Argentine Beekeepers' Magazine

(Espacio Apícola, September 24th, 2025)The debate on how to determine the authenticity of honey is central these days at APIMONDIA Congress.

First, the European Commission is seeking to adjust its analytical methods following the concern generated, both in official circles and among European beekeepers, by the studies published by this Commission in March 2023 (Espacio Apícola magazine #145).

Second, many of these beekeepers, members of the EPBA (European Professional Beekeepers Association), have openly confronted honey packers who import adulterated honey or products that mimic honey to dilute genuine honey. This is supported by the new DNA metagenomic analyses of honey conducted by the Estonian laboratory Celvia, which we published in the same issue of E.A. #145.

The establishment of importers, exporters, laboratories, and some industry leaders responded to this proposal by pointing out that the CELVIA laboratory database was insufficient, partly as a wake-up call in the face of inconsistent results and partly, apparently, to justify the comfort of many in continuing with the current official analyses, even when they admit adulteration of around 20% and when there are products exported from different countries suspected of fraud based on analyses such as those carried out within the framework of the "From the Hive" project promoted by the European Commission during 2021-2022.

A large group of European beekeeping associations, members of the recently formed Slovenian-based EBA (European Beekeeping Association), proposed what is intended to be an intermediate solution, returning to traditional analyses of moisture, HMF, acidity, proline, diastases, and other enzymes, but with the addition of analyses that rule out the possibility that these enzymes are produced by genetically modified organisms rather than by the bees' own physiology.

We raised both trends from the sectors closest to European producers in the recently published Espacio Apícola magazine #148.

In this context, a scenario of challenges and opportunities appears to be emerging.

Undoubtedly, the challenge is to develop a control system that guarantees the authenticity of honey. In the search for the most comprehensive, effective, efficient, and affordable analytical technique, emphasis is also placed on strict traceability controls that guarantee the authenticity of honey.

On the other hand, following the diversification strategy as Lucas Andersen has expressed in Espacio Apícola magazine #148, the opportunity that emerges may be to take advantage of the protocols of product differentiation from quality system certifications, organic, bio, GMP or others, incorporating metagenomic DNA analysis in honey that, in addition to revealing the biological origin of honey based on determining the absence of physiological processes unrelated to Apis mellifera as a method of determining genuineness, can simultaneously describe in great detail the botanical origin of that honey to certify honeys from areas free of GMOs and their associated technologies, monofloral honeys, the genuineness of honeys with a designation of origin or with a geographical indication (GI). To this purpose, certification protocols could begin by incorporating the submission of unprocessed honey samples, along with information from reference honey libraries and herbaria, to the laboratories that feed the databases of those providing analytical services.

In the photo illustrating the top of this article, Mr. Pedro Calderón is holding a honeycomb from which Mónica Cristina Wingenroth Grossenbacher PhD is extracting a sample of green honey for melisso-palynological study in La Asunción, Lavalle, Mendoza, during the 1999-2000 beekeeping season (Espacio Apícola magazine #41, January 2000). This image is a tribute to this beekeeper and this biologist, both deceased, for the enormous contribution they made to regional, Mendoza, and national beekeeping, as did so many other beekeepers and palynologists who have given and continue to give hierarchy to the products of the Argentine apiaries.

Fernando Esteban