By federal law, any claims of a product being "certified organic" must carry
certain information on the label, in product advertisements and/or on the
parent company's website.  That information must include the certifying
agency (such as Oregon Tilth or CCOF or some other organic certifying
agency), plus the certification number for the company claiming to be
certified.  Without those two pieces of information, any claims of being
certified organic, for any product, is fraudulent and can be reported as
such to the USDA's organic program.

 

In terms of actually going through the hoops to gain certification, here is
the single best write-up I've found for the ins and outs of trying to get an
apiary certified organic:
https://brookfieldfarmhoney.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/usda-organic-honey-what
-does-it-mean/ 

 

If the honey being sold on Ebay actually have a certifying agency listed and
a valid certification number, then any interested party can look up more
information about that farm, apiary or company to learn more about how they
run their business.  The place to start would be via the certifying agency,
which maintains public records on all their certified businesses for exactly
that purpose.  Part of the design of the organic program to provide
transparency.  

 

If the honey being sold on Ebay doesn't have either the certifying agency
and/or a valid certification number, it's bogus.  No one who has gone
through the effort to get certified will neglect providing that information;
they have a strong financial and marketing advantage to trumpet that
achievement.

 

One more comment - the write-up listed above is at least a year old, and I
know that organic honey certification has been one of the hot topics being
worked on at both the NOSB and within the organic program in general.  There
may be more current guidelines now for what can and cannot be done for
apiaries and/or farms who wish to certify their honey as organic.  Also, it
is standard procedure that when the Organic Program hasn't made final
determinations on this-or-that aspect of how to manage an organic product, a
farm, ranch or business should use the NOSB guidelines until something is
formalized.  

 

Hope that helps.  If someone is really interested, send me the Ebay listing
and I can do some sleuthing to see if their claims are bogus or legit.

Kathryn Kerby

Frogchorusfarm.com

Snohomish, WA


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