A significant portion of honey sold in British supermarkets is adulterated with cheaper syrups, posing health risks and defrauding consumers, while trustworthy, authentic brands exist at a higher price point.
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Millions of jars labeled honey are
anything but. And if you've been
spreading it on your toast, stirring it
into your tea, it could be silently
affecting your gut, your liver, and your
immune system. In today's video, we're
exposing 12 of the worst honey brands
sold in British supermarkets. Products
that look pure on the label, but failed
the tests in the laboratory. And at the
end, we'll reveal five of the cleanest,
most trustworthy honey brands you can
actually feel good about using. Plus,
I'll show you how to spot fake honey in
seconds just by reading the label. This
is the honey truth they don't want you
to hear. Let's start with number one.
Rouse blended honey. If there's one
honey brand every British household
recognizes, it's Rouse. The iconic
squeezy bottle, the friendly bee logo.
Britain's number one honey brand found
in virtually every supermarket in the
country. But turn that bottle around and
read what it actually says. Blend of
noneu honeys. That single phrase should
set off alarm bells. It means the honey
inside could come from anywhere on
Earth. China, Vietnam, Turkey, and you'd
never know. No country named, no region
identified, no beekeeper you can trace.
Rouse claims their honey is triple
tested and 100% pure. But here's what
they don't tell you. Reports suggest
Rouse may have stopped purchasing honey
from British beekeepers entirely. The
very company that built its reputation
on British honey now sources globally
from, in their own words, all major
honey producing continents, including
Asia. And when 77% of UK honey imports
come from China and 74% of Chinese honey
is suspected fraudulent, that blend of
non-EU honeys label starts to look very
different. The price tells its own
story. Ralph's British Oxfordshire
Wildflower costs two pounds per 100
grams. Their blended honey just 58 p per
100 grams. That's more than three times
cheaper. Ask yourself, how can one honey
cost a third of another from the same
company? The answer isn't efficiency.
It's what's actually in the jar. And if
Britain's biggest honey brand can't
guarantee what's inside their
bestselling products, what about the
supermarket owned brands millions of
families trust every week? The next one
might already be in your kitchen. Two,
Tesco clear honey. And their clear honey
sits on shelves in thousands of stores
bought by families who assume the Tesco
name means quality. But when researchers
tested supermarket own brand honeys
using over 240 tests per sample, Tesco
clear honey was specifically named among
those that failed. The tests detected
psychos, a sugar that does not exist
naturally in real honey. Its presence is
a direct marker of syrup adulteration.
They also found enzyme signatures. When
confronted with the evidence, Tesco
acknowledged that a more transparent
honey testing regime was required. Read
that again. Britain's biggest
supermarket admitted their testing
wasn't good enough. Yet, the same honey
remains on shelves today, still labeled
pure, still bought by millions who have
no idea what independent laboratories
found inside. The label says pure. The
science says otherwise. And if Tesco's
honey raised red flags, what about their
biggest rival just down the high street?
Three. Sainsbury's clear honey.
Sainsbury's positions itself as the
quality alternative, the supermarket for
shoppers who care about what they eat.
Their honey carries the same reassuring
pure label you'd expect. But in the same
investigation that flagged Tesco,
Sainsbury's Clear Honey was also named
among products showing markers of
adulteration. The tests revealed enzyme
signatures consistent with syrup
extension, not the natural enzymes you'd
find in genuine honey, but patterns that
suggest processing and dilution designed
to stretch real honey further while
keeping costs down. Sainsbury's taste
the difference range commands premium
prices, but their standard clear honey
follows the same blend of EU and non-EU
honeys formula that allows untraceable
origins and unverifiable quality.
Premium branding doesn't guarantee
premium honey. Sometimes it just means
premium profit margins on the same
questionable product. And speaking of
value propositions, Asda's promise to
British families is simple. Save money
every day. But what exactly are you
saving when you buy their honey? Four.
Asda set pure honey. Asda built its
brand on being the affordable choice for
hardworking families watching every
penny. Their set pure honey costs less
than many competitors. The label proudly
says pure, but that word means nothing
without testing to back it up.
Independent analysis specifically named
Asda set pure honey among supermarket
products containing psychos, that
telltale marker of sugar syrup
adulteration. The same tests found
enzyme irregularities, suggesting the
product had been extended with cheap
sweeteners. Here's what makes this
particularly troubling. Asda shoppers
are often families on tight budgets.
People who can least afford to waste
money on products that aren't what they
claim to be. They're paying for honey
and receiving something else entirely.
The savings on the receipt are an
illusion. When the jar contains diluted
product, you're not getting value.
