The runny, squeezy, golden liquid you see on supermarket shelves may not be what you think it is. Beekeepers and honey experts allege that the UK has been inundated with fake honey – a blend of sometimes real bee-made honey mixed with sugary syrups.
The Observer has obtained and analysed more than 500 authenticity laboratory test results conducted on UK supermarket honey since 2018, commissioned by beekeepers and fraud investigators. They reveal how some of the country’s bestselling honeys have repeatedly failed tests to detect sugar syrups used to bulk out products.
Sarah Wyndham Lewis is a honey sommelier, an expert in the real product crafted by beekeepers. She fears the fake honey scam may be too big to stop.
For more, read Jon Ungoed-Thomas’s investigation, “The scandal of fake foreign honey”, and listen to The Slow Newscast, The Great British honey scandal.