How to choose honey in the UK: labels, origin, blends, prices and what testing really shows

To choose honey in the UK, read three things on the jar before anything else: the country of origin (one named country is easier to trust than “blend of honeys from more than one country”), the name and address of the producer or packer, and the price per kilo. Then choose by taste: a named floral honey such as lime, borage or heather tells you what to expect, and a jar from a registered local beekeeper tells you exactly where it was made. Ignore home “purity tests”, which do not work, and treat words like “raw” or “pure” as marketing rather than guarantees. This guide explains what the law requires on a label in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, what authenticity testing has and has not found, the honeys the UK actually produces, and what a fair price looks like in 2026.

How to choose honey: the short version

What to check	Good sign	Warning sign
1. Country of origin	one named country, ideally a region too	only “blend of honeys from more than one country”
2. Name of the honey	a reserved description or floral name that fits the price	vague names, invented “superfood” terms
3. Who made it	beekeeper’s or packer’s name and full address	no address, seller cannot say where the hives are
4. Price per kg	coherent with the origin and the flower	British floral honey priced like an import blend
5. Official signs	PGI logo, certified organic logo with a control body code	home-made “quality” badges
6. Claims	plain description	health promises, “100% natural miracle” wording

Two habits cover most of the ground: a precise origin is worth more than a vague one, and a price far below the going rate for that origin rarely has an honest explanation. The rest of this guide explains each point.

What must a honey label show in the UK?

The mandatory information

Composition and naming of honey are set by four almost identical sets of rules: the Honey (England) Regulations 2015, the Honey (Scotland) Regulations 2015, the Honey (Wales) Regulations 2015 and the Honey Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015. Business Companion, the Trading Standards guidance for England and Wales, lists what a prepacked jar must carry:

• The name of the food: “honey”, or one of the reserved descriptions below.
• Net quantity in metric units, in the same field of vision as the name. A 1 lb figure may be added, but it must not be more prominent than the metric one. This is why British jars say “454 g (1 lb)”.
• A best before date.
• The name and address of the producer, packer or seller.
• The country of origin where the honey was harvested, for example “Produce of England” or “Product of Scotland”.

Each jar should also carry a lot mark so a batch can be traced; a best before date showing the day and month can serve as one.

Reserved descriptions

The regulations reserve the word honey for the substance bees make from nectar or from secretions of living plants, with nothing added. The regulations also set the reserved descriptions you may see on a jar:

Description	What it means
Blossom honey (or nectar honey)	made mainly from flower nectar
Extracted honey	obtained by spinning uncapped, broodless combs in a centrifuge
Drained honey	obtained by draining uncapped, broodless combs
Honeydew honey	made mainly from honeydew, the sugary liquid left on leaves by sap-sucking insects
Comb honey	stored by the bees in freshly built comb without brood, or on thin sheets of pure beeswax foundation, and sold in the comb
Chunk honey (or cut comb in honey)	runny honey with one or more pieces of comb in the jar
Pressed honey	obtained by pressing the comb, the usual method for ling heather
Filtered honey (Great Britain only)	honey from which a significant share of the pollen has been removed by fine filtration
Baker’s honey	honey for industrial use or as an ingredient, which may have a foreign taste or have begun to ferment

Northern Ireland dropped “filtered honey” on 14 June 2026: there, honey that has lost a significant share of its pollen in processing can only be sold as baker’s honey. In England, Scotland and Wales, “filtered honey” remains a legal description in October 2026.

A floral name, such as lime honey, borage honey or oil seed rape honey, is allowed only if the honey comes wholly or mainly from that plant and has its characteristics. A regional or topographical name, such as “Cotswold honey”, is allowed only if the honey comes entirely from that place.

The same schedule sets compositional limits that any honey sold in the UK must meet: no more than 20% water for most honey and 23% for heather honey, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF, a breakdown product that rises with heat and age) no higher than 40 mg/kg in most cases, and a minimum diastase enzyme activity. They are one reason careful packers avoid overheating honey.

What a label should not claim

“Raw” has no definition in the UK honey regulations, and SRUC’s honey module for beekeepers advises against using it on a label, as it does for “organic”, which is difficult to prove without certification. Health claims are tightly restricted under general food law: only authorised claims may be used. If a jar promises to boost immunity or cure hay fever, the claim tells you about the marketing, not the honey. For what the evidence actually supports, see our page on the health benefits of honey.

Where does the honey come from? Origin, blends and the Northern Ireland change

Single-origin honey

A jar of British honey must say so. “Produce of England” or “Product of Wales” means the honey was harvested there, not just packed there. For a beekeeper selling from their own hives, origin is simple: one country, usually one county, often one season.

