| Description | Legislation | FAQ | Contacts | Additional Information |

Description:

Honey program staff prepares and disseminates educational material for producers on requirements legislated by Regulation 384 of the Farm Products Grades and Sales Act. This regulation includes labelling and grade standards.

Staff liaises with industry and other government agencies on an on-going basis to address concerns of the Ontario honey industry. The Program supports development of food safety and quality assurance programs by providing materials and resources to assist in program development and review. Staff works closely with the University of Guelph Honey Bee Research Centre and also the Ontario Beekeepers Association Tech-Transfer Program on scientific and field oriented studies of honey bee problems.

Honey samples are collected for analysis under the Food Safety Monitoring Program. When lead levels and drug residues are found to be in excess of Health Canada guidelines or when there is non-compliance with Regulation 384, producers and/or other agencies are notified. Staff assists individual producers in resolving identified food safety and regulatory non compliance issues identified by the testing program. Compliance and enforcement action may be taken in the event of serious and/or repeated non-compliance.

The Provincial Apiarist oversees compliance and enforcement of the Bees Act. Twenty nine bee inspectors are employed in agricultural regions of Ontario to inspect honey bees and to carry out moving and selling permit inspections. When American Foulbrood is discovered, orders are issued to destroy the infected colonies.

Information gathered from all aspects of the program is communicated by the Provincial Apiarist to individual beekeepers, to industry-as-a-whole and to each of the province's 22 local beekeeper's associations.

Legislation: 

Honey is legislated under Regulation 384 of the Farm Products Grades and Sales Act.

Frequently asked questions:

Q 1. What are the labelling requirements for Honey?

A 1. The labelling requirements are found in Section 6 of Regulation 384.

 

Q 2. Are new containers required?

A 2. Yes, please refer to Section 12 of Regulation 384 for more details.

 

Q 3. What are the container sizes?

A 3. Please refer to Section 12 of Regulation 384 for more details on container sizes.

 

Q 4. What are the grades for honey?

A 4. The grades of honey are found in Section 21 of Regulation 384. Details are also found in the Canada Agricultural Products Act.

 

Q 5. What is the difference between light honey and dark honey?

A 5. The colour of the honey is directly related to the type of flower the bees have obtained the nectar from and usually the lighter the colour of the honey the milder the flavour. For example clover honey is usually white and very mild while buckwheat honey is very dark and strong.

Contacts:

If you require further information on:

John Henderson
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
Food Inspection Branch
95 Dundas Street, R.R. #3
Brighton, Ontario
K0K 1H0
Tel: (613) 475-5175
Fax: (613) 475-3835

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Doug McRory
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
Provincial Apiarist
5th Floor NW, 1 Stone Road West
Guelph, Ontario
N1G 4Y2
Tel: (519) 826-3595
Fax: (519) 826-4375

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Debbie Fishbein
CFIA Ottawa
(613) 221-7029
E-mail: dfishbein@inspection.gc.ca

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Sal DeMonte
CFIA Guelph
(519) 837-9400
E-mail: demontes@inspection.gc.ca

Ontario Beekeepers' Association...

Maureen VanderMuarel
Business Administrator
Tel: (905) 636 0661

 

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Additional Information:

For further Honey information available either through the ministry or University of Guelph websites, just click on the links below: