QUALITY HONEY AWARDS
CONTEST
All branded (not bulk) honey available in retail stores is eligible to participate in the supreme honey award (London Honey Awards). The products to be evaluated must be in the appropriate condition for tasting and their distinctive information must be written out correctly and clearly on the label, i.e. they must be products ready to be sold to the consumer public. The contest’s organizational committee may request physical and chemical tests in cooperation with recognized laboratories, in order to verify that the products are technically sound.
EVALUATION
The “blind” method is used for tasting the products, without packaging and without any type of distinctive feature visible. Each product is given a code number to ensure its reliable traceability. The samples are evaluated by the Jury Panel. Each judge carries out an organoleptic analysis of the products he tastes and records a numerical rating on the evaluation sheet, which represents the general sense of enjoyment (which weighs the most in the final rating) as well as other criteria, such as appearance, odor, texture, flavor, and mouth-feel.
The products are evaluated based on their distinct and individual properties and do not compete with each other.
HONEY AWARDS
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PLATINUM Honey Award
with ratings between 95,5 and 100 -
GOLD Honey Award
with ratings between 80,5 and 95 -
SILVER Honey Award
with ratings between 65 and 80
WHY TO PARTICIPATE?
The Award is a reliable sign of superior quality, which can be used both in the domestic and export markets. Their approval enhances your negotiating power in transactions with distributors, suppliers, and retailers. Being able to advertise a certified superior flavor has a proven positive effect on sales. By winning the award for your products, you are maximizing your marketing actions across the globe.
COST OF PARTICIPATION
The participation fee is €250 (euros) per brand
THE PANEL OF JUDGES
GIAN LUIGI MARCAZZAN - Italy, Panel leader
Researcher and technical manager for honey quality control by chemical and sensory analysis at the Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA) in Bologna, Italy for 26 years. He is the leader of the Honey Sensory group within the International Honey Commission, the leading organization to develop methods for honey quality evaluation. He is the President of the Italian Register of Experts in the Sensory Analysis of Honey with more than 25 years of experience as a teacher and professional honey taster. Since 2008, Gian Luigi works as a panel leader for the international honey competition BioMiel. Gian Luigi studies the composition of royal jelly and propolis to open up the knowledge of the composition in order to characterize and control the quality. He is also a beekeeper and breeds bees for the production of swarms and honey.
NICOLAS KONTOLEMOS - Greece
I am an Agricultural Specialist in Beekeeping, studied in Italy. I have been head of beekeeping at the beekeeping department of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food. I have a diploma in honey tasting from the Italian Beekeepers Institute in Bologna, and I am a member of the Registry of Italian Honey Tasters. I have been a member of the international jury for many years in international competitions for organic honey. I also hold a diploma in artificial insemination of queen bees. For many years I have been holding a six hundred-hive beekeeping unit to produce honey, pollen, royal jelly, etc.
DR SLAĐAN RAŠIĆ - Serbia
Assistant professor in Faculty of Ecological Agriculture, University EDUCONS, Sremska Kamenica, Serbia. President of Serbian Honey Tasting Society. Organizer and participant in several schools for testing and evaluating honey. The organizer of many exhibitions of honey in Serbia. A member of the Honey Evaluation Commission at many beekeeping events in the country and abroad.
DR. MOJCA KOROŠEC - Slovenia
Mojca Korošec is an assistant professor in Nutrition at the Department of Food Science and Technology, Biotechnical faculty, University of Ljubljana. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in 2012, with a dissertation entitled Determination of physical and chemical parameters for verifying honey authenticity. Her research interests are Physico-chemical and sensory analyses for characterization and quality assessment of the food, with a special focus on honey bee products. She is a member of the International Honey Commission’s working group for Sensory assessment and a member of the national and international panels for sensory assessment of honey.
