Researchers tested UV-C and UV-B radiation, alone or in combination with heat treatment, against C. sporogenes (as a surrogate for C. botulinum) in honey. Although vegetative spores were greatly reduced, endospores—which can still germinate and colonize the human gut, thereby causing illness—proved resistant.
In 2025, FDA sampled domestic and imported honey to detect food fraud. Consistent with previous years, the rate of fraud was low, but still high enough to emphasize the ongoing vulnerability of honey to economically motivated adulteration.
The global trend toward natural and functional foods has fueled the popularity of edible flowers. To investigate the associated food safety risks, researchers conducted a comprehensive literature review, and identified pyrrolizidine and tropane alkaloids as a significant concern.
The UK National Food Crime Unit’s (NFCU's) Control Strategy for 2025–2026 outlines the unit’s current food crime priorities, bringing focus to its efforts to “prevent food crime, deter and disrupt food criminals, and bring offenders to justice.”
Protecting Italian honey authenticity and combatting food fraud, the Italian Standards Body’s (UNI’s) new UNI 11972 standard introduces a new analytical method for detecting honey adulteration based in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance technology.
The EU has implemented a new regulation that requires U.S. importers of apiculture products like honey to register with the EU’s Trade Control and Expert System (TRACES). Prior to TRACES registration, businesses must complete an assessment with USDA and an application with FDA.
In light of a recent investigation that found nearly half of honey imported to the EU is adulterated, UK researchers have demonstrated the promise of two innovative techniques—DNA barcoding and spatial offset Raman Spectroscopy—for detecting sugar adulterants in honey.
The European Commission is taking strides to improve honey authenticity, including setting new origin labeling requirements, and the development of harmonized traceability requirements and improved methods of composition analysis and origin tracing. The Commission is assembling a group of experts called the “Honey Platform” to advise this work and is accepting applications.
Results of sampling and testing of imported honey for signs of economically motivated adulteration conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2022–2023 has revealed only 3 percent of samples to be violative.
