Here's a question for all you honey producers: What are your state's
regulations on the bottling and labeling of honey for sale?

I don't know how many of you read my article in February's ABJ, but I wrote
about the regulatory troubles I ran into in Missouri, which required anyone
selling through a third party to "process" our honey in a commercial kitchen
inspected by a state or county health department. Even if we sold only
direct to consumer and didn't have that kitchen, our label needed to state,
"This product has not been inspected by the Department of Health and Senior
Services." Anyone selling more than $30,000 per year needed to have the
kitchen regardless of how or where their honey was sold.

Like most Missouri beekeepers, I was unaware of this law until last year,
when my honey was pulled from store shelves by a county inspector. For some
reason the state Health Department felt it was time to start cracking down
on beekeepers, and began doing so through the counties. But I took it
personally, and worked with my local club and the MO State Beekeepers
Association to pass a new law. Senate Bill 500 does away with the kitchen
requirement and the label warning, and raises the dollar threshold for
commercial beekeepers to $50,000.

And we encountered virtually no resistance in the process, with our bill
passing 31-2 in the Senate and 141-5 in the House.

Along the way I learned that there are other states with similar laws on the
books. I would sincerely like to know what regs people are dealing with in
the rest of the United States, and even in other countries for comparison
purposes. Given the wall-to-wall media coverage we've gotten in recent
years, honeybees and beekeepers are loved and appreciated like never before
- meaning there's never been a better time to relax some of the silly
regulations we face.

Eugene Makovec
Missouri USA

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