DEAS 36-1: 2019 
ICS 67.180.20   
 
© EAC 2019                                                                                                                           Second  Edition 2019 
 DRAFT EAST AFRICAN STANDARD  
Honey — Specification  — Part 1: Table honey  
EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY  DEAS 36-1: 2019 
ii © EAC  2019 – All rights reserved  
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Reproduction for sales purposes may be subject to royalty payments or a licensing agreement.  
Violators may be prosecuted . DEAS 36-1: 2019 
© EAC 2019 – All rights reserved  iii 
 Contents  Page 
Foreword  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................  iv 
1 Scope  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ......................  1 
2 Normative references  ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................  1 
3 Terms and definitions  ................................ ................................ ................................ ...........................  2 
4 Types of honey  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 2 
4.1 By origin  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .................  2 
4.1.1  Blossom honey or nectar honey  ................................ ................................ ................................ ..........  2 
4.1.2  Honey dew honey  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .. 2 
4.1.3  Monofloral honey  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ... 2 
4.1.4  Fruit and plant juices honey  ................................ ................................ ................................ .................  2 
4.2 By methods of processing  ................................ ................................ ................................ ...................  2 
4.2.1  Extract ed honey  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ..... 2 
4.2.2  Pressed honey  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ....... 2 
4.2.3  Drained honey  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ........  2 
4.3 By form of presentation  ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................  3 
5 Requirements  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .........  3 
5.1 General requirements  ................................ ................................ ................................ ...........................  3 
5.2 Specifi c requirements  ................................ ................................ ................................ ...........................  3 
6 Food additives and contaminants  ................................ ................................ ................................ ....... 4 
6.1 Food additives  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ....... 4 
6.2 Heavy metal contaminants  ................................ ................................ ................................ ...................  4 
6.3 Residues of pesticides and veterinary drugs  ................................ ................................ .....................  5 
7 Hygiene  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ...................  5 
8 Packaging  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ...............  5 
9 Weights and measures  ................................ ................................ ................................ .........................  5 
10 Labelling  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .................  5 
11 Sampling  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................  6 
Annex  A (normative)  Gravimetric determination of water -insoluble solids content (Type II 
method)  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ..................  7 
A.1 Sam pling  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................  7 
A.1.1  Liquid or strained honey ................................ ................................ ................................ .......................  7 
A.1.2  Comb honey  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ...........  7 
A.2 Proced ure ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ...............  7 
A.2.1   Preparation of test sample  ................................ ................................ ................................ ..................  7 
A.2.2  Gravimetric determination  ................................ ................................ ................................ ....................  7 
A.2.3  Expression of results  ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................  7 
Annex  B (normative)  Determination of fructose -glucose ratio  ................................ ................................ .... 8 
B.1 Principle of the method ................................ ................................ ................................ .........................  8 
B.2 Reagents  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................  8 
B.3 Procedure  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ...............  8 
B.4 Calculation and expression of results  ................................ ................................ ................................  8 
Annex  C (normative)  Fiehe's test  ................................ ................................ ................................ ...................  10 
C.1 Reagent  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................  10 
Resorcinol solutio n ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ..........  10 
C.2 Procedure  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .............  10 
C.3 Expression of results  ................................ ................................ ................................ ..........................  10 
Bibliography  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ......................  11 
 DEAS 36-1: 2019 
iv © EAC  2019 – All rights reserved  
 Foreword  
Development of the East African Standards has been necessitated by the need for harmonizing requirements 
governing quality of products and services in the East African Community. It is envisaged that through 
harmonized st andardization, trade barriers that are encountered when goods and services are exchanged 
within the Community will be removed.  
The Community has established an East African Standards Committee  (EASC)  mandated to develop and 
issue East African Standards  (EAS). The Committee is composed of representatives of the National 
Standards Bodies in Partner States, together with the representatives from the public and private sector 
organizations  in the community .  
East African Standards are developed through  Technic al Committees that are representative of key 
stakeholders including government, academia, consumer groups, private sector and other interested parties. 
Draft East African Standards are circulated to stakeholders through the National Standards Bodies in the  
Partner States. The comments received are discussed and incorporated before finalization of standards, in 
accordance with the Principles and procedures for development of East African Standa rds. 
East African Standards are subject to review, to keep pace w ith technological advances. Users of the East 
African Standards are therefore expected to ensure that they always have the latest versions of the standards 
they are implementing .  
The committee responsible for this document is EASC/ TC 011, Apiary and apiar y products . 
This second  edition cancels and replaces the first edition ( EAS 36 :2000 ), which has been technically revised.  
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be subject of patent 
rights. EAC shall not be hel d responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.  DRAFT EAST AFRICAN STANDARD  DEAS 36-1: 2019 
 
