Grocery shopping can be hard. There are countless descriptors on products that are meant to inform the consumer about what the product is and does, but these can end up being confusing, and honey is no exception. If we haven't quite answered all of your honey questions and you still find yourself confused when searching through jars in the grocery store aisle, particularly when you notice the word "blend" on numerous honey products, then you're in the right place.
The FDA defines honey as a "thick, sweet, syrupy substance that bees make as food from the nectar of plants or secretions of living parts of plants and store in honeycombs." The agency's guidance document, titled "Proper Labeling of Honey and Honey Products," then emphasizes that if anything else is added to honey, it should no longer be labeled as only "honey." This is because honey is a single-ingredient food, and when consumers purchase honey, they may not expect there to be anything else in it.
Therefore, when you see a "blend" label on a jar of honey, it means that the manufacturer has added other ingredients. What you need to know about honey labels In addition to explaining why the word "blend" might appear on your jar of honey, the FDA's guidance document dives into even further detail on honey labeling. When additional ingredients are added to honey, the packaging must also include an ingredient statement, which is not required for single-ingredient honey.
The details on a label are essential to review when.
