Alongside the measurements a beekeeper makes, laboratory analyses determine the composition and purity of bee products.

What is determined in honey

• Moisture content: The most decisive property
• The ageing marker: Rises with heating and long storage
• Enzyme activity: Falls with heating
• Sugar composition: Used in detecting adulteration
• Pollen content: For botanical and geographical origin
• Electrical conductivity: Among other things to distinguish honeydew honey

What you use it for

• Substantiating a single-source claim
• Defending an origin claim
• When supplying a buyer who requires it
• To know what your bees actually worked

That last often differs from what the beekeeper assumed and is useful for planning forage and sites.

The limits of analysis

Modern syrups are manufactured to resemble honey. Simple analyses do not see the difference, and detection lags behind the methods of adulteration.

Honey is also naturally variable: composition differs by plant, region and season. That spread makes a fixed limit value difficult.

What the beekeeper must do first

No analysis repairs what went wrong at harvest:

• Harvest separately by flow period and apiary
• Strain coarsely; over-filtration erases the pollen and with it the origin
• Keep records: apiary, period, forage
• A representative sample from the batch, not from one jar

Residue testing

Residues of veterinary medicines can also be determined, in honey and in wax. For anyone pursuing a closed wax cycle, that is the way to know whether it is genuinely clean.

Regulation

Rules on single-source designations and origin labelling differ by country and are revised. Consult current legislation before making a claim.