The pathway to developing manuka honey standards for certification has proven a long and twisted one, with MPI taking three years to arrive at an industry-standard test after extending its submission period in May last year.
The latest test, however, continues to leave a vital chemical marker out of the test formula despite the industry submitting strongly during that process to have it included.
That chemical marker, leptosperin, is already used by the UMF Honey Association to verify manuka honey. The association had committed to providing industry-wide access to the leptosperin test standard it had already developed.
Karin Kos, Apiculture New Zealand chief executive, said it was disappointing the leptosperin test remained absent in the manuka definition.
She and industry partners were also working to better understand the implications of MPI adjusting the parameters on one of the key chemical markers used in the test, which may have implications for whether honey is defined as mono-floral or multi-floral.
Manawatu beekeeper Jason Prior, of Downunder Honey, said the revamped regulations were little short of window dressing by MPI, did nothing to assuage the sector’s concerns over the original format of the tests, and had left many honey producers stunned.
He also took issue with the ministry’s release to the industry on the standards. MPI stated it had delayed its decision to consider an alternative definition submitted by “a few members in the industry”.
This alternative definition involved including leptosperin in the test parameters.
MPI further claimed this alternative definition lacked robust scientific evidence to support it.
“I find that to be simply not the case,” Prior said.
“That alternative definition was put forward by Apiculture NZ and Comvita, hardly ‘a few members’, and it is a standard already used and proven by the UMF Association.”
Karin Kos said she and Apiculture NZ’s members also wanted to better understand MPI’s thinking that only a “few members” had submitted on the leptosperin test.
“The test is a reputable, peer reviewed and proven test,” she said.
MPI had originally opted out of using leptosperin on grounds it couldn’t be used to separate mono-floral from multi-floral manuka honey, and was not stable over time and under increased temperatures.
But industry sources have concerns two of the chemical markers in MPI’s approved test are capable of being bought synthetically off the shelf.
They can be added to honey and the absence of leptosperin parameter made it harder, not easier, to determine if honey had been tampered with. Neither markers were unique to manuka, and were also known to be unstable over time.
Prior said MPI test results also bore little correlation to a honey’s unique manuka factor (UMF) grade, a key determinant of manuka honey value.
He had tested some of his own product under MPI standards to find some batches that he thought were not mono-floral manuka with little UMF activity level came in at more than twice the MPI standard for manuka.
“And some manuka I thought was about medium-active UMF levels actually failed the test.
“What this test has gone and done is completely reshape the market and downgrade whole crops of honey,” Prior said.
Tests by beekeepers have also found adding kanuka honey to blends will also get a “non-manuka” honey over the standard’s parameters, to define it as manuka.
Kos said it appeared the Minister for Primary Industries, Damien O’Connor, was committed to pushing the test through.
“But we have to urgently keep working on it, it has to be better.”
She was also concerned over the tight timelines for implementation, with test standards taking effect from February 5.