Blends in England, Scotland and Wales

Most honey on supermarket shelves is imported or blended, and the Food Standards Agency notes that imports and blends make up the majority of honeys on the UK market. In Great Britain, a jar that mixes honey from more than one country may still be labelled “blend of honeys from more than one country” as of October 2026, without naming the countries or their shares. That wording is legal, but it tells you very little.

Northern Ireland: countries and percentages since June 2026

Northern Ireland now works differently. Under the Windsor Framework it follows EU Directive 2024/1438, which the Breakfast Foods (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026 implement. Since 14 June 2026, a blend sold there must list every country of origin in the principal field of vision, in descending order of weight, with the percentage of each. A tolerance of 5% applies to each share, jars under 30 g may use two-letter country codes, and stock labelled before that date may be sold until it runs out. The same rules also removed “filtered honey” as a description in Northern Ireland.

The practical consequence is that the same supermarket blend can carry a vaguer label in Liverpool than in Belfast. A UK Parliament petition opened on 12 May 2026 asks for mandatory country of origin and percentage labelling for all honey sold in the UK; when we checked in October 2026 it had fewer than 100 of the 10,000 signatures needed for a government response.

Reading a blend label

• “Produce of England”: British honey, single origin.
• “Blend of honeys from more than one country”: at least two countries, unnamed, in unknown proportions. Legal in Great Britain.
• “Blend of honeys: Ukraine 60%, Argentina 30%, Mexico 10%” (an illustrative example): the Northern Ireland format since June 2026, also used voluntarily by some packers elsewhere.

A precise origin does not prove a honey is genuine, but it gives you, and the regulators, something to check.

“Packed in” is not “produced in”

Watch the difference between the country of origin and the packer’s address. A jar may show a Union flag, a British company’s name and a factory address in England while the origin line reads “blend of honeys from more than one country”. The packer’s address tells you who is legally responsible for the jar; only the origin line tells you where the bees were. The same applies to brand names that evoke a place, a county or a farm: a regional name is reserved for honey that comes entirely from that place, but an invented brand name is not a regional name. If the origin line and the imagery on the front of the jar seem to tell different stories, believe the origin line. Online listings are often worse than physical labels, because the origin may appear only in a photograph of the back of the jar; if you cannot find it, ask the seller before buying.

Is supermarket honey fake? What testing really shows

The EU “From the hives” survey

The best-known study is the European Commission’s coordinated action “From the hives”. Between November 2021 and February 2022, its Joint Research Centre tested 320 consignments of honey imported into the EU from 20 countries. It found 147 of them, or 46%, suspicious of adulteration, meaning likely to contain cheap sugar syrups. The JRC stressed that a single test is not enough to prove fraud, and the action was followed up with traceability checks at importers, blenders and packers.

Those results concern honey entering the EU, not jars on UK shelves, but much of the honey traded in Europe and the UK comes from the same global suppliers.

What UK government scientists say

The UK has no equivalent national survey with published failure rates. What it has is a clear statement of the problem:

• The Food Standards Agency wrote in February 2025 that “no single test can definitively confirm honey’s authenticity”. Government advice is to combine several lines of evidence, including traceability checks, when laboratory results are only indicative. The FSA, Defra and the Government Chemist have developed a protocol for collecting reference samples to build better authenticity databases, and Cranfield University tested two new screening methods (a portable laser technique and a DNA method for detecting added syrups) that were still proof of concept.
• In March 2026 the Government Chemist described “significant disagreement over the reliability and interpretation of current analytical methods” and said the extent of honey fraud remains uncertain because testing approaches are not harmonised. It named the two main frauds as dilution with sugar syrups and mislabelling of origin, particularly for imported, lower-cost and blended honeys.

In other words, nobody can say what share of honey on UK shelves is adulterated. Suspicion is concentrated on cheap imported blends, and the weak point is traceability.

Home tests do not work

Dissolving honey in a glass of water, burning it on a matchstick, watching how it pours or rubbing it on your thumb tells you about water content and temperature, not about purity. Modern adulteration uses syrups made from rice, wheat, beet or cassava that are designed to pass such tests and, as the Government Chemist notes, increasingly sophisticated fraud can evade even laboratory detection. A trustworthy origin and a supplier you can identify are better protection than any kitchen trick.

Blossom, honeydew or a single flower: choosing honey by taste

The UK produces a small but distinctive range of honeys, shaped by its maritime climate and its farmland. What you find in a local jar depends on the season and where the hives stand.

