The Guardian reporting fake honey

There was an article on The Guardian last week, reporting that a lot of honey across the UK and Europe contains sugar syrup. Understandably, our customers are concerned about this and expect better!

We created Just Bee to be a little different from the major honey companies. We were tired by the endless reports of fake honey, dubious practices and honey that tasted like syrup. So we set out to make the best tasting and highest quality honey products that have a positive impact on bees, the people we deal with and the wider environment too.

It all starts with the honey. Before sending anything out, we make sure it meets a strict Just Bee specification. This includes taste, consistency, provenance and some fancy technical parameters. We thoroughly check all our suppliers to ensure we are receiving the highest quality ingredients. We look for accreditations, high food safety standards, and of course nice people to work with :-).

A series of tests are performed on our honey to ensure it meets the Just Bee criteria. We are testing for the freshness of the honey, its authenticity (i.e. no sugar syrup), the consistency, the vitamin levels and the antibacterial levels. Yes, that’s a lot of tests, but we take our honey very seriously and want to make sure you are getting the best quality product!

Every new batch of honey is taste tested by our founder Joe before approving it – it’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it! We are looking for honey that is a light amber colour, has a medium strength and sweetness and a profile which balances well with our active ingredients. Most of our products use a blend of wildflower and acacia honey. Wildflower honey means the bees have foraged on a variety of flowers, blossoms and other plants. This gives a rich flavour which is consistent all year round. Acacia honey is a lighter honey, which adds sweeter notes.

Hopefully this statement provides reassurance to our customers, and we will continue to be ultra vigilant in sourcing our honey.