© EAC 2019 – All rights reserved  1 
 Honey  — Specification  — Part 1: Table honey  
1 Scope   
This Draft East African Standard specifies the requirements, sampling and test methods for honey produced 
by honeybees of genus Apis for huma n consumption.  
2 Normative references  
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes 
requirements of this document.  For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated reference s, 
the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.  
AOAC  Official method 985.16 determination of Tin in canned foods — Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometric 
Method  
AOAC 920.181 Determination of Ash content of Honey  
AOAC Official Method 920.183 Sugars (Reducing) in Honey  
AOAC 920.184 Determination of Sucrose in Honey  
AOAC Official Method 952.13 for determination of  Arsenic in food —Silver diethyldithiocarbamate  
AOAC 958.09 Determination of Diastase Activity  
AOAC 962.19 Determ ination of Acidity (Free, Lactone, and Total)  
AOAC 969.38b Determination of Moisture Content  
AOAC 980.23  Determination of hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) content  
AOAC Official Method 983.20 Mercury (Methyl) in Fish and Shellfish Gas Chromatographic Method   
AOA C Official method 985.16 for determination of Tin in canned foods — Atomic absorption 
spectrophotometric method  
AOAC Official method 999.10  for determination of  Cadmium, Tin, Copper and Iron in foods  
AOAC Official method 999.11 Determination of Lead, Cadmi um, Copper, Iron, and Zinc in Foods  
EAS 38, Labelling of pre -packaged foods — Specification  
EAS 39, Hygiene in the food and drink manufacturing industry — Code of practice  
ISO 4831, Microbiology of food and animal feeding stuffs — Horizontal method for the  detection and 
enumeration of coliforms — Most probable number technique   
2 © EAC  2019 – All rights reserved  
 ISO 21527 -2, Microbiology of food and animal feeding stuffs — Horizontal method for the enumeration of 
yeasts and moulds — Part 2: Colony count technique in products with water activi ty less than or equal to 0,95  
3 Terms and definitions   
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.  
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:  
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at http://www.iso.org/obp  
  
honey  
the natural sweet substance produced by honey bees of genus Apis from the nectar of plants or from 
secretions of living parts of plants or excretions of plant suc king insects on the living parts of plants, which the 
bees collect, transform by combining with specific substances of their own, deposit, dehydrate, store and 
leave in the honey comb to ripen and mature  
4 Types of honey  
4.1 By origin  
4.1.1  Blossom honey  or nectar honey  
Honey  which is derived mainly from nectarines of flowers  
4.1.2  Honey dew honey  
Honey, which comes mainly from secretions of living parts of plants or excretions of plant sucking insects on 
the living parts of the plants. Its colour vari es from very light brown or greenish to dark brown  
4.1.3  Monofloral  honey  
A type of honey which has a distinctive flavor or other attribute due to its being predominantly from the nectar 
of one plant species  
4.1.4  Fruit and plant juices honey  
Honey made  by bees from sweet substances such as juices and sap from fruits and plant phloem  
4.2 By methods of processing  
4.2.1  Extracted honey  
Honey only obtained by centrifuging decapped broodless combs  
4.2.2  Pressed  honey  
Honey obtained by pressing broodless combs with or without the application of moderate heat  
4.2.3  Drained honey  
Honey obtained by draining decapped broodless combs   
© EAC 2019 – All rights reserved  3 
 4.3 By form of presentation  
Honey which meets all the compositional and quality criteria of this standard may be presented as  follows:  
a) Honey which is honey in liquid or crystalline state or a mixture of the two;  
b) Comb honey, which is honey, stored by bees in the cells of freshly built broodless combs and which is 
sold in sealed whole combs or sections of such combs;  
c) Chunk hone y, which is, honey containing one or more pieces of comb honey;  
d) Crystalled or granulated honey which is honey that has undergone a natural process of solidification 
as a res ult of glucose crystallization; and  
e) Creamed (or creamy or set) honey is honey whic h has a fine crystalline structure and which may have 
undergone a physical process to give it that structure and to make it easy to spread.  
5 Requirements  
5.1 General requirements  
Honey shall;  
a) not have added food ingredient, including food additives, nor s hall any other additions be made other 
than honey ;  
b) not have any objectionable matter , flavour, aroma, or taint absorbed from foreign matter during its 
processing and storage;  
c) not have begun to ferment or effervesce;  
d) not have pollen or constituent particu lar to honey removed except where this is unavoidable in the 
removal of foreign inorganic or organic matter;  
e) not be heated to such an extent that its essential composition and /or its quality is impaired;  
f) not be chemically or biochemically treated to influ ence honey crystallisation;  
g) have the colour varying from near colourless to dark brown (amber) depending on the botanical 
source.  
h) have the consistency of fluid, viscous, partly or entirely crystallized;  
i) have the flavour and aroma derived from plant orig in; and 
j) be free from visible mould and as far as practicable, be free from inorganic or organic matter foreign 
to its composition, such as insects, insect debris, brood or grains of sand, or soil, when the honey is 
offered for sale or is used in any produc t for human consumption.  
5.2 Specific requirements  
Honey  shall comply with the specific requirements given in Table 1 when tested in accordance with test 
methods specified therein.   
4 © EAC  2019 – All rights reserved  
 Table 1 — Specific requirements for honey  
S/N Characteristic  Requirement  Test method  
i) Reducing sugar content calculated as invert 
sugar, % m/m, min  
- Other honey   
- Honeydew honey   
 
