Selling Honey in the UK: Labelling and Food Safety Rules Every Beekeeper Needs to Know
Picture this: you’ve spent the summer tending your hives on the edge of a Somerset meadow, watching your bees work the clover and wildflowers with that quiet industriousness that never stops being remarkable. Come August, you crack open your first super and find frame after frame of capped, golden honey. After extracting, filtering, and settling the harvest in your kitchen, you end up with forty jars of the stuff — far more than you and your neighbours can eat. The obvious thought crosses your mind: why not sell some?
It’s a brilliant idea, and thousands of British beekeepers do exactly this every year — at farmers’ markets in Ludlow, village fêtes in the Cotswolds, farm shops in Yorkshire, and on stalls outside garden gates in Shropshire lanes. But before you start sticking handwritten labels on jars and setting up a card reader, there is a legal framework you must understand. Selling honey in the UK means complying with specific labelling regulations, food hygiene law, and trading standards requirements. Get it right and you build a proper small business with a genuine reputation. Get it wrong and you risk enforcement action from your local authority, or worse, a food safety incident involving a customer.
This guide walks through everything you need to know, from the legislation that governs what must appear on your label, to the food hygiene rating system, to what happens when Trading Standards come knocking at your extraction room door.
The Legal Basis: What Law Governs Honey Sales in the UK?
Honey sold in the United Kingdom is regulated by the Honey (England) Regulations 2015, with equivalent legislation applying in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. These instruments implement the broader EU Honey Directive into domestic law and, following Brexit, the UK retained the substance of those rules under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) oversee food safety at a national level, while enforcement on the ground is the responsibility of your local authority’s Environmental Health and Trading Standards officers.
Alongside the Honey Regulations, you must also comply with the Food Information to Consumers Regulations (FIC) — in UK law, the Food Information Regulations 2014 — which govern allergen labelling, nutrition information, and general presentation of food. For most small-scale honey producers selling directly to the public, there are some exemptions available, but the core requirements remain substantial.
There is also the question of food business registration. Under the Food Safety Act 1990 and subsequent regulations, anyone selling food — including honey — on a regular basis is considered to be running a food business and must register with their local authority at least 28 days before they start trading. This applies even if you’re selling jars from a table at the end of your driveway once a week. Registration is free and straightforward; you simply fill in a form on your local council’s website. Do not skip this step — it is a legal requirement, not an optional courtesy.
What Must Appear on Your Honey Label?
This is where many well-meaning beekeepers come unstuck. A beautifully designed label with a bee illustration and your farm name is wonderful, but if it’s missing legally required information, it puts you in breach of the law. Here is a breakdown of what must appear on every jar of honey you sell.
1. The Product Name
The label must use the word “honey” — this cannot be replaced with a trade name or description alone. If you want to add a descriptor, you may do so, but it must be accurate. The Honey Regulations permit the following reserved descriptions to be used alongside the word honey:
- Blossom honey or nectar honey — honey from flower nectar
- Honeydew honey — honey produced from secretions of plant-sucking insects
- Comb honey — honey stored by bees in the comb
- Chunk honey or cut comb in honey — contains one or more pieces of comb honey
- Drained honey — obtained by draining uncapped broodless combs
- Extracted honey — obtained by centrifuging uncapped broodless combs
- Pressed honey — obtained by pressing broodless combs
- Filtered honey — honey from which inorganic or organic foreign matter has been removed
- Baker’s honey or industrial honey — honey suitable for industrial use or as an ingredient
- Creamed honey or set honey — honey that has crystallised into a soft, spreadable texture
If your honey comes predominantly from a single type of flower — say, heather honey from the North York Moors, or borage honey from a Lincolnshire farm — you may state this on the label, provided the honey genuinely has the organoleptic, physicochemical, and microscopic characteristics of that source. This is where pollen analysis can be useful if you want to make a confident varietal claim.
