North Carolina’s Honey “definition” defines honey as a honey bee product from plant nectar and prohibits any additives or adulteration if it is to be sold as honey.The country of origin must be identified. And if the honey is marketed from a specific floral source, such as the much acclaimed mountain Sourwood, the honey must contain at least 51 percent nectar from that source.
The Proposed Standard of Identity for Honey in the State of North Carolina is:
1. This standard applies to all honey produced by honey bees from nectar and/or honeydew. The standard covers all styles of honey that are processed and ultimately intended for direct consumption; and all honey packed, processed, and intended for sale in bulk containers as honey that may be repacked for retail sale or for sale or use as an ingredient in other foods for human consumption
2. The definition of “Honey” is as follows: Honey is the natural sweet substance produced by honey bees from the nectar of plants or from secretions of living parts of plants or the excretions of plant sucking insects on the living parts of plants; which the bees collect, transform by combining with specific substances of their own, deposit, dehydrate, store, and leave in the honey comb to ripen and mature. Furthermore, nothing may be removed from or added to that product if the material is to be labeled as honey”.
a. Based on this definition, there is no difference between honey that is labeled as “Honey” or as “Pure Honey”.
b. The act of straining or filtering the honey product by the beekeeper or a honey processor will not violate the above definition for honey.
c. The addition of any product to the honey, with the exception of blending honey from different sources, will result in the honey being adulterated and not meeting the above definition for honey.
d. For the purposes of this definition of honey: floral nectar and honeydew nectar will be considered to become honey when the bees cap the beeswax cells containing the liquid.
e. “Blossom” or “Nectar Honey” is the honey that comes from the nectars of plants.
f. “Honeydew Honey” is the honey that comes mainly from honey bees collecting the excretions of plant sucking insects (Hemiptera) on the living parts of plants or secretions of living parts of plants.
g. These principles apply to all products labeled as “Honey” and includes liquid honey, crystallized honey, spun honey, comb honey, cut comb honey, whipped honey also known as honey butter, etc.