The United States imports 429 million pounds of honey every year — roughly 73 percent of the nation's total supply. If you bought honey at a grocery store this month, there's a good chance it crossed an ocean to get there. But did it arrive as real honey?
That's the question the Food and Drug Administration has been trying to answer. Over the past four years, the agency has run two rounds of surveillance testing on imported honey, screening for undeclared sweeteners — cheap syrups from cane, corn, rice, or beets that are blended in to cut costs and boost margins. The results, released across two FDA reports, paint a picture that's cautiously encouraging on the surface but deeply unsettling underneath.
The Numbers: A Drop From 10% to 3%
In its first round of testing (FY 2021–22), the FDA collected 144 samples of imported honey from bulk and retail shipments across 32 countries. Fourteen samples — 10 percent — tested positive for adulteration with undeclared sweeteners. The agency refused entry to violative shipments and placed the associated companies on Import Alert 99-47, effectively flagging them for heightened scrutiny on future imports.
The second round (FY 2022–23) tested 107 samples from 25 countries. This time, only three samples — 3 percent — came back positive.
That looks like progress. But the FDA itself has cautioned against reading too much into the comparison. The two assignments "were not designed for statistical comparison," the agency noted — meaning differences in sample selection, country distribution, and sample size make a direct trend line unreliable.
Which Countries Failed?
In the most recent round, the three adulterated samples originated from the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Yemen. The FDA detected the fraud using Stable Carbon Isotope Ratio Analysis (SCIRA), a technique that measures whether the carbon signature of honey is consistent with what bees actually produce — or whether it's been cut with plant-derived syrups.
| Testing Period | Samples | Countries | Violation Rate | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY 2021–22 | 144 | 32 | 10% (14 samples) | High |
| FY 2022–23 | 107 | 25 | 3% (3 samples) | Improved |
When violations were confirmed, the FDA refused entry to the shipments, increased surveillance sampling on the associated companies, and added them to Import Alert 99-47 — a public database that effectively blacklists specific shippers.
The Bigger Problem: What the FDA Isn't Catching
Here's where the picture darkens. The FDA's sample sizes are tiny relative to the volume of honey entering the country — 107 samples out of hundreds of millions of pounds. And the testing method, SCIRA, has known blind spots. It's effective at detecting classic adulterants like high-fructose corn syrup and cane sugar, but the fraudsters have been adapting.
In late 2024, laboratories began flagging a new class of syrup adulterant that doesn't trigger traditional SCIRA markers. By 2025, the number of samples testing positive for this novel marker had increased, according to Intertek, one of the world's largest food testing firms. Detecting it requires Liquid Chromatography-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (LC-HRMS) — equipment that most routine screening programs don't deploy.
"The number of samples testing positive for a novel syrup marker, previously not considered a common adulteration method, increased" between 2024 and 2025. — Intertek Food Services, December 2025
The implications are serious. If fraudsters have moved to syrups that slip past the FDA's standard tests, the agency's reported 3 percent violation rate may be significantly understating the true scope of the problem.
Europe's Findings Tell a Darker Story
For context, consider what happened when the European Commission ran its own tests. In 2023, the EC found that 46 percent of sampled honeys were suspected of dilution with corn, beet, or other sugar syrups. Nearly half.
And at the 2019 World Beekeeping Awards in Canada, 45 percent of competition entries were rejected — some for suspected adulteration. The situation was so bad that the competition eliminated its honey category entirely in 2025, citing the impossibility of guaranteeing authenticity.
These numbers are orders of magnitude worse than the FDA's findings. The gap raises an uncomfortable question: Is imported honey in the U.S. actually cleaner than in Europe — or is the FDA just testing fewer samples with less sensitive methods?
How Honey Laundering Works
The mechanics of honey fraud have grown sophisticated. The most common scheme — "honey laundering" — typically works like this: honey originating from a country facing import tariffs or restrictions (historically China) is shipped to a third country like Vietnam or Malaysia, repackaged and relabeled as a product of that country, then exported to the United States.
In 2023, the top four honey exporters to the U.S. were India, Argentina, Brazil, and Vietnam, together accounting for 79 percent of imports. Some of that honey is legitimate. Some of it has had its pollen filtered out — the botanical fingerprint that would reveal its true origin — then been mixed with a barrel of local honey to create a plausible cover story.
What's Being Done
Enforcement is tightening, albeit slowly. The FDA continues its surveillance sampling and maintains Import Alert 99-47 as a deterrent. True Source Honey, an industry certification organization, is updating its authenticity standards effective January 1, 2026, to address the novel syrup adulterants. And the incoming EU Breakfast Directive is imposing stricter honey labeling and testing requirements across Europe.
In Congress, the issue has drawn bipartisan attention. A Congressional Research Service report on "Ongoing Efforts to Address Fraud and Adulteration of Honey" outlines the regulatory gaps — including the fact that the U.S. still lacks a federal standard of identity for honey, unlike most other major food categories.
Meanwhile, U.S. beekeepers are caught in the crossfire. Adulterated imports suppress domestic honey prices, making it harder for legitimate producers to survive in a market already battered by record colony losses. Many have shifted their primary income to pollination services, renting their hives to almond and berry farms rather than competing on honey sales.
The Bottom Line
The FDA's latest data — a 3 percent violation rate — is a floor, not a ceiling. It reflects what the agency found with limited sampling and standard detection methods, at a time when the adulterants are evolving faster than the tests. Europe's 46 percent figure is almost certainly closer to the global reality.
For consumers, the safest bets remain locally sourced honey from known beekeepers, or products carrying third-party certifications like True Source. For everyone else reaching for a bear-shaped bottle at the supermarket, the honest answer is: you can't be sure. And that's the problem the FDA is still trying to solve.