2. Country of Origin
This is non-negotiable. The label must clearly state the country or countries of origin where the honey was harvested. For British-produced honey, this means stating “Product of the United Kingdom” or equivalent wording such as “Produced in England,” “Produced in Scotland,” and so on. If you are blending honey from different countries (which many commercial packers do), you must state “Blend of EU honeys,” “Blend of non-EU honeys,” or “Blend of EU and non-EU honeys” as applicable.
For small beekeepers producing entirely from their own hives in the UK, a simple “Product of United Kingdom” or naming the specific country — England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland — is both accurate and marketable. Customers at a Derbyshire farmers’ market will appreciate knowing their honey came from local hives, and the law is on your side in making that claim clearly.
3. Net Weight
The quantity of honey must be stated in metric units — grams (g) or kilograms (kg). Common retail jar sizes are 227g (the traditional half-pound jar), 340g, and 454g (the traditional one-pound jar). If you are selling at a market, your weighing equipment must also be certified for trade use — a standard kitchen scale is not sufficient for legal trade use. Contact your local Trading Standards office for guidance on approved weighing equipment.
4. Name and Address of the Producer or Packer
Your label must carry the name and address of the producer, packer, or seller established within the UK. For most cottage producers, this is simply your name and the postal address of your holding. You do not need to include a phone number or email address, though many beekeepers choose to, as it builds customer trust and makes repeat purchases easier.
5. Best Before Date
Honey has an exceptionally long shelf life — archaeologists have found edible honey in ancient Egyptian tombs — but UK food law still requires a best before date on the label. A best before date of two years from the date of bottling is widely accepted as appropriate for processed honey. Set honey and creamed honey may crystallise more quickly, which is worth noting, though crystallisation does not mean the honey is spoiled — it is a natural process and customers sometimes need reassurance about this.
6. Lot Number
Food traceability regulations require a lot number or batch code on your label, preceded by the letter “L.” This allows a specific batch of honey to be traced and recalled if a problem is identified. For a small producer, this might simply be a code that corresponds to your production records — for instance, “L-AUG24-01” to indicate the first batch extracted in August 2024. Keep a corresponding record in your production log.
7. Allergen Information
Pure honey is not listed as one of the 14 major allergens under UK food law. However, if your honey contains added ingredients — lavender, for instance, or pieces of comb — you must declare any allergens those additions might introduce. Additionally, many small producers include a voluntary advisory note such as “Not suitable for infants under 12 months” due to the risk of infant botulism from Clostridium botulinum spores that may naturally occur in honey. This is not legally required but is considered good practice and is guidance the NHS actively promotes.
Label Design and Font Size Requirements
The mandatory particulars on your label must be easy to read and indelible. Under the Food Information Regulations, mandatory information must appear in a font size with an x-height of at least 1.2mm (or 0.9mm on packaging with a largest surface area of less than 80cm²). Practically speaking, this means your label text must be legible to a person with normal vision in normal lighting conditions — tiny, cramped fonts in light grey on a cream background will not meet the standard.
Labels must also not mislead the consumer. You cannot use imagery, words, or design elements that suggest the honey has properties it does not have, or that imply it has been produced in a particular way if it has not. Claims such as “raw honey” are not currently defined in UK legislation, but if you use such terms, be prepared to explain and evidence what you mean by them.
Food Hygiene: Your Extraction and Bottling Environment
Beyond the label, the environment in which you extract and bottle your honey must meet food hygiene standards. Under the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013 and equivalent devolved legislation, food businesses must implement food safety management procedures based on HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) principles.
For a small honey producer, this does not mean installing a stainless-steel commercial kitchen — though that is ideal. It means being able to demonstrate that you have thought about the hazards in your process and taken reasonable steps to control them. In practice, this involves keeping a simple written record that covers:
Moving Forward
Once you have the fundamentals in place, the possibilities open up considerably. The UK offers fantastic opportunities for anyone interested in this hobby, and with the right foundation you will be well placed to make the most of them.