Every once in a while, a customer asks for the lab report on a batch. We send it. The report comes back as a single A4 page from an accredited Egyptian laboratory, with the batch ID, a list of measured values, and the reference ranges those values should fall inside. Most people open it, see numbers like HMF: 8.4 mg/kg and Moisture: 17.6%, and stop there — not because they do not care, but because nobody told them what those numbers actually mean.
This piece walks through a Haydara lab report, value by value — what each line measures, what a good reading looks like, and what an out-of-range reading would mean. It is the kind of thing a buyer of a real product should be able to read without a chemistry degree.
Why we test in the first place
Honey is one of the most adulterated products in the world. The market is full of "pure" jars blended with cane, beet, rice, or commercial fructose syrup, fed to bees instead of nectar, or heated until any trace of the original is gone. None of that shows up in a casual taste test — but it shows up in the chemistry. Real honey, harvested at the right moment and not blended with sugars, leaves a recognisable signature on a lab bench. We test every batch because that signature is the only thing standing between a customer and a marketing slogan.
Moisture (water content): typically 16–18%
Moisture is the percentage of water in the honey. The international Codex Alimentarius standard sets the upper limit at 20%; most quality honeys land between 16% and 18%. We aim for 17–18% on our raw batches.
Too much water and the honey ferments. Above about 18.5%, the natural yeasts in honey wake up and start producing carbon dioxide and alcohol — the jar bubbles and turns sour. Below 16%, the honey will be unusually thick and crystallise faster, but it is safe. A reading below 15% on a "premium dense" jar suggests heat-drying or that the honey is not pure.
HMF (hydroxymethylfurfural): typically < 15 mg/kg fresh, < 40 mg/kg legal limit
HMF is a compound that forms slowly when honey is exposed to heat or stored for long periods. Fresh honey, harvested and packed without thermal abuse, has very low HMF — often under 10 mg/kg. The Codex limit is 40 mg/kg for tropical honeys; the EU limit is 80 mg/kg.
What HMF tells you: how the honey has been handled. A high HMF on a "raw" jar is a red flag. Either the honey was warmed too aggressively to make it pour easily into bottles, or it has been sitting on a warehouse shelf for a long time before reaching you. Our raw batches typically test under 10 mg/kg at packing.
Diastase activity (DN): typically > 8 Schade units
Diastase is a natural enzyme bees add to nectar. It survives in raw honey, fades slowly with time, and is destroyed by heat. The Codex requires a minimum of 8 Schade units (DN ≥ 8) for most honeys; for some naturally low-enzyme honeys, the minimum is 3.
What diastase tells you: whether the honey is alive. Heat-treated, ultra-filtered, or syrup-blended honeys lose diastase quickly. A reading below 3 on a honey claiming to be raw is a strong signal of either heat damage or adulteration.
Free acidity: typically < 50 milliequivalents/kg
This is a measure of the natural acidity of the honey, expressed as milliequivalents (meq) of acid per kilogram. The legal upper limit is 50. Most honeys land between 15 and 35.
What it tells you: whether the honey has started to ferment. As yeasts break down sugars, they produce gluconic acid, and the free acidity climbs. A reading near or above 50 means the honey has either been stored badly, was packaged with too much moisture, or is in early fermentation.
Sugar profile: fructose, glucose, and the fructose/glucose ratio
A real honey is mostly fructose and glucose, with smaller amounts of maltose, sucrose, and rarer sugars. The Codex requires:
Fructose + glucose ≥ 60% (≥ 45% for honeydew honeys). Most floral honeys land between 65% and 80%.
Sucrose ≤ 5% (≤ 10% for a few specific monoflorals like citrus and acacia). High sucrose suggests the bees were fed sugar syrup or that honey was harvested too early.
The fructose-to-glucose ratio also tells you something practical: a ratio above 1.2 (more fructose than glucose) means the honey will crystallise slowly and stay liquid longer; below 1.0 means it will granulate quickly. Citrus honey has a ratio around 1.2–1.3 and crystallises slowly. Clover honey has a ratio closer to 1.0 and crystallises within months — completely natural, not a defect.
C4 sugar / isotope ratio: should be < 7%
This is the test that catches cane and corn syrup adulteration. Honey is made from C3 plant nectars; cane and corn are C4 plants with a different carbon-isotope signature. A pure honey will register a C4 sugar percentage well under 7%; an adulterated honey will spike. We always include this test because it is the strongest direct evidence of authenticity.
If a honey passes everything else but fails C4, it is not honey. It is a blend. There is no honest reason for a high C4 reading.
Pollen analysis (melissopalynology)
This test confirms floral source. Under a microscope, pollen grains are identifiable per flower: a citrus honey shows a clear majority of Citrus pollen, clover shows Trifolium, marjoram shows Origanum. The percentages match the labelling we use, and pollen also localises a honey — a Fayoum apiary's signature differs from a Tanta one. It is one of the few tests that ties a jar to a place.
Antibiotic and pesticide residues: should be undetectable
We test for common antibiotic groups used in industrial beekeeping (tetracyclines, sulfonamides, chloramphenicol) and for agricultural pesticide residues. A clean report on these is unremarkable for a properly sourced Egyptian honey, but the line should be on the page.
What a good Haydara report looks like
For a typical batch — say a recent Hive 7 Citrus — the report shows: moisture ~17.5%, HMF under 8, diastase well above 8, free acidity in the 20s, fructose+glucose ~70%, sucrose under 3%, C4 under 1%, dominant Citrus pollen, residues undetectable. None of those numbers is remarkable alone. Together, they are the signature of a real, gently handled monofloral honey — every line telling the same story.
How to ask for a report
If you want to see the lab report for the batch in your jar, the batch ID is printed on the bottom of the label. Send it to us on WhatsApp at +20 122 566 7775 and we will email the PDF the same day. We are happy to do this for any jar — a single 250g, a wholesale pallet, or a corporate gift order.
For an overview of what every other line on the label means and why it is there, see our label guide. For why batch transparency matters more than a "premium" sticker, see what "small producer" actually means in our world. The lab report is one piece of that picture. The rest is the people, the hives, and the patience to get all of it right.