Honey	When it is harvested	What to expect
Oil seed rape	late May to June	very pale, mild, sets fast into a fine white cream; the classic base for soft set honey
Spring blossom (fruit, hawthorn, sycamore)	May to June	light, floral, often blended with rape
Borage	summer, in arable areas where it is grown as a crop	very pale and delicate
Clover and bramble	July	light amber, mild, the classic “English summer” honey
Lime (linden)	July, in towns and parkland	pale with a green tint, fresh minty note
Himalayan balsam	August to September	pale, sweet, fruity; from an invasive plant on riverbanks
Ling heather (Calluna vulgaris)	August to early September	reddish amber, strong, slightly bitter, jelly-like (thixotropic)
Bell heather (Erica cinerea)	July to August	port-wine coloured, runny, intense
Honeydew	variable, after aphid years on lime, oak or sycamore	dark, malty, less sweet

Most local honey is sold as “blossom honey” or simply “honey” because bees forage many plants at once. That is not a defect: a mixed summer honey from hedgerows and gardens is what most British beekeepers produce. A floral name is a promise that one plant dominates, so expect to pay more for it and expect the colour and flavour to match. Our guide to plants for bees explains where these flows come from, and harvesting honey explains why oil seed rape and heather need special handling.

Light or dark?

Colour follows the flower, not quality. Rape and borage honeys are almost white; heather and honeydew are dark. Dark honeys are usually stronger and richer in minerals and colour compounds, light ones milder. Choose for the use: a mild, light honey for tea and baking, a strong one for cheese, porridge or eating from the spoon.

Manuka and other imported speciality honeys

Manuka honey from New Zealand is the most expensive honey on UK shelves. New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries finalised a scientific definition in December 2017, combining five attributes (four chemicals from the nectar and one DNA marker from manuka pollen), to tell monofloral from multifloral manuka. It applies to honey exported as manuka, which must be tested by an MPI-recognised laboratory. The numbers on the jar are industry grades, not UK legal descriptions: MGO states the methylglyoxal content in mg/kg, while UMF is a trade association’s grading scheme. If you buy manuka, look for the New Zealand origin, a monofloral or multifloral statement and a grade, and remember that a high grade raises the price far more than it changes the taste.

Which UK honeys have a protected name?

Welsh Heather Honey / Mêl Grug Cymru

Welsh Heather Honey, also registered in Welsh as Mêl Grug Cymru, became a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) under the UK scheme on 31 March 2025, with an amendment adding the accent to its Welsh name approved on 21 April 2026. Its specification requires that:

• all hives stand in Wales, at least 3 miles from any Welsh border;
• the nectar comes wholly from Welsh heather moorland, mostly ling heather, although the specification admits that pure heather honey is rare and that bramble, gorse and rosebay willowherb often contribute;
• the honey is extracted by pressing rather than spinning, because of its thixotropic texture, is not pasteurised, is filtered only through a 200-micron mesh and is warmed to no more than 45 °C to move it.

The specification describes a reddish orange to dark amber honey with a gel-like, firm consistency that turns briefly liquid when stirred. Extraction and packing may take place outside Wales as long as the honey is traceable to its source. Look for the UK PGI logo and the exact protected name.

What a protected name adds

A PGI ties a name to a defined area and method, with checks on the producers who use it. It does not guarantee a better taste than a good unprotected heather honey from the North York Moors or the Scottish Highlands, which is sold under its ordinary reserved description, “heather honey”.

Organic honey: what the logo really means

Organic honey sold in the UK must come from an apiary certified by an approved control body, and the label carries that body’s code. The rules that still apply in Great Britain, in the retained version of Commission Regulation (EC) No 889/2008, require apiaries to be sited so that, within a radius of 3 km, nectar and pollen sources consist essentially of organically produced crops or spontaneous vegetation (or crops grown with low environmental impact methods). The rules also cover feeding, disease treatment and wax.

A 3 km radius covers more than 2,800 hectares, so in much of lowland Britain, where hives sit among conventionally farmed oil seed rape, wheat and grassland, an apiary will struggle to meet the rule. The organic logo tells you how the honey was produced; it does not tell you where. Read the origin line as carefully as you would on any other jar.

A beekeeper who keeps bees on moorland or in a nature reserve may have honey that is, in practice, from wild flowers, but may not call it organic without certification. SRUC’s module for Scottish beekeepers advises against the word for that reason: it is difficult to prove.

What should good honey cost in the UK in 2026?

Local honey

The most recent published survey of beekeepers’ selling prices is the Scottish Beekeepers Association’s 2024 Scottish Honey Survey, with 279 respondents:

Product (Scotland, 2024)	Average price
Runny honey, 1 lb (454 g) jar	£10.24
Set honey, 1 lb jar	£9.48
Ling heather honey, 1 lb jar	£12.10
Ling heather cut comb, per lb	£17.67

That puts local runny honey at roughly £22 per kg and heather honey at about £27 per kg. Prices in England and Wales are in the same range, with farm shops and urban markets at the top and farm gate sales at the bottom. The same survey recorded average yields of just under 22 lb of runny honey per hive and 8.4 lb of heather honey per hive in a poor summer, which helps explain why heather honey costs more.

Supermarket blends

At the other end of the shelf, a 340 g squeezy jar of own-brand clear honey cost £1.19 at a major supermarket in October 2026, or £3.50 per kg. That is about a sixth of the price of local runny honey. Such products are blends of imported honey; they must meet the same composition rules, but their low price reflects bulk honey traded on world markets at low prices.

How to reason about price

• British floral honey below about £6 for a 1 lb jar is either a very generous beekeeper or worth a question about where it came from.
• Imported single-origin honey from a named country costs more than an anonymous blend; that premium pays for traceability.
• Heather, comb and PGI honey cost more because yields are lower and the work is harder.
• Manuka prices rise steeply with the grade; compare price per gram at the same grade.

A high price does not prove authenticity, but a very low one, for a honey that claims a precise and premium origin, is the clearest warning sign you have.

Buying honey from a local beekeeper: questions worth asking

Buying directly is the simplest way to know what you are getting. A beekeeper selling honey runs a small food business. The National Bee Unit reminds beekeepers that honey for sale must comply with food safety law, and GOV.UK says food businesses must register with their local authority at least 28 days before trading; registration is free. Labels must follow the same rules as any packer’s.

Useful questions, which a genuine beekeeper will be glad to answer:

1. Where are your hives? A precise answer (a village, a farm, a moor) is the best sign.
2. When was this honey harvested? Spring and summer honeys from the same apiary taste quite different.
3. What were the bees foraging? Oil seed rape, lime, clover, heather or a mix.
4. Is it extracted, pressed or comb? Pressed and comb honeys are more work and cost more.
5. Is it warmed or filtered? Most hobby beekeepers simply strain through a coarse mesh, leaving pollen in the honey.
6. Are you registered with BeeBase? Registration with the National Bee Unit’s database (DataBees in Northern Ireland) is voluntary but encouraged, and it shows the beekeeper is part of the bee health inspection system. Our page on registering your bees explains how it works.

Local beekeeping associations, honey shows and farmers’ markets are good places to find producers. Prize cards from a honey show are a reasonable sign of care, since judges look closely at cleanliness and presentation.

Runny, set or crystallised: should you worry?

Crystallisation is normal

Almost all honey crystallises in time. How fast depends mainly on its glucose content and on temperature. Oil seed rape honey can set within days of extraction; clover sets within weeks; some honeys stay runny for many months. Crystallised honey is not spoilt, sugared or adulterated. Beekeepers turn this into a product: the Scottish Beekeepers Association’s data sheet on seeding honey explains how adding a small amount of finely crystallised honey to runny honey produces a smooth soft set honey rather than coarse, gritty crystals. Our page on crystallised honey explains the chemistry and how to make it smooth.

To make set honey runny again, stand the jar in warm water and stir. Avoid the microwave and boiling water: high temperatures raise HMF and destroy enzymes, the same changes the regulations limit.

Storing honey

• Keep the lid tight: honey absorbs moisture from the air, and wet honey can ferment.
• Store it in a cupboard at room temperature, away from the cooker. The fridge speeds crystallisation.
• Use a clean, dry spoon. Crumbs and water bring yeasts.
• The best before date reflects quality, not safety. Old honey darkens and loses aroma.

A precaution for babies

The NHS advises that honey should not be given to babies under 12 months, because it can contain bacteria that cause infant botulism. This applies to every honey, whatever its origin or price, and to honey used in cooking. Business Companion notes that members of the British Honey Importers and Packers Association voluntarily print “Unsuitable for children under 12 months” on their jars, and many beekeepers do the same.

Frequently asked questions

How can I tell if honey is real at home?

