Hungarian honey falsified – this is how you can tell original from fake

Hungarian acacia honey’s price rose by 60 per cent between 2018 and 2021. Since it is a popular product, this type of honey became a target of fake honey makers. A Hungarian website gathered some tips on how you can identify the original Hungarian products. They also asked the National Food Chain Safety Office (Nébih) how they plan to stop the criminals.

It is good business to produce fake Hungarian honey

According to Pénzcentrum, the newest fake honey scandal broke at the end of 2021. Authorities reported then that they found fake jars of honey on the shelves of the Hungarian shops in huge quantities. József Klenáncz was in the focus of the scandal who the court convicted for selling fake honey before.

Moreover, fake Chinese honey is also present in the EU market. That is why pénzcentrum found out how you could tell the original from the fake products. 

• Read also: Prices of products in Hungary skyrocketed in the past 3 years

The cause of the falsification is that the price of honey rose significantly in the last few years. One kg of acacia honey cost 600 HUF (2.5 EUR) more in 2020 than in 2019. That rose by another 600 HUF between 2020 and 2021. As a result, in 2021 January, honey cost 33 per cent more than in 2019.

But that was only the tip of the iceberg. By November, the price of acacia honey increased shockingly. The average price per kg was 4,640 HUF (13 EUR), which went up to 5,640 HUF (15.8 EUR). That meant a 22 per cent price increase in just ten months. As a result, the cost of acacia honey rose by 62 per cent between 2019 and 2021, which means a plus 2,100 HUF (5.88 EUR) per kg. Thus, it is not surprising that more jumped into the fake honey industry in the last three years.

Here is how you can tell the original from the fake one

One way of making fake honey is to mix the nectar of the Robinia pseudoacacia and the nectar of some flowers. The Nébih said that the latter is much cheaper than the former, so the profit is significant. The authority added that they found labelling problems, as well. For example, some shops did not properly mark the place of production and origin.