You're getting less honey for your money
stretched with syrups that cost a
fraction of the real thing. And Asda
isn't alone among budget friendly
options. The Co-op has built decades of
trust as the ethical choice, but their
honey tells a different story. Five.
Co-op clear honey. The cooperative has
positioned itself as the supermarket
with principles. fair trade, ethical
sourcing, community values. But Co-op
Clear Honey appeared in the same
investigation that exposed the other
major supermarkets. Testing revealed the
same markers, psychos contamination,
enzyme irregularities, signatures of
syrup adulteration.
Nine out of 13 supermarket owns tested
contained psychos. 10 out of 13 showed
enzyme markers indicating adulteration
with inverted syrup. The co-op was among
them. Ethical branding and actual
product quality are two very different
things. You can have values printed on
your website and still sell honey that
fails laboratory analysis. The question
isn't whether supermarkets mean well.
It's whether their supply chains can
actually deliver genuine honey when the
global market is flooded with
sophisticated fakes and the profit
incentive to cut corners is enormous.
If the ethical supermarket can't
guarantee authentic honey, what about
the discount chains where price is
everything? Six. Aldi Bramwell's honey.
Aldi's promise is simple. Same quality,
lower prices. Their Bramwell's honey
range sits alongside branded competitors
at a fraction of the cost. It sounds
like a smart choice for budgetconscious
shoppers, but there's a price point
where the mathematics simply cannot
work. When you see honey selling for 75
a jar, you're not looking at a bargain,
you're looking at a warning sign. Real
honey costs approximately £350 per
kilogram at wholesale minimum. That's
the flaw for genuine product. Rice
syrup, the adulterant of choice because
it evades standard testing, costs just
40 to 60 per kilogram. Do the maths. At
75 p retail after packaging, transport
and retailer margins, what could
possibly be left for actual honey? As
master beekeeper Lynn Ingram bluntly
states, "If you see honey for as little
as 75p a jar, it's too good to be true."
Aldi's Bramwell's honey carries the
familiar blend of EU and non-EU honeys
label. No countries named, no
traceability, no way to verify what's
actually inside. The discount isn't a
miracle of efficiency. It's a reflection
of what you're actually buying. And
Aldi's German rival follows exactly the
same playbook.
Seven, Little Blossom Honey. Little and
Aldi compete head-to-head on price, and
their honey strategies are virtually
identical. Little's Blossom Honey sits
at similar rock bottom prices with the
same blend of non-EU honeys labeling
that hides the true origin of what's
inside. The discount supermarket model
depends on ruthless cost cutting. And
when 77% of UK honey imports come from
China at just18
per kilogram versus 19 pounds per
kilogram for quality manuka. The
sourcing decisions write themselves.
These aren't bad businesses. They're
rational businesses operating in a
market where adulterated honey is
cheaper, harder to detect, and faces
virtually no enforcement.
The problem isn't the supermarkets. It's
the system that allows fraudulent honey
to flood British shelves while
regulators look the other way. Eight.
Morrison's own brand honey. Their honey
range includes everything from budget
basics to premium options. But flip
those jars around and you'll find the
same story. Blend of EU and non-EU
honeys. No countries specified. No
percentages given, no traceability to
any specific source. The EU passed new
regulations in 2024 requiring exact
country of origin labeling with
percentages in descending order. France,
Germany, and Spain must now tell
consumers precisely where their honey
originates. Britain left before those
protections took effect. Our labels can
still hide everything behind that vague
blend wording. Morrisons could
voluntarily adopt transparent labeling.
They could name their source countries
and percentages. They choose not to.
When a company can tell you exactly
where their beef comes from, which farm
raised their chickens, but won't
identify the countries in their honey,
you have to ask why. The answer usually
involves supply chains that wouldn't
survive scrutiny. Now, let's talk about
a category that might surprise you.
Nine. Holland and Barrett Manuka Honey.
Holland and Barrett is Britain's trusted
health food retailer. When you walk into
their stores, you expect products that
actually deliver on their wellness
promises. Their Manuka honey sits in
prominent displays commanding premium
prices of £20 to £60 per jar. But Manuka
honey has a mathematics problem that
should concern every buyer. New Zealand
produces just 1,700
tons of genuine Manuka honey each year.
Yet approximately 10,000 tons are sold
globally. As Australian beekeepers note,
10 times more Manuka honey is sold in
the world than is produced. When
researchers tested Manuka products sold
in the UK, only 1 in 7 was authentic.
That's a mere 14% genuiness rate for a
product selling at premium prices. The
UMF and MGO ratings that supposedly
guarantee quality can be manipulated.
