Honeydew Honey: Evidence and Safety

Quick safety points

• Never give honey, of any kind, to a baby under 12 months. Honey can carry spores that cause infant botulism, a serious illness. Honeydew honey is honey, and the sources we read make no exception for it. [12][13]
• Honey is made of sugars. The World Health Organization counts the sugars in honey as "free sugars", which it advises keeping below 10% of daily energy. If you manage blood sugar, ask your clinician how any honey fits your plan. [14]
• Bee products can cause allergic reactions, from skin reactions to anaphylaxis. A 2025 review says people with atopy (a tendency to allergies) and beekeepers have the highest risk. Honeydew honey was not studied separately in what we read. [10]
• Honey can carry contaminants such as trace metals, pesticide residues and plant toxins. Reviews say this applies to honey in general, and that quality and authenticity can be compromised by contamination and adulteration. [2][11]
• Pregnancy, breastfeeding, children over 1 year, medicines and surgery: not described for honeydew honey in the sources we read. See pregnancy and breastfeeding.

What honeydew honey is

Most honey comes from flower nectar. Honeydew honey does not. The Codex Alimentarius honey standard defines it as honey that comes mainly from the excretions of plant-sucking insects (the order Hemiptera, such as aphids) left on the living parts of plants, or from secretions of living plant parts. The bees collect this sweet liquid, add substances of their own, dry it down and store it in the comb, just as they do with nectar. [1]

In practice, the honeydew in honey comes from insects feeding on tree sap. In Bulgaria, for example, the main sources studied were oak and conifers such as fir and spruce. [4] Researchers have also studied honeydew honeys from Greece, Poland, Croatia and other European countries. [5][7][9][15] Because it is made from insect excretions and tree secretions, it can taste and look different from flower honey: it is generally darker, and one critical review says it differs from nectar honey in taste and appearance. [2][3]

Under Codex labelling rules the word "honeydew" may be placed near the name "honey", and a mix with flower honey may be labeled as a blend. Honey may also be named for its plant source if it comes mainly from it, with the country declared. [1] Fir honeydew and oak honeydew are examples studied in the papers we read. [4][9]

How honeydew honey differs from nectar honey

Electrical conductivity is a simple lab test. A honey solution is measured for how well it carries a small electric current. Honeydew honey scores higher, and a Polish study calls conductivity a useful way to tell the two types apart. [1][5] The Codex annex that gives these conductivity figures is marked for voluntary use by trading partners, not for governments. [1] The Codex text also lists exceptions, such as strawberry tree, heathers, eucalyptus, linden (lime), manuka and tea tree honeys, which are nectar honeys that can be above 0.8. [1] We did not read the EU Honey Directive itself; the Bulgarian paper we read cites 0.8 mS/cm as a requirement for honeydew honey but does not give the legal text. [4]

Measured values vary. In 17 Bulgarian honeydew honeys, conductivity ranged from 0.80 to 1.33 mS/cm, water content was between about 15% and 19%, and potassium was the most abundant mineral. [4] In a Polish study of 152 honeys, honeydew samples from broadleaf trees measured 0.80 to 0.95 mS/cm and those from conifers measured above 0.95, and honeydew types stood out for high lactic acid. [5]

Food use and how it differs from medical use

Honeydew honey is a food. It is eaten on bread, in tea or in cooking like other honey. It is not a medicine and it is not medical-grade honey. Sterilized honey dressings used in clinics are a separate product with their own trials, and results for one do not carry to the other. Do not put jar honey of any kind on a wound or burn in place of medical care. See medical-grade honey and wound care.

Traditional use (not proof)

The sources we read for this page do not describe a specific traditional medical use for honeydew honey. Honey in general has a long history as a home remedy, and forest honeys are valued as foods in several countries, but a history of use does not show that a food has a health effect. Honey-wide research is covered in honey.

What research shows

Proper evidence not found in the sources we read for honeydew honey as a treatment for any condition in people. The human research on honey as a whole (for example cough in children) did not test honeydew honey separately in anything we read. See honey for cough and sore throat.

The one human study we found involved "Greek honey" and did not say it was honeydew honey in the abstract.

Laboratory findings are the bulk of the honeydew research. A review says honeydew honey has distinctive chemistry and potential antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity. [2] A 2019 study of 64 honeydew honeys of known tree origin found that some oak types had distinctive phenolic compounds and high antioxidant capacity in lab tests. [6] A Croatian study of fir honeydew honey found it slowed the growth of several cancer cell lines and of some bacteria in test tubes, and also affected normal skin cells. [9] A critical review adds that honeydew honey is less well studied than flower honey and that many studies use too few samples. [3] Test-tube results do not show what happens in people.

Forms and why they matter

Honeydew honey is sold liquid or crystallized, raw or heated, and filtered or unfiltered. The Codex standard says honey with much of its pollen filtered out should be labeled "filtered honey", and that honey should not be heated so much that its quality is harmed. [1] WHO notes that botulism spores resist heat and commercial pasteurization may not kill all of them, so neither raw nor heated honey is safe for babies. [13] See raw vs regular honey.

Safety and cautions

• Babies: no honey under 12 months. MedlinePlus describes the warning signs of infant botulism as constipation, a weak cry, poor feeding, drooping eyelids and a limp body, and says to go to the emergency room or call 911. WHO notes that the spores resist heat and may survive boiling for hours. [12][13]
• Allergy and asthma: reactions to bee products range from local skin reactions to anaphylaxis, with higher risk in people with atopy. Whether honeydew honey carries a different risk was not described in what we read. [10]
• Diabetes and blood sugar: honey is a source of free sugars; see the WHO figure above. We did not find a source on honeydew honey and blood glucose. [14]
• Contaminants: one toxicology review lists pesticide residues, trace metals, plant toxins and Clostridium botulinum spores as concerns in honey as a whole. [11] A review of honeydew honey says contamination and adulteration can affect its quality and safety. [2] In the 17 Bulgarian honeydew honeys we read about, lead was about 10 to 12 micrograms per kilogram, which the authors describe as far below the EU limit of 100. [4] A Greek study found no added-sugar adulteration in the honeydew and nectar honeys it tested. [15] These are single studies, not a guarantee for any jar.
• Pregnancy, breastfeeding, children over 1, medicines, surgery: not described for honeydew honey in the sources we read.

Quality and buying

Honeydew honey has a Codex definition and labelling rules, and conductivity is one of the lab tests used to separate it from nectar honey. [1] Researchers are still working on better quality criteria and on lab methods to tell tree and country of origin, and one team says its method needs independent validation before use in authentication. [3][6][7] We did not read a source that tells shoppers how to verify a honeydew label at home. See honey adulteration, labels and how to choose.

Related pages

• Honey
• Honey and infant botulism
• Bee products and allergy warning signs
• Check before you use bee products: who should be careful
• Honey adulteration, labels and how to choose
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding