Honey Regulation (Germany)
Lexikon
The Honey Regulation (Honigverordnung) is the central legal basis for honey in Germany and transposes the European Honey Directive into national law.
The Honey Regulation (Honigverordnung) is the central legal basis for honey in Germany and transposes the European Honey Directive into national law. Among other things, it defines what may be called honey at all, which types of honey exist, and what information must appear on the label. Under the regulation's definition, honey is the naturally sweet substance that honey bees produce from the nectar of plants or from the secretions of plant-sucking insects on living plant parts, by collecting it, transforming it with substances of their own, and ripening it in the hive.
Among other things, the regulation distinguishes between blossom honey, honeydew honey, comb honey, drained honey, extracted honey, pressed honey and baker's honey, and requires every label to state the country of origin, or, for blends, all countries involved in descending order of their share by weight. Expressly prohibited are the addition of substances foreign to honey, an artificially altered degree of acidity, and excessive heating that significantly or completely destroys the enzymes in the honey. Drying honey with technical equipment is likewise not permitted under the regulation, because this removes something from the honey, which contradicts its requirements.
It is important to clearly distinguish the Honey Regulation from the voluntary German Honey Guidelines (Leitsätze), and even more so from the stricter quality standards of the German Beekeepers' Association (Deutscher Imkerbund). While the Honey Regulation represents the binding statutory minimum requirement for all honey in Germany, non-compliance with which can be an administrative offense or even a criminal offense, the association's requirements are a voluntary trade-association standard that only beekeepers who want to sell their honey under the trademark 'Real German Honey' (Echter Deutscher Honig) have to meet.