>“[I]t is perhaps not surprising that a pollen analytical study commissioned by Australia’s Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, and carried out by a prominent European food testing consultancy, found that of 20 Australian honey samples described by beekeepers as unifloral Eucalyptus or Corymbia honeys (that is, in theory, honeys produced primarily from the nectar of a single species), seven were not accepted as unifloral Eucalyptus honeys. Of these seven, four were considered primarily ‘blossom’ honeys or honeydew honeys, and one was not accepted as Eucalyptus honey at all. The reason for this scepticism by European melissopalynologists was presumably that pollen they identified as Eucalyptus did not constitute a sufficiently high proportion of the total pollen in these honeys. International Honey Commission criteria for accepting Eucalyptus unifloral honeys are based on examination of 208 European-Mediterranean honey accessions…. One likely explanation for this difference is that eucalypt honeys produced in the Mediterranean region are derived from very few species. By comparison, in Australia there are ~800 species of Eucalyptus, dozens of which may be used by beekeepers. ” Etc.

This has been a problem for Australia in that the European testing labs have a database that is not based on Australian samples.  They come from places such as European and Brazil.  This causes problems as many of our top honey producing trees are not grown overseas as they have no real timber value.  

The classic example is yellow box (Eucalyptus melliodora).  It produces good honey but next to no pollen.  So any pollen analysis is not valid to prove it is yellow box i.e. eucalyptus.  What happens is that where the yellow box grows there may be wattle (Acacia sp.) which produce pollen but not honey.  So if a pollen analysis was carried out on yellow box then it will show next to no eucalypt pollen and wattle pollen.  So if using European testing methods it would show as not eucalyptus when in fact it is.

This is the problem in that tests carried out in one country are then applied to another country.  Totally inappropriate.  Media gets hold of this misinformation and industry suffers.

Trevor Weatherhead
Australia

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