Raw Natural Honey

Honey is defined by Codex Standard CXS 12-1981 as the natural sweet substance produced by honey bees from the nectar of plants, or from secretions of living parts of plants or excretions of plant-sucking insects, which the bees collect, transform, deposit, dehydrate, store and leave in the comb to ripen. It consists essentially of fructose and glucose alongside organic acids, enzymes and solids picked up during collection. Typical honey is about 17% water and 82% carbohydrate, with fructose supplying roughly 51% and glucose roughly 44% of the total sugars; density runs 1.38-1.45 kg/L at 20 C and average pH is 3.9 across a 3.4-6.1 range. Functionally that makes it a fast-dissolving carbohydrate, a humectant, a browning agent and a flavour carrier in one material. The specification is where honey trades. Codex sets moisture at not more than 20%, fructose plus glucose at not less than 60 g/100 g for blossom honey and 45 g/100 g for honeydew honey and its blends, sucrose at not more than 5 g/100 g with defined floral exceptions, water-insoluble solids at not more than 0.1 g/100 g, free acidity at not more than 50 milliequivalents per 1000 g, diastase at not less than 8 Schade units after processing and blending, and HMF at not more than 40 mg/kg. Indian honey benefits from the tropical derogation: for honey of declared origin from countries or regions with tropical ambient temperatures, the HMF limit is 80 mg/kg. Electrical conductivity separates blossom honey (not more than 0.8 mS/cm) from honeydew and chestnut (not less than 0.8 mS/cm). Authenticity is checked by sugar profile under AOAC 977.20 and C4 sugar by stable carbon isotope ratio analysis under AOAC 991.41, and most EU and Japanese buyers now add foreign-oligosaccharide screening and NMR profiling on top. Origin and status matter for labelling. Honey is an animal-origin apiary product from Apis mellifera and Apis cerana indica, with wild lots from Apis dorsata; it is vegetarian by most definitions but it is not vegan, and any customer positioning a range as vegan must be told so in writing. It is naturally free from milk, egg, gluten, soy, fish, crustacean and nut allergens, though it contains natural pollen, and Codex forbids removing pollen except where unavoidable during removal of foreign matter. It also carries the standard label caution that honey is not given to infants under 12 months. Codex further requires that nothing be added to honey, not even food additives, which is a classification issue as much as a quality one. Export lots for the EU are processed in units approved by the Export Inspection Council of India and covered by the annual Residue Monitoring Plan for honey, with destination-specific health certificates issued against it.