New standards for certifying manuka honey in future

This week has seen the annoucement of a partnership between a New Zealand manuka honey producer and a German University, with the aim of establishing a process to certify the levels of the compound responsible for manuka honey’s anti- bacterial activity. It comes after the Technical University of Dresden has indentified the compound methylglyoxal and its high levels in some manuka honeys. (part copy of the news release here)

With the unfortunately more common misleading promotion of lesser quality manuka honey that has been occuring in places such as the UK, a new certification process is potentially good news. We have to wait to see how it will actually work, and how it will complement the existing 'UMF' trademark that is consumers best assurance of quality at the moment.

In the meantime, there are efforts such as the 'Campaign For Good Honest Manuka Honey' to inform what makes genuine UMF manuka honey, to help inform people on the different levels of potency of this natural healer.

The other benefit of the new research findings form the German university, is will lead to more research into other areas of health where manuka honey may be helpful.