Beekeepers stung! EU orders a pollen warning on honey jars



Sticky situation: A jar of Rowse honey, which is set to get more expensive because of increased costs

It is, you might think, one of nature’s purest delicacies. But not for the labelling police of the EU.



Under new regulations, jars of honey will have to be marked ‘contains pollen’ – a move experts have branded ludicrous, and say could put some British beekeepers out of business.



It will also have to undergo expensive tests to prove it does not contain unauthorised genetically modified pollen.



Until now, honey had always been considered an entirely unadulterated product for the purposes of food labelling.



But the European Court of Justice has decreed that pollen is an ingredient of honey rather than an intrinsic component.

It means that products will, for the first time, have to carry a list of ingredients such as ‘honey (contains pollen)’.



Britain’s biggest supplier of retail honey, Rowse, said that the bill for re-labelling and testing its entire range will run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

John Howat, secretary of the Bee Farmers’ Association, which represents Britain’s 300 commercial beekeepers, said: ‘This ruling is a real nuisance.



‘ The idea that pollen is an ingredient of honey is nonsense. Pollen is integral to honey. Bees collect nectar and pollen. When they are storing it away pollen gets into the nectar and hence into the honey.’



Un-bee-lievable: Beekeepers face a raft of new regulations which they say will hit them hard

The ruling came after a German amateur beekeeper found small amounts of GM pollen in his honey. He sued the state of Bavaria, which owned trial GM maize plots near his hives, for damaging his produce.



HONEY IS 'AN INGREDIENT'

The UK's Food Standards Agency has written to leading industry figures to tell them what they need to do.

Sandy Lawrie, head of its novel foods unit, wrote: 'The Commission held meetings at the end of September with representatives from honey exporting countries and with EU stakeholders.

'They confirmed that the implications of the ECJ ruling are clear in that: pollen is regarded as both a component of honey and an ingredient, as defined in food labelling legislation.

'Honey should therefore be labelled with a list of ingredients.

'If some or all of the pollen is from a GM source, it should be labelled accordingly unless it is exempt under the 0.9 per cent threshold.

'This proportion is calculated in relation to the total pollen content of the product.

'The Commission's Joint Research Centre is evaluating methods for extracting pollen DNA from honey.'



His case ended in the ECJ reclassifying pollen as a food ingredient, in a ruling that cannot be appealed.

Anyone who sells honey to the public, including Britain’s 40,000 amateur beekeepers, faces tests.



Suppliers whose pollen is found to be more than 0.9 per cent GM must undergo full safety authorisation and label their honey accordingly.



But experts say it is unlikely that any honey produced in Britain will contain that level of GM pollen – and claim scientists cannot quantify the content of pollen to that degree of accuracy.



Patrick Robinson, of Oxfordshire-based firm Rowse, said: ‘There is a tiny amount of GM pollen all round the world now. But beekeepers do not tend to put their hives next to cultivated crops.’



He added: ‘To say honey contains pollen is like saying peanuts contain nuts…This could be really damaging to smaller producers and beekeepers.



‘If they have to add on a £200 test for every batch of honey that they pack, it could be more than their profit and run them out of business.’



The European Commission is expected to finalise the regulations over the next year.

Richard Ashworth MEP, Conservative spokesman on Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said: 'We must seek some common sense in the implementation of this ruling from the ECJ. It is impossible to trace all pollen and prove that it is not GM.



'It is ludicrous to make beekeepers legally accountable. The likely outcome is that all honey will have to be labelled as GM to avoid this or to seek some sort of tolerance level. Only two types of GM crop are currently being grown in some EU countries, an insect resistant maize and potatoes with modified starch content for industrial use, neither of which are suitable for growing in the UK.'