60 
45  
 
AOAC 920.183  
ii) Moisture content, % m/m, max  20 AOAC 969.38 b  
iii) Sucrose content, % m/m, max  5 AOAC 920.184  
iv) Water insoluble s olids 
- For honeys other than pressed honey, % m/m,  
max  
- Pressed honey, % m/m, max   
 
0.1 
0.5  
 
Annex A  
v) Total ash, % m/m, max  0.6 AOAC 920.181  
vi) Acidity, %, m/m, max, as miliequivalents acid 
per kg or when expressed as formic acid 
percent by mass  not more than 0.2 %   
40  
AOAC 962.19  
vii) Diastase activity, schade, min  8 AOAC 958.09  
viii) Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF),  mg/kg, max  40 AOAC 980.23  
ix) Fructose -glucose ratio, min   1 Annex B  
x) Fiehe's test  Negative  Annex C  
6 Food additives and contaminants  
6.1 Food additives  
Honey shall not contain any added substances either in the form of additions or additives.  
6.2 Heavy metal contaminants  
Honey shall be free from heavy metals in amounts which may represent a hazard to human health. The 
products covered by this Standard shall comply with those maximum levels for heavy metals established by 
the Codex Alimentarius Commission.  
In particular, the levels of heavy metallic contaminants in honey shall not exceed limits given in Table 1 , when 
tested  in accordance with the test method prescribed therein .  
Table 2 — Limits for heavy metal contaminants  
S/N Heavy m etal Maximum level  
mg/kg (ppm)  Test method  
i) Arsenic  0.1 952.13  
ii) Lead  0.1 AOAC 999.11  
iii) Tin  5.0 AOAC 985.16  
iv) Mercury  0.01 AOA C 983.20  
v) Cadmium  0.03 AOAC 999.10  
  
© EAC 2019 – All rights reserved  5 
 6.3 Residues of pesticides and veterinary drugs  
The product shall comply with pesticides and veterinary drugs maximum residue limits for honey established 
by the Codex Alimentarius Commission.  
7 Hygiene  
Honey shall be processed and handled in hygienic manner in accordance with the EAS 39 and shall comply 
with the microbiological limits stipulated in Table 3 when tested in accordance with test methods specified 
therein.  
Table 3 — Microbiological requirements for honey  
S/N Microorganism  Requirement  Test method  
i) Coliform count, MPN /g, max.  Absent  ISO 4831  
ii) Yeast and mould count, cfu/g, 
max.  < 10 ISO 21527 -2 
 
8 Packaging  
Honey shall be packaged in a food grade material that protects the integrity and safety of the  product.  
9 Weights and measures  
The volume and fill  of the container shall comply with weight s and measure s regulations in the respective 
partner state . 
10 Labelling  
In addition to the labelling requirements given in EAS 38, the package shall be legibly and indelibly marked 
with the following information:  
a) name of the product as “Honey”;  
b) type of honey as per clause 5.2;  
c) name, location and physical address of the processor/packer;  
d) country of origin;  
e) date of packaging;  
f) best before;  
g) instructions for storage ; 
h) net content in SI unit; and  
i) batch/lot number.   
6 © EAC  2019 – All rights reserved  
 11 Sampling  
Sampling of honey shall be done in accordance with CAC/GL 50.   
© EAC 2019 – All rights reserved  7 
 Annex  A 
(normative)  
 
