The international reference definition of honey, written by the FAO and WHO. It is not law anywhere by itself, and almost every national honey law is built on it.
Quality, testing and standardsReviewed 2026-08-03
What Codex is
The Codex Alimentarius is a collection of international food standards developed jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization. Its standards are voluntary. Their force comes from adoption: national regulators write them into law, and they are the reference point in World Trade Organization disputes about food, which makes them extremely influential without being enforceable in themselves.
The Standard for Honey, CXS 12-1981, was first adopted in 1981 and has been revised since. It is short, and most of what a reader would want to know is in the definition rather than in the table of limits.
The definition does most of the work
Honey is defined by what produced it and how: the natural sweet substance produced by honey bees from nectar or from honeydew, which the bees transform, combine with their own substances, deposit, dehydrate and store in the comb to ripen. Every clause of that is doing something. It excludes syrup fed to bees and re-harvested, it excludes anything an animal other than a honey bee made, and it requires the bee's own contribution rather than mere concentration.
No food ingredient, including food additives, may be added to honey.
No objectionable matter, flavour, aroma or taint may be present, and no fermentation.
Honey must not be heated or processed so as to alter its essential composition or damage its quality.
Pollen or other constituents particular to honey must not be removed, except where this is unavoidable in removing foreign matter.
The numbers
Principal compositional criteria in the Codex standard
Criterion
Requirement
Why it exists
Moisture
Not more than 20% in general
Above this, osmotolerant yeasts can ferment the honey
Fructose and glucose combined
At least 60% for blossom honey, 45% for honeydew and blends
Distinguishes honey from a dilute or adulterated product
Sucrose
Not more than 5% in general, with named exceptions
High sucrose means unripe honey or sugar feeding
Water-insoluble solids
Not more than 0.1% in general
A cleanliness measure; higher for pressed honey
Electrical conductivity
Not more than 0.8 mS/cm for blossom honey, with exceptions
Separates blossom honey from honeydew
Free acidity
Not more than 50 milliequivalents per kilogram
Detects fermentation
HMF
Not more than 40 mg/kg generally, 80 mg/kg for tropical honeys
Rises with heating and storage; a freshness and handling marker
Diastase activity
Generally at least 8 on the Schade scale, with a lower allowance for naturally low-enzyme honeys
Falls with heating and storage; read together with HMF
What it does not do
It does not grade honey. There is no Codex equivalent of a US grade A.
It does not define monofloral honey or set thresholds for a floral claim.
It does not require authenticity testing, and it long predates the syrups that make such testing necessary.
It does not address welfare, sustainability, organic status or fair trading.
The claims on this page
Every substantive claim is placed on a tier, and the top two tiers must also state what they are not claiming.
Established evidence
Supported by systematic reviews, meta-analyses or clinical/regulatory guidance. The claim would survive a careful reader checking it.
Established evidence
Codex standards are voluntary international references rather than directly enforceable law.
The Codex Alimentarius Commission publishes standards for adoption by national authorities. They acquire legal force only where a jurisdiction implements them, and they serve as the reference point in international trade disputes about food.
What this does not claim: This is not a claim that Codex is unimportant or ignorable. Most national honey law follows it closely, so its provisions are in practice binding in most markets — through national instruments rather than through Codex itself.
Standard for Honey (CXS 12-1981) — Codex Alimentarius Commission, FAO/WHO (1981) · Standards documentLink
Sources
Standard for Honey (CXS 12-1981) — Codex Alimentarius Commission, FAO/WHO (1981) · Standards documentLink
How do these honeys actually differ, beyond colour?
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