For many of us a trip around the super market is all about the packaging; Pretty labels and glossy pictures draw the eye to the box but keep it sufficiently far enough away from the product for the luster to last.
However, when you buy fresh produce this isn't usually the case, your eye is not normally drawn to fancy labels but to the actual produce itself.
Consider your last trip to the local market, when you were looking at fruit did you look at the cheap plastic box that they were in or did you look at the ripe orange mass?
This in most cases is good, you are looking for the nicest produce and labels would only hide it (or be used to hide things).
How on earth does this relate to honey I hear you asking.
When you look at a jar of honey what are you looking at?
You're probably looking at one or two of the following:
1. Colour
2. Consistency
3. Some indication as to what type of honey it is (flower, forest, orange, etc)
Unlike normal produce like fruit or veg you can't tell a massive amount about a jar of honey by just looking at the honey itself (I'll explain why later).
This is where Swiss control comes into play.
Swiss Bee Keepers are obliged to label their honey, but not just in terms of 'This is Honey'.
Have a look at a typical label below (it's mine).
From the image above you can see:
1. When it was produced (2008)
2. Who Produced it (Foley)
3. Where it was produced (Chavannes de Bogis)
4. When it should be consumed by (2010)
If you could look on the side of the jar you can also see what type of honey it is, but the label above shows the state mandated information.
I mentioned previously that you can't tell a great deal by just looking at honey,
whilst it is true that you can tell roughly what type of honey it is by it's colour (forest or flower for example) - you can't actually know how old it is (because if you heat honey it becomes liquid, thus looking fresh and if it has already crystalised then how long has it been in that state?), this is why the label is so important for honey producers.
It's also a way of ensuring that producers stand by the quality of their produce - which can only be a good thing for all of us. |