EMRE YILDIRIM - Turkey
Founder of ApiMaye Innovative Beekeeping, Equipment, producer of Thermo Beehives. Experienced WBA Judge (World Beekeeping Awards) and a member of ApiMondia (World Beekeepers Association) with a demonstrated history of working in the Beekeeping Industry. Beekeeper and Beekeeping Equipment expert. Strong legal professional with a bachelor’s degree in International Business and Marketing from the European School of Economics, Italy.
PAULA CARNELL - United Kingdom
As an International ‘Bee Speaker’, Paula has established a reputation as an advocate of protecting and preserving bees through education on the connection between bees and plants. Honey is the embodiment of that connection and a reflection of the quality of the plants they feed on and the care they receive from their keepers. Studying Honey Sensory Evaluation in Bologna under the leading experts of the Italian Register of Sensory Analysis of Honey, Paula developed a passion for identifying the sources of honey from both her native UK but also around the globe on her honey quests in Oman, Africa, and Bhutan.
PETER LEWIS - United Kingdom
Peter Lewis lives in the Yorkshire Pennine hills and has been a keen artisan keeper of honey bees since the mid-noughties. He’s the Yorkshire Agricultural Society appointed Chief Hives & Honey Steward, running the traditional honey competition section at the annual Great Yorkshire Show. An active exhibitor and show steward has inevitably resulted in an interest in the British accredited style of judging honey, wax, and all related hive products. He’s a qualified Honey Judge (Welsh BKA / INIB, Georgia & Florida Senior Judges Certification Qualifications), with considerable hands-on practical experience through judging invitations based on referral, recommendation, and reputation, broad insights. Combining simple pure hedonistic enjoyment with systematic taste appreciation of what’s actually in the comb & jar, he took an intensive international “sensory analysis of honey” sommelier expert course in Bologna, Italy. This has led to further development study, applying organoleptic together with melissopalynology (honey pollens evaluation) to define the UK – and worldwide – honey type provenance traceability with gustatory characteristics. An internationally published speaker.
DRAŽEN LUŠIĆ - Croatia
Dražen Lušić, PhD, Associate Professor
Faculty of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Health Studies, University of Rijeka
Dr. Dražen Lušić has for many years been involved in the study and scientific assessment of the quality and safety of beehive products. He is a member of more beekeeping associations. He is also the appointed expert of the Croatian Beekeeping Federation in several technical and executive committees dealing with the elaboration and development of Croatian beekeeping policies, mostly related to the regulation of the market of the beehive produce. He has worked in the development of the standards of honey sensory analysis in Croatia. Presently he is the President of the Croatian Association of Honey sensory Analysts and a member of the International jury panel of the BiolMiel honey competition for the best organic honey in the world.
KATJA BOHM - Germany
I am a certified food chemist with great experience in the field of the determination of the botanical and geographical origin of the honey and the quality parameters of honey. I worked at Intertek for 10 years as a laboratory supervisor responsible for microscopic and sensorial analysis of honey and bee products. Since 2017 I am working for Eurofins as head of the microscopy and sensory department.
DR. JASNA BERTONCELJ - Slovenia
She is an associate professor at the Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. After completing her university degree in food science and technology she did her Ph.D. in the area of bioactive components and antioxidant activity of different types of Slovenian honey. She teaches and researches in the area of food quality assessment (macro and micronutrients; food analytical methods; food regulation and legislation), bee products characterization, sensory analysis (sensory methods; sensory analysis with trained panel and with consumers; food acceptability), and nutrition (healthy and balanced diets for various population groups; diet planning; nutrition and health policies, nutrient profiling). She is a member of the International Honey Commission’s (IHC) working group for sensory assessment and a member of national panels for honey sensory analysis.
OLGA GAVRILIK - Belarus
Honey sensory analysis expert (Honey sensory analysis level I, Apicultural Research Center (CRA-API)). CEO of the honey production company Miadovy Shlyah Ltd apisalba.com Experience in beekeeping and honey products industry since January 2012. Сo-founder of the Union of Beekeepers’ Organizations “BelapiUnion”, Belarus. Initiator of the visit of the Gilles Ratje – the President of the