Polyfloral honey

Bees always forage on different flower species even when one species predominates, and no analysis allows determining the exact percentage of a given nectar in a honey.

It is difficult to identify precisely the discrimination point between multifloral and unifloral honeys.

Pollen analysis of honey, or melissopalynology, is important for quality control and can help determine and control the geographical and botanical origin of honeys.

Honey always contains numerous pollen grains, mainly from the plant species foraged by honey bees, and a honey is considered unifloral when the relative frequency of one taxon's pollen exceeds 45 percent.

Because many pollen types are over- or under-represented, pollen percentages vary greatly between unifloral honeys, so sensory and physicochemical data are recommended for interpreting botanical origin.

In the absolute pollen count classes, class II, with 21,000 to 100,000 pollen grains per 10 g, includes most multifloral honeys as well as honeydew honeys.

Sensory evaluation is also used to verify the conformity of unifloral honeys, with panels scoring conformity from 1 to 10 and a score of 5 taken as the threshold for considering a honey unifloral.

EU Directive 2001/110/EC defines honey as the natural sweet substance produced by Apis mellifera bees from the nectar of plants, and blossom or nectar honey as honey obtained from the nectar of plants.

Under the EU Directive, as amended in 2024, the product name may be supplemented by a floral or vegetable origin only if the product comes wholly or mainly from the indicated source and shows the organoleptic, physico-chemical and microscopic characteristics of that origin; the Directive names no polyfloral category.

The Codex honey standard defines blossom or nectar honey as honey which comes from nectars of plants, and allows a floral or plant-source designation only if the honey comes wholly or mainly from that source and has the organoleptic, physicochemical and microscopic properties corresponding to it.

Codex also requires that where honey is designated by floral, plant or geographic source, the name of the country where the honey was produced shall be declared.

Unifloral honeys are regarded as a more valuable class and their denominations often bring higher prices than honey blends; in Italy, Spain and France almost half of marketed honey has a botanical denomination.