How honey is graded
Honey grading measures colour, moisture, clarity and flavour defects. It says almost nothing about how good the honey tastes, which is a deliberate limitation rather than an oversight.
The two things called grading
Two quite different systems both get called grading and they answer different questions.
- Commercial quality grading — the USDA system and its equivalents, measuring moisture, clarity, absence of defects and flavour faults. This produces Grade A, B and C.
- Colour grading — the Pfund scale, a purely optical measurement from water white through amber to dark amber. Colour is a descriptor, not a quality.
What the USDA grades measure
| Criterion | Grade A | Grade B | Grade C |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water content | Not more than 18.6% | Not more than 18.6% | Not more than 20% |
| Absence of defects | Practically free | Reasonably free | Fairly free |
| Flavour and aroma | Good | Reasonably good | Fairly good |
| Clarity | Clear | Reasonably clear | Fairly clear |
Defects here means suspended particles, wax, propolis and foam — things filtration removes. That is why the grading system rewards heavily filtered honey and penalises the unfiltered honey many buyers actively prefer.
The Pfund colour scale
Colour is measured in millimetres on the Pfund scale against a standard: water white under 8, extra white to 17, white to 34, extra light amber to 50, light amber to 85, amber to 114, and dark amber above that.
It is used commercially because it is fast, cheap and reproducible, and because colour correlates loosely with intensity. It is not a quality judgement, and the market's tendency to pay more for pale honey is a preference rather than a standard.
The specialist grading systems
| System | Honey | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| UMF | Manuka | Leptosperin, DHA and methylglyoxal together |
| MGO | Manuka | Methylglyoxal concentration in mg/kg |
| Protected designation of origin | Regional honeys | Origin, production method, sometimes composition limits |
| Conductivity thresholds | Honeydew vs nectar | Mineral content; a legal classification |
The manuka systems are the most developed and the most contested. They measure real compounds and the relationship between those measurements and any health outcome is a separate question from whether the measurement is accurate.
What grading will not tell you
- Whether you will like it. No grading system measures character.
- Whether it is a genuine monofloral. That requires pollen analysis.
- Whether it has been adulterated. That requires isotope or NMR testing.
- Whether it is raw. Grading rewards clarity, which usually means filtration.
- Where it actually came from. Origin is a labelling question, not a grading one.
Sources
- United States Standards for Grades of Extracted Honey — United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service · Standards document
- Standard for Honey (CXS 12-1981) — Codex Alimentarius Commission, FAO/WHO (1981) · Standards document Link
- UMF grading and the New Zealand manuka honey definition — UMF Honey Association / New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries · Industry body
How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.
Read next
Tools that use this
- Honey finder
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- Flavour selector
I like this taste — which honeys have it?
- Honey comparison
How do these honeys actually differ, beyond colour?