Honey

Selling honey

Control source, extraction, packing, traceability and truthful description.

• Use food-grade extraction, settling and packing equipment that can be cleaned and protected from contamination.
• Keep harvest-apiary, extraction, batch, jar and sales records.
• Do not add ingredients to a product still named only “honey.”
• Use floral or geographic claims only when the honey genuinely meets the compositional and origin conditions.
• Protect jars from heat, direct sunlight, moisture, damage and pests.
• If buying in honey, document every supplier and country of harvest before designing the label.

Labelling requirements

Origin is now a front-of-pack traceability exercise for blends.

A prepacked jar normally needs the food name, net quantity, best-before date, lot identification, storage information where needed, responsible food-business operator details and country of harvest, together with other applicable food-information particulars.

From 14 June 2026, a blend from more than one country must identify all harvest countries in the principal field of vision, in descending order by weight, with each country’s percentage share. A tolerance of ±5 percentage points for each share is allowed where supported by traceability documentation.

• Use “Product of Ireland” or another single-country claim only for honey harvested there.
• Keep the name and net quantity together in the required field of vision where applicable.
• Use a defensible best-before date; crystallisation alone is usually a quality change, not proof of danger.
• Do not conceal mandatory information under a lid or detachable price sticker.

Registration

Confirm both the beekeeping and food-business routes.

Republic of Ireland: Registration depends on whether the activity is primary production only or includes extraction, packing, blending or other handling. Describe the full operation to DAFM/HSE and follow the competent-authority route given.

Northern Ireland: Register the food business with the local council where required and check DAERA requirements for the beekeeping and production activity.

1. List apiaries, extraction and packing premises.
2. State whether all honey is own-harvested or any is bought in.
3. Describe filtering, heating, blending and packing.
4. Confirm the intended sales routes, including honesty box, markets, online and wholesale.
5. Keep registrations, inspection correspondence and supplier records together.