What Makes Consumers Trust Honey?

Honey producers spend a lot of time talking about quality, purity, testing, certification, and traceability. But what does the consumer actually value? A new 2026 study provides some surprisingly clear answers.

Researchers surveyed more than 2,200 consumers across Germany, Italy, Portugal and Slovenia and asked them to make realistic choices between different honey products. They examined geographical origin, traceability, authenticity testing, supply-chain transparency, honey type, organic production and price.

The most important message is simple:

Consumers are prepared to pay for trust — but the way that trust is communicated matters enormously.

And for producers of premium honey, particularly origin-specific or monofloral honey, there are some important lessons.

The big finding: origin beats technology

The strongest and most consistent driver of consumer preference was where the honey came from.

Honey produced in the EU, and particularly honey produced in the consumer’s own country, attracted substantially higher willingness to pay than many other quality attributes.

Consumers also showed a positive willingness to pay for verified geographical origin.

This is important because it suggests that consumers don’t necessarily want to see a complicated explanation of analytical technology.

They want to know:

Where did this honey come from — and can I believe it?

That distinction is critical.

“Provenance” may be more powerful than “proof of no fraud”

One of the most interesting findings concerns authenticity testing.

The researchers tested consumer reactions to three approaches:

·         testing the geographical origin of the honey;

·         testing for sugar adulteration;

·         testing for both origin and adulteration.

The results were not equivalent.

Origin testing was consistently positive.

Testing specifically for adulteration, however, produced weak, statistically insignificant or even negative responses in several countries.

Why?

The researchers suggest that telling consumers “this honey has been tested for adulteration” may inadvertently remind them that honey can be adulterated in the first place.

In other words:

“Verified origin” sounds reassuring.“Tested for adulteration” can sound worrying.

This is a fascinating lesson for honey marketing.

The technology may be identical or complementary, but the consumer-facing message can produce very different reactions.

Traceability matters — but it isn’t what consumers say they care about most

There is an apparent contradiction in the study.

When consumers were simply asked what matters when buying food, traceability ranked very low.

Across the four countries, price was the dominant factor, followed by taste and freshness. Traceability had the lowest overall score, with a weighted mean of only 8.4.

But when consumers were asked to choose between actual honey products with different characteristics, traceability and verified origin became valuable.

This suggests an important distinction:

Consumers may not wake up thinking, “I need traceable honey today.”

But when faced with two otherwise similar jars, a credible indication of origin and transparency can influence which one they choose.

For premium honey producers, this is much more useful than simply knowing that consumers “care about traceability.”

Consumers value a transparent supply chain

The study also tested two non-technological approaches to building trust:

Strong supply-chain partnerships and direct sales from producer to consumer.

Both generated positive consumer responses in most of the countries studied.

This is encouraging for beekeepers. You don’t necessarily need sophisticated blockchain systems or a QR code containing pages of laboratory data to create a stronger authenticity proposition. There is another powerful message:

“This honey comes directly from the beekeeper.” or

“We know the beekeeper, where the honey was produced and how it moved through the supply chain.”

The study found that these kinds of relationships can have real consumer value.

Organic honey has value — but origin is stronger

Organic production was positively valued in all four countries. However, its relative willingness-to-pay value was generally lower than geographical origin and some traceability attributes. This doesn’t mean organic certification isn’t important.

Rather, it suggests that organic can reinforce an authenticity story rather than replace provenance.

For example: Organic + known origin + transparent supply chain may communicate considerably more than: Organic alone.

Don’t assume every consumer wants the same thing

Another important finding is that consumers were far from homogeneous. There were significant differences between individuals in how they valued origin, organic production, honey type and authenticity testing. The researchers found particularly strong preference differences in Italy and Germany.

This means there may not be a single “European honey consumer.” One customer may care strongly about local origin. Another may care about organic certification. Another may be attracted to a particular floral source. Another may respond strongly to a transparent producer-to-consumer supply chain.

For honey producers, this means market segmentation matters.

What does this mean for beekeepers?

The study suggests several practical lessons.

1. Tell consumers where their honey comes from

Don’t hide the provenance behind generic language. If your honey has a genuine geographical story, make it visible. For example:

“Waikato, New Zealand”

is more meaningful than simply:

“Premium New Zealand Honey.”

And a specific production region may be even more powerful when the claim can genuinely be substantiated.

2. Make traceability understandable

Traceability should not become a technical exercise that only a food scientist can understand.

Instead of presenting consumers with complicated analytical terminology, communicate the information they actually need:

Where was it produced? Who produced it? When was it harvested? Where was it processed?How was its authenticity verified?

The study suggests that traceability becomes more valuable when it creates a credible and understandable authenticity signal.

3. Don’t make “anti-fraud” the centre of your marketing

This may be one of the most useful lessons from the paper. There is a difference between saying:

“Tested to prove its geographical origin.”

and

“Tested to make sure it hasn’t been adulterated.”

The second statement may unintentionally make consumers think about fraud. The researchers specifically caution that communication about fraud-related testing needs to consider how consumers interpret the message, not merely whether the underlying test is technically valid.

4. Use testing to support the story — not replace it

Analytical testing is important. But the research does not suggest that a laboratory result alone creates consumer value. A better proposition may be:

Known origin + transparent supply chain + credible testing, rather than: Laboratory testing + no story.

The researchers emphasise that authentication technologies need to be technically reliable, affordable, scalable and robust across different honey types and geographical origins.

5. Direct relationships can be commercially valuable

The positive response to direct sales is particularly relevant to smaller producers. A beekeeper selling directly to consumers has something large anonymous supply chains struggle to reproduce: a relationship.

“Produced by our beekeeper partners in a such and such region” can therefore become part of the value proposition. The research found positive willingness to pay for direct sales and strong supply-chain relationships in most of the countries studied.

What about premium Mānuka and other speciality honeys?

Although this study was conducted in four European markets and was not specifically a Mānuka honey study, its findings have obvious implications for premium origin-based honey.

For a premium honey, consumers are effectively buying a credence product.

They cannot determine its true geographical or botanical origin simply by looking at it — and they cannot conclusively verify authenticity after eating it. That creates an information gap.

The producer therefore has to provide credible signals that bridge that gap.

For a premium honey, those signals could include:

Origin → Producer → Harvest → Batch → Testing → Processing → Packaging

The stronger the chain connecting those elements, the easier it becomes to tell a convincing authenticity story.

But there is an important warning

This study does not prove that consumers will actually pay the precise premiums reported in the experiment.

The researchers used a hypothetical discrete choice experiment. Consumers stated their preferences rather than spending their own money in a real supermarket. Consequently, the willingness-to-pay figures should be treated as indicators of relative consumer valuation, not guaranteed market premiums.

The study also explicitly states that it does not test whether the authentication technologies themselves actually work in commercial honey supply chains. Their analytical performance, cost and operational feasibility require separate evaluation. That is an important distinction.

The bottom line for honey producers

This study provides a useful reality check for an industry increasingly investing in authenticity and traceability. Consumers don’t necessarily want more technology. They want more confidence.

And the strongest route to that confidence appears to be:

1. Tell me where the honey comes from.

2. Give me evidence that the claim is credible.

3. Show me that the supply chain is transparent.

4. Make the information easy to understand.

5. Give me a reason to trust the producer.

The study’s overall conclusion is that credible authentication and traceability can help differentiate honey and potentially support a price premium — but they should form part of a broader quality-assurance and governance system rather than being treated as a standalone solution.

For beekeepers and honey companies, that may be the most important lesson of all:

Don’t just sell the honey. Sell the evidence that makes the honey worth trusting.

Find the study here:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772502226008279