Synthetic methyl gioxel can be added to
boost MGO readings artificially. Without
rigorous third-party verification, that
expensive jar of Manuka might contain
ordinary honey with added chemicals.
You're paying £40 or more for what you
believe is medicinal honey with unique
antibacterial properties. But if only
14% of tested products were genuine,
you're probably paying premium prices
for standard honey with a premium label.
The trust you place in health food
retailers isn't matched by the supply
chain reality. And speaking of trusted
health retailers, pharmacies might seem
like safe havens for genuine products.
10. Boots own brand honey. The pharmacy
setting creates a powerful assumption of
quality that the product itself may not
deserve. You wouldn't expect a pharmacy
to sell fake vitamins, so you don't
question whether their honey is real.
But the honey section isn't regulated
like the pharmacy counter. There's no
pharmacist checking authenticity.
There's no controlled supply chain.
There's just the same blend of EU and
non-EU honeys appearing on pharmacy
shelves as supermarket shelves. The
white coat and the clean aisles create
an illusion of medicalrade quality. But
the jar contains whatever the global
honey market supplied, subject to the
same 100% failure rate in EU testing as
every other British honey sample. Trust
should be earned, not assumed from the
retail environment. 11. Gales honey.
Gales has been a household name in
British honey for generations. The brand
recognition runs deep. Your parents
probably bought Gales. Your grandparents
certainly did. But heritage branding and
current product quality are two very
different things. Today's Gales Honey
follows the same patterns as every other
mass market brand. Blended origins,
untraceable supply chains. Prices that
suggest adulteration is the only way the
economics can work. The squeeze bottles
and familiar packaging create nostalgia,
but the product inside has evolved along
with the global honey fraud epidemic.
What was genuine honey decades ago may
now be the same adulterated blend
flooding every other British brand.
Legacy means nothing when supply chains
change. The gales your grandmother
trusted isn't necessarily the gales on
shelves today. 12. Iceland Clear Honey.
Iceland built its reputation as the
freezer specialist serving British
families on budgets. Their honey isn't a
flagship product. It's just another
grocery item priced to move, sourced to
maximize margins. At Iceland's price
points, the same mathematical
impossibility applies. Genuine honey
cannot reach retail shelves at these
prices after all costs are covered.
Something has to give, and that
something is authenticity. The
investigation that found 96% of
supermarket honey suspicious didn't
distinguish between premium retailers
and budget chains. The contamination is
marketwide. Iceland operates in that
same contaminated market with the same
contaminated supply chains. Budget
retailers aren't villains. They're
responding to consumer demand for lower
prices, but lower prices funded by
adulteration aren't savings. They're
fraud transferred from the supply chain
to your kitchen cupboard. But you don't
have to wait for regulators. Here are
the five trustworthy honey brands. For
guaranteed British honey, the London
Honey Company sets the standard. Every
jar contains 100% British honey sourced
from over 500 apiaries across the United
Kingdom. Their honey is unpasteurized
and cold filtered, preserving the
natural enzymes, pollen, and beneficial
compounds that fake honey destroys
through ultrarocessing.
They never blend with imported product.
At 8 to10 per 250 grams, the price
reflects what genuine British honey
actually costs to produce. Remember, UK
beekeepers can't compete with 18 per
kilogram Chinese imports on price. They
can only compete on authenticity.
You'll find London Honey Company at John
Lewis, Abel and Cole, Fortn Mason, and
their own website. When the jar costs
what real honey should cost, you know
you're buying the real thing. Three.
Chainbridge Honey Farm. Operating since
1948 near the Scottish border in North
Sumberland, Chainbridge Honey Farm
represents British beekeeping heritage
done right. They produce honey from 1,500
1,500
to 1,800 of their own hives. Not sourced
globally, not blended anonymously. Their
own bees, their own apiaries, complete
traceability guaranteed. This is what
honey looked like before global supply
chains made fraud profitable. A family
operation, decades of expertise, and
absolute certainty about what's in every
jar. You can visit the farm, see the
bees, and meet the beekeepers. Try doing
that with a blend of non-EU honeys.
Four, black bee honey. Black bee honey
has earned BC Corp certification while
focusing exclusively on single origin
British honey. No blending, no anonymous
imports. Every jar traces to a specific
British location. They direct 2% of
their turnover to creating wildflower
meadows for bees. They're not just
selling honey. They're actively
supporting the British bee population
that makes genuine honey possible. Five
local BBKA beekeepers. The British
Beekeepers Association represents over
30,000 members across the country. Many
sell honey locally at farmers markets,
farm shops, and directly from their
apiaries. Visit bbbka.org.uk
UK and use their beekeeper finder to
locate producers near you. When you buy
directly from a local beekeeper, you get
absolute certainty about authenticity.