You cannot, reliably. The water glass, thumb and flame tricks do not detect the rice, wheat or beet syrups used in modern adulteration, and even laboratories struggle: the Food Standards Agency says no single test can definitively confirm a honey's authenticity. Rely on a named country of origin, a traceable producer, a price that makes sense and, where possible, a beekeeper you can talk to.

What does "blend of honeys from more than one country" mean?

It means the jar mixes honey harvested in at least two countries, without saying which or in what proportion. In England, Scotland and Wales this wording is still legal in October 2026. In Northern Ireland, new rules in force since 14 June 2026 require every country to be listed with its percentage, in descending order, although stock labelled earlier may still be on sale.

Is local honey better than supermarket honey?

Not automatically, but it is easier to trust. A jar from a named beekeeper carries one country of origin, often one area and season, and you can ask where the hives stand. Supermarket blends are usually legal and safe but mix honeys from several countries, which makes origin harder to check. Local honey also tastes of local flowers: oil seed rape in spring, clover and lime in summer, heather in August.

How much should a jar of local honey cost in the UK?

The 2024 Scottish Honey Survey found beekeepers charged an average of £10.24 for a 1 lb (454 g) jar of runny honey, £9.48 for set honey and £12.10 for ling heather honey, with heather cut comb at £17.67 per lb. English prices are broadly similar. A supermarket squeezy blend can cost about £3.50 per kg, roughly a sixth of the local price.

Is crystallised or set honey a sign of poor quality?

No. Crystallisation is natural and depends mainly on the glucose content of the honey and how cool it is stored. Oil seed rape honey can set within days, while some honeys stay runny for months. Beekeepers deliberately make soft set honey by seeding it with fine crystals. If you prefer it runny, stand the jar in warm water rather than microwaving it, which can overheat the honey.

What does organic honey mean in the UK?

It means the apiary was certified by an approved organic control body. The rules that apply in Great Britain require that, within a 3 km radius of the apiary, nectar and pollen come essentially from organic crops or wild vegetation, and they also govern feeding, treatments and wax. The logo does not tell you the honey is British, so check the country of origin as well.

Is Welsh heather honey a protected name?

Yes. Welsh Heather Honey, or Mêl Grug Cymru, was registered as a Protected Geographical Indication under the UK scheme on 31 March 2025. The hives must be in Wales, at least 3 miles from the border, and the nectar must come from Welsh heather moorland, mostly ling heather. Its specification describes a reddish orange to dark amber, thixotropic honey that is pressed rather than spun.

Can babies have honey?

No. The NHS advises that honey should not be given to babies under 12 months, because it can contain bacteria that cause infant botulism. This applies to every kind of honey: local, raw, organic, manuka and supermarket blends alike, and to honey used in cooking or on a dummy. Many UK packers print a voluntary line saying the honey is unsuitable for children under 12 months.

Sources

1. The Honey (England) Regulations 2015, Schedule 1: reserved descriptions and compositional criteria, legislation.gov.uk
2. Labelling of honey (quick guide for England and Wales, reviewed March 2026), Business Companion (Chartered Trading Standards Institute)
3. The Honey Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015: explanatory note, legislation.gov.uk
4. The Breakfast Foods (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026 (SR 2026 No. 5), legislation.gov.uk
5. Exploring new methods to protect honey authenticity in the UK (17 February 2025), Food Standards Agency
6. Understanding honey fraud and the role of authenticity testing (27 March 2026), Government Chemist, GOV.UK
7. Food fraud: how genuine is your honey? (results of the From the hives action, 2023), European Commission, Joint Research Centre
8. Welsh Heather Honey / Mêl Grug Cymru (protected food name, PGI), Defra, GOV.UK
9. Single document for Welsh Heather Honey / Mêl Grug Cymru, Defra, GOV.UK
10. Commission Regulation (EC) No 889/2008 as it applies in Great Britain, Article 13: siting of apiaries, legislation.gov.uk
11. Honey: beekeeping education module 10 (with notes), SRUC (Scotland's Rural College)
12. 2024 Scottish Honey Survey results, Scottish Beekeepers Association
13. Tesco Squeezy Clear Honey 340 g (price checked October 2026), Tesco
14. Technical Data Sheet 25: seeding honey, Scottish Beekeepers Association
15. Legal responsibility of beekeepers, National Bee Unit, APHA
16. Starting a food business, GOV.UK
17. Petition 767237: Improve origin labelling and enforcement against honey adulteration in the UK, UK Parliament Petitions
18. Ensuring mānuka honey is authentic (mānuka honey testing and science definition), Ministry for Primary Industries, New Zealand
19. Safe weaning: foods and drinks to avoid, NHS