ay, @TinyK you opened a can of worms there…
To start, fresh honey is very liquid very runny. It is what scientists call a ‘supersaturated solution’ of 3 sugars (fructose, mainly, and glucose, with a minor melezitose content). Like any other supersaturated solution, sooner than later, the sugars start crystalizing (that makes the honey settle, more solid).
A lot of the honey that you buy in the supermarkets has been ‘duped’ - for commercial, marketing or economic reasons- for example, adding sugar water (glucose) so it crystallizes slower, so it is runnier for longer. Or adding corn syrup (a cheaper sweetener with thicker thixotropic honey-like characteristics), or with god-knows-what. I am talking about ‘international honeys’ – and this includes, unfortunately ‘european’ honey. The beekepers are not guilty, it is just that the honey passes through a lot of hands inbetween; 1kg of sugar costs 1 Euro. 1 kg of honey, 8 - 30 Euros (depending on the country and honey). And there is a lot of greediness on the trade…
let me give you a couple of examples: China alone dwarfs the rest of the world, when it comes to honey production - It produces 25% of the global honey production; 500K tons of honey per year. China exports about 30% of it (140K tons, or about 267M US$). They export mainly to UK, Japan, Belgium, Poland and Saudi Arabia. Chinese honey exports to US are totally banned due to price dumping and fake honey issues. The largest exporter of honey to US is India, who has doubled production in 10 years, and is now also having the same quality issues than the Chinese.
The European Union produces, each year, about 280K tonnes of honey, from about 20 million hives. During the last 10 years, the production has experienced ups and downs, of up to 30%, due to bad weather conditions, the arrival of the Chinese bee-pest (varroa), and COVID - which affected…the beekeepers!
How strange… China’s production is each year stable and growing, despite the climatic change, COVID or their pesticide problem. (In some regions of China, the massive pesticide concentration has killed all of the bees, and the polinization of apple trees has to be made by human hand). Europe imports about 190K tonnes of honey from non-European countries, and 1/3 of it comes from China…
You can see here the European anti-fraud office, that presentes the results of the 2023 QC analyses of European honeys… The OLAF report 2023: Investigative activities - OLAF’s investigative performance in 2023 - Protecting EU revenue - No money for fake honey - From investigation to legislation ; from 230 samples of honey, 46% were adulterated…
Switzerland is better (only 10% - 20% adulteration found), although some very interesting…like honey with viagra (seized by Swissmedic) Supposedly herbal products
Please, buy only honey from reputed sources, and look carefully at the label!!!