You can meet the producer. You can see
the hives. You can ask questions no
supermarket could ever answer. Local
honey also offers potential benefits for
hay fever sufferers as it contains
pollen from plants in your specific
area. That's impossible with imported
blends that remove all pollen to hide
their origin. The BBKA's chair put it
simply. We will continue to champion the
benefits of local honey in an era of
increasing debate over the composition
of imported honey. When the debate is
this heated, the safest choice is the
producer you can actually meet. Now, let
me show you exactly how to protect
yourself. Read the label like a
detective. The single most important
thing you can do takes three seconds.
Flip the jar and find the origin
statement. If it says blend of EU and
noneu honeys, put it back. That phrase
legally hides any country on Earth,
including the 77% of UK imports that
come from China. If it says blend of
noneu honeys, that's even worse. It
might as well say origin unknown,
possibly fraudulent. What you want to
see, a specific country. Better yet, a
specific region. Best of all, a specific
beekeeper or apiary you can actually
verify. Product of UK means British bees
and British production. That's
trustworthy. Packed in UK means
absolutely nothing. Only the packaging
happened here. The honey could come from
anywhere. The price test. Real honey has
a floor price that genuine products
cannot go below. Wholesale honey costs
approximately £350 per kilogram minimum.
After packaging, transport, retailer
margins, and profit. Genuine honey
cannot reach retail shelves below about
£5 per kilogram. When you see 340 g jars
for 75, the mathematics doesn't work.
Something other than honey is filling
that jar. Use this rule of thumb.
Genuine British honey costs £8 or more
per standard jar. Quality single origin
imports cost5 to8.
Anything under2
almost certainly indicates adulteration.
The discount isn't a bargain. It's a
warning. The clarity test. Look at the
honey through the jar. Real honey isn't
perfectly clear. It often has slight
cloudiness from natural pollen and tiny
particles of beeswax.
The color can vary from pale gold to
deep amber depending on what flowers the
bees visited. Fake or ultra filtered
honey is crystal clear, uniform color,
almost glassy appearance. That unnatural
clarity means it's been processed. When
honey looks too perfect, it probably
isn't real. The crystallization test.
Put your honey jar in the refrigerator
for several days. Watch what happens.
Real honey crystallizes naturally. It
forms fine uniform crystals almost like
soft granulated sugar. This is normal
and actually indicates authentic
product. Fake honey, especially honey
extended with corn or rice syrup, often
won't crystallize at all. Or it
separates into a watery layer on top and
a sugary layer below. Or it forms
coarse, clumpy crystals, very different
from natural crystallization. If your
honey stays perfectly liquid and runny
in the fridge for weeks, that's
suspicious. Real honey thickens and
crystallizes over time. The water test.
Drop a spoonful of honey into a glass of
room temperature water. Don't stir. Real
honey sinks straight to the bottom and
stays together in a mass. It won't
dissolve immediately. If you gently
swirl the water, genuine honey still
dissolves very slowly. Fake or syrup
extended honey dissolves quickly. It
spreads through the water creating
sugary streaks. It behaves like the
sugar syrup it actually is. The spoon
test. Dip a spoon into the honey and
lift it up slowly. Watch how it falls.
Real honey is thick and viscous. It
forms a continuous thread or ribbon that
may curl at the end before breaking. It
flows slowly and holds together. Fake
honey is thinner and runnier. It breaks
into droplets immediately and falls
straight down like commercial syrup. The
paper test. Put a drop of honey on a
paper towel or plain white napkin. Wait
1 minute. Pure honey is thick and will
hold its shape. It barely soaks through,
if at all. Diluted honey with high water
content spreads rapidly. It seeps into
the paper, leaving a noticeable wet
ring. If the honey soaks straight
through and spreads like water, it's not
pure. Every time you pick up a jar
labeled blend of EU and noneu honeys,
you're gambling and the odds say you're
losing. But now you know what to look
for. You know which brands have failed
the tests. You know which producers you
can actually trust. You know the price
points where genuine honey is possible
and where it isn't. The regulators
aren't protecting you. The supermarkets
aren't protecting you. The global supply
chain certainly isn't protecting you,
but you can protect yourself. Buy from
producers you can verify. Pay what real
honey actually costs. Read the labels
that hide the truth. Real honey is worth
finding. It contains enzymes,
antioxidants, and beneficial compounds
that fake honey destroys.
It supports British beekeepers instead
of fraudulent import operations. Which
one surprised you the most? Drop your
experience in the comments. And if you
want to watch a video like this one,
click the video on the screen. Thanks
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