Honey Authenticity

摘要

Honey is the only natural sweetener offered world-wide today, which has the status of being healthy for young and old. The authenticity of honey is defined by the Codex Alimentarius standard, the EU Honey Directive and the Swiss Food Directive. The Codex and the EU standards were recently revised. The changes in these standards, as well as their consequences for the Swiss Food Directive are discussed. The authenticity of honey has two different aspects: Authenticity in respect of honey production and authenticity in respect of descriptions such as geographical and botanical origin, "natural", "organic", "raw" and "harvested in the cold". The objective of this review is to examine the different authenticity issues and the methods used to prove the authenticity of honey, in order to enable a successful authenticity testing.