Is honey imported to Poland dangerous to health? We know the results of the GIW inspection

The issue of honey imports raises the emotions of beekeepers. This is hardly surprising: we hear from the environment that importing not only does not allow obtaining the expected honey prices, but even leads to a situation in which purchasing entities are not at all interested in receiving honey from domestic beekeepers:

A common complaint is the low quality and safety of imported honey. We recently reported on data regarding inspections carried out by the Agricultural and Food Quality Inspection:

Results of official honey safety inspection

We also contacted the Chief Veterinary Inspectorate, which is the authority responsible for safety control of food of animal origin imported to Poland, regarding the results of the inspection of imported honey. The information from the Inspection may come as a surprise to beekeepers: both in 2022 and 2023, no deficiencies in the quality of the imported product were detected:

According to data in the TRACES NT system, on the entire EU external border in 2022. have been inspected 1,181 shipments of honey natural product with CN code 04090000 originating from third countries intended for Poland. Total gross weight is 29 tys. 694 ton At Polish veterinary border control points, official veterinarians collected 228 samples for various types of tests, none of them gave unsatisfactory results

In turn, according to GIW, in 2023 the entire EU external border was inspected 909 shipments of the above. goods.

Total gross weight 25 tys. 118 ton. At Polish veterinary border control points, official veterinarians collected 221 samples for research including both organoleptic and specialized laboratory tests, none of them gave unsatisfactory results. Samples taken during veterinary inspections carried out on the Polish section of the external border are tested in official laboratories of the Veterinary Inspection.

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