit juices and certain similar products intended for human consumption, 2001/113/EC relating to fruit jams, jellies and marmalades and sweetened chestnut purée intended for human consumption, and 2001/114/EC relating to certain partly or wholly dehydrated preserved milk for human consumption