EU labelling rules for honey

KEY POINTS

The directive supplements the general EU rules set down in Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on the labelling of foodstuffs.

Essential consumer information must be included on labels, and, in particular, labels must include the country of origin of the honey and the product names, as set out in Annex I.

Definition

Honey is a natural sweet substance produced by Apis mellifera bees from the nectar of plants, the secretions of living parts of plants or the excretions of plant-sucking insects on plants. Bees collect it, transform it by combining it with specific substances of their own, deposit it, dehydrate it, store it and leave it in honeycombs to ripen and mature.

Composition

When commercialised as honey or used in a product intended for human consumption, honey must meet the composition criteria set out in the directive’s Annex II.

Since pollen is a natural constituent (rather than an ingredient) of honey and provides a link to its botanical origin, it can give indications as to the geographical origin of the honey. Amending Directive (EU) 2024/1438 grants the European Commission powers to adopt delegated acts in respect of the criteria to determine the floral, vegetable or geographic origin of honey and to ensure that honey has not been heated in such a way that natural enzymes have been destroyed or significantly deactivated and that pollen has not been removed from honey.

Labels

The product names referred to in Annex I, points 2 and 3, will apply only to the products defined therein. Those names may be replaced by the simple product name honey (except in the case of filtered honey¹, comb honey², chunk honey or cut comb in honey³ or bakers honey’⁴). However, in the case of baker's honey, the words 'intended for cooking only' must appear on the label.

Information on regional, territorial or topographical origin, on floral or vegetable origin or on specific quality criteria may supplement this labelling (except for filtered honey and bakers honey’).

Where honey originates in more than one EU Member State or a non-EU country, the indicator of the country of origin may be replaced by one of the following indications, as appropriate:

• blend of EU honeys,
• blend of non-EU honeys,
• blend of EU and non-EU honeys.

From 14 June 2026, the rules introduced by amending Directive (EU) 2024/1438 will apply. The country or countries of origin will need to be indicated in descending order on the label, and the percentage of each origin in the case of blends will need to be provided, with a tolerance of 5 % for each individual part within the blend, calculated on the basis of the operator’s traceability documentation.

In the case of blends of honeys with more than four different countries of origin, Member States may offer the possibility to indicate this in percentage terms for only the four largest parts, provided that these together represent more than 50 % of the total. The other countries of origin must be indicated in descending order.

For packages containing net quantities of honey of under 30 grams, the names of the countries of origin may be replaced by two-letter ISO codes (alpha-2).

To support the Commission with the best available technical expertise, a platform will be established to:

• gather data for methods to improve authenticity controls of honey;
• provide recommendations for an EU traceability system that ensures the availability of access to essential information on the origin of honey;
• provide recommendations on the possible update of the composition criteria for honey laid down in the directive; and
• provide recommendations with a view to establishing an EU reference laboratory.