The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has published a Federal Register notice requesting comments on a possible federal standard of identity for honey.
Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the agency that would be responsible for developing a standard of identity for honey, the 2014 Farm Bill charged the Secretary of Agriculture with developing a report describing how a standard of identity would be in the interest of consumers, the honey industry, and U.S. agriculture. Section 10012 of the Agricultural Act of 2014 specifically requires USDA to consider a March 2006 citizens petition to establish a standard of identity for honey submitted by the American Beekeepers Federation and several other honey-related trade associations. The 2006 petition asked FDA to establish a standard of identity similar to the Codex Standard for Honey (CODEX STAN 12-1981, Rev. 2 (2001)). FDA denied the petition in 2011, claiming that it did not demonstrate the need for an FDA standard of identity for honey and that existing law is sufficient to protect the integrity of honey. The petition and FDA’s denial can be found here and here.
FDA recently issued a draft guidance document on proper labeling of honey and honey products, Draft Guidance for Industry: Proper Labeling of Honey and Honey Products (see our post dated April 8, 2014). According to the draft guidance, “honey” is the common or usual name for “a thick, sweet, syrupy substance that bees make as food from the nectar of flowers and store in honeycombs.” Only products made exclusively from honey may be called “honey.” In the absence of a federal standard of identity, a number of states have adopted, or proposed to adopt, their own state standards of identity for honey, creating the potential for a patchwork of differing state standards of identity that could impede interstate commerce. In addition, USDA/AMS has voluntary grading standards for honey: U.S. Standards for Grades of Comb Honey and U.S. Standards for Grades of Extracted Honey.
USDA/AMS is requesting comments on the 2006 petition to establish a standard of identity for “honey,” and specifically on the adoption of certain deviations from the Codex standard proposed by the petitioner. Comments are due September 19, 2014.
Even if the Secretary of Agriculture’s report supports creation of an FDA standard of identity for honey, that recommendation would not be binding on FDA. However, FDA might be persuaded to reconsider its conclusion that a federal standard of identity is unnecessary if there are conflicting state standards. If FDA does adopt a federal standard of identity for “honey,” it would preempt any state standards that are not identical to the federal standard.
