DEAS 991  
ICS 67.180.20   
 
© EAC 2019                                                                                                                           First Edition 2019 
 DRAFT EAST AFRICAN STANDARD  
Stingless bee honey — Specification  
EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY  DEAS 991: 2019  
ii © EAC  2019 – All rights reserved  
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 DEAS 991: 2019  
© EAC 2019 – All rights reserved  iii 
 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 standardization, trade barriers that are encountered when goods and services are exchang ed 
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  Technical Committees that are representative of key 
stakeholders including government, academ ia, 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 finalizat ion 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 with 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 apiary products . 
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this do cument may be subject of patent 
rights. EAC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.  DRAFT EAST AFRICAN STANDARD  DEAS 991: 2019  
 
© EAC 2019 – All rights reserve d 1 
 Stingless bee honey — Specification  
1 Scope   
This Standard specifies requirements, sampling and test methods for stingless bee honey p roduced by 
subfamily Meliponinae  intended for direct human 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 referenc es, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, 
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  
AOA C 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  958.09 Det ermination of Diastase Activity  
AOAC 962.19 Determination of Acidity (Free, Lactone, and T otal) 
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   
AOAC  Official  method 999.11 Determination o f Lead, Cadmium, Copper, Iron and Zinc in Foods  — Atomic 
Absorptions Spectrophotometry after dry ashing  
EAS 38 , Labelling of pre -packaged food -general requirement   
EAS 39 , Hygiene in the food and drinks manufacturing industry — Code of practice  
ISO 4831, Microbiology of food and animal feeding stuffs — Horizontal method for detection and enumeration 
of coliforms — Most probable number technique  
ISO 6634, Fruits, vegetables and derived products — Determination of arsenic content — Silver 
diethyldithiocarbama te spectrophotometric method  
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 activity less than or equal to 0,95   
2 © EAC  2019 – All rights reserved  
 3 Terms and de finitions   
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  
stingless bee honey   
the natural sweet, sour or bitter substance produced by stingless bees of subfamily Meliponinae from the 
nectar of plants or from secretions of living parts of plants, which the stingless bees c ollect, transform by 
combining with specific substances of their own, deposit, dehydrate, store and leave in the honey pots to ripen 
and mature.   
4 Requirements  
4.1 General requirements  
Stingless bee honey shall;  
a) not have added food ingredient, including f ood additives, nor shall 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 particular 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 biochemi cally treated to influence honey crystallisation;  
g) have the colour varying from near colourless to dark brown (amber) depending on the botanical 
source;  
h) have the consistency of either fluid, viscous or partly or entirely crystallized;  
i) have the flavour an d aroma derived from plant origin; 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 fo r sale or is used in any product for human consumption.  
4.2 Specific requirements  
Stingless bee honey shall also comply with the requirements given in Table 1 when tested in accordance with 
the test methods prescribed therein.   
© EAC 2019 – All rights reserved  3 
 Table 1— Requirements for s tingless bee honey  
S/N Characteristic  Requirement  Test method  
i) Moisture, % m/m, max.  32 AOAC 969.38 b  
ii) Reducing sugar, % m/m, min. %  50 AOAC 920.183  
iii) Sucrose, % m/m, max.  6 AOAC 920.184  
iv) Acidity, % m/m, max.  meq/kg  85 AOAC 962.19  
v) Ash, % m/m, max.  0.5 AOAC 920.181  
vi) Hydroxymethyl furfural, mg/kg, max.  40 AOAC 980.23  
vii) Diastase activity, schade,  min. 3.0 AOAC 958.09  
5 Heavy m etal contaminants  
Stingless bee honey shall be free from heavy metals in amounts which may represent a hazar d to human 
health and shall conform to the limits specified in Table 2 when tested in accordance with the test methods 
prescribed therein.   
Table 2  — Requirements for heavy metal contaminants   
S/N Heavy m etal Requirement  Test method  
i) Lead , mg/kg, max.  0.1 AOAC 999.11  
ii) Arsenic , mg/kg, max.  0.1 ISO 6634        
iii) Tin, mg/kg, max.  5.0 AOAC 985.16  
iv) Cadmium, mg/kg, max.  0.01 AOAC 999.11  
v) Mercury, mg/kg, max.  0.03 AOAC 983.20  
6 Residues of pesticides and veterinary drugs  
Stingless bee honey shall comply with pesticides and veterinary drugs maximum residue limits for stingless 
bee honey established by the Codex Alimentarius Commission.  
7 Hygiene  
Stingless bee 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 stingless bee 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  
Stingless bee honey shall be packaged in a food grade material that protects the integrity and safety of the 
product.   
4 © EAC  2019 – All rights reserved  
 9 Weights and measures  
The volume and f ill 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 informati on: 
a) name of the product as “Stingless bee honey”;  
b) name, location and physical address of the processor/packer;  
c) country of origin;  
d) date of packaging;  
e) best before;  
f) instructions for storage;  
g) net content in SI unit; and  
h) batch/lot number.  
11 Nutrition al and h ealth claims  
Any nutritional and health claims associated with this product shall be in accordance with EAS 805  and shall 
follow nutritional labelling concepts in accordance with EAS 80 4. 
12 Sampling  
Sampling of stingless bee honey shall be done in accord ance with CAC/GL 50.  
  
 
 
 
 
 
  
© EAC 2019 – All rights reserved  5 
 Bibliography  
 EAS 36:2000 , Honey — Specification  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 DEAS 991: 2019    
 
© EAC 2019 – All rights reserved