FSSAI notifies standards for honey to curb adulteration

Food Safety and Standards Authority (FSSAI) has notified food safety standards for honey and its products in a bid to curb adulteration.

• These standards will be applicable to both domestic manufacturers and importers.
• It will help farmers to fetch better prices for their products.

Key Features of new standards:

• It defines honey as a natural sweet substance produced by honey bees from nectar of blossoms or from secretions of plants, which honey bees collect, transform and store in honeycombs for ripening.
• Honey products should comply with 18 parameters like that of sucrose content, glucose ratio, pollen count, foreign oligosaccharides etc.
• These products should contain fixed maximum 5% limit for sucrose, 10% for carviacallosa and honeydew honey.
• The moisture percentage should be maximum 20% and pollen count should be 25,000 per gram.
• If product is sold as honey then food ingredients, including food additives should not be added to it.
• Honey should not be heated or processed to such extent that its essential composition is changed and its quality is impaired.
• Honey can be labelled according to the floral or the plant source, if it comes from any particular source and has organoleptic, physicochemical and microscopic properties corresponding with its origin.
• In case of 'Monofloral Honey', minimum pollen content of plant species concerned should not be less than 45% of total pollen content.
• In case of 'Multi Floral Honey', pollen content of any of plant species should not exceed 45% of total pollen content.

Interesting to know:

• About 90,000 tonnes of honey of all varieties is produced annually in the country.
• There are about 30 lakh honey bee colonies and five lakh people are engaged in the business.
• Government considers promoting farmers to venture into beekeeping business as a key component to increase their income.
• Union Government is promoting honey production through "Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH)".
• It has established a National Bee Board for implementing various activities for development of scientific beekeeping under MIDH.

Question:

Q. Food Safety and Standards Authority (FSSAI) has notified food safety standards for which natural substance and its products in a bid to curb adulteration?
a. Jaggery
b. Sugar
c. Honey
d. None of the above