Gravimetric determination of water -insoluble solids content (Type II 
method)  
A.1 Sampling  
A.1.1  Liquid or strain ed honey  
If sample is free from granulation, mix thoroughly by stirring or shaking; if granulated, place closed container in 
water -bath without submerging, and heat 30 min. at 60 °C; then if necessary,  heat at 65 °C until liquefied. 
Occasional shaking is e ssential. Mix thoroughly and cool rapidly as soon as sample liquefies. Do not heat 
honey intended for hydroxymethylfurfural or diastatic determination. If foreign matter, such as wax, sticks, 
bee’s particles or comb, etc., is present, heat sample at 40 °C in water -bath and strain through cheesecloth in 
hot-water -funnel before sampling.  
A.1.2  Comb honey  
Cut across top of comb, if sealed, and separate completely from comb by straining through a sieve the 
meshes of which are made by so weaving wire as to for m square opening of 0.500 mm by 0.500 mm when 
portions of comb or wax pass through sieve, heat sample as in 7.1.3.1 and strain through cheesecloth. If 
honey is granulated in comb, heat until wax is liquefied; stir, cool and remove wax.  
A.2 Procedure  
A.2.1  Preparation of test sample  
Honey (20 g) is weighted to the nearest centigram (10 mg) and dissolved in a suitable quantity of distilled 
water at 80 °C and mixed well.  
A.2.2  Gravimetric determination  
The test sample is filtered through a previously dri ed and weighed fine sintered glass crucible (pore size 
15.40) and washed thoroughly with hot water (80 °C) until free from sugars (Mohr test).  The crucible is dried 
for one hour at 135 °C, cooled and weighed to 0.1 mg.  
A.2.3  Expression of results  
 The r esult is expressed as percent water insoluble solids (m/m).  
 
  
8 © EAC  2019 – All rights reserved  
 Annex  B 
(normative ) 
 
Determination of fructose -glucose ratio  
B.1 Principle of the method  
The glucose portion of the invert sugar content of hon ey is determined by reacting it with iodine. The fructose 
content is calculated by subtraction.  
B.2 Reagents  
 —  0.05 N iodine solution  
 —  0.01 N sodium hydroxide solution  
 —  Standard sodium thiosulphate solution (0.05 N).  
B.3 Procedure  
Pipette 50 ml of honey solution in a 250 ml stoppered flask. Add iodine solution and 25 ml of sodium 
hydroxide solution. Stopper the flask and keep in dark for 20 min. Acidify with 5 ml of sulphuric acid and titrate 
quickly the excess of iodine against standard thios ulphate solution. Conduct a blank using 50 ml of water 
instead of honey solution.  
B.4 Calculation and expression of results  
B.4.1  Approximate glucose, per cent by mass (g of glucose per 100 g honey) :  
 
    (B−S)×0.004502 ×100 
w = 
                                               a 
where  
B is the  volume of sodium thiosulphate solution required for the blank (ml).  
 S is the  volume of sodium thiosulphate solution required for the sample (ml), and  
 a is the  mass o f honey taken for the test.  
B.4.2 Approximate fructose, per cent by mass (g fructose per 100 g honey) :  
  
Total  reducing sugars ( c) - approximate glucose content ( w) 
 X =   
0.925  
  
B.4.3 Actual glucose content (g per 100 g honey), per cent (y) = w - 0.012 x, and   
© EAC 2019 – All rights reserved  9 
   
Total  reducing sugars  – y actual  
Fructose  content (g per 100 g honey), per cent (z) =                
                           0.925  
  
Actual fructose content ( z) 
B.4.4  Fructose -glucose ratio  =    
Actual glucose content (y) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
10 © EAC  2019 – All rights reserved  
 Anne x C 
(normative)  
 
Fiehe's test   
C.1 Reagent  
Resorcinol solution  
Dissolve 1 g of resublimed resorcinol in 100 ml of hydrochloric acid (sp. gr. 1.18 to 1.19).  
C.2 Procedure  
Dissolve 2 g of honey in 10 ml o f water and extract with 30 ml ether. A continuous extractor is preferable. 
Remove ether in a separating funnel and concentrate the layer at 5 ml. Add 2 ml of freshly prepared resorcinol 
solution, shake and note the colour.  
C.3 Expression of results  
A che rry red colour appearing in a minute indicates the presence of commercial invert sugar.   
© EAC 2019 – All rights reserved  11 
 Bibliography  
 EAS 36:2000 , Honey — Specification  
 DEAS 36-1: 2019   
 
© EAC 2019 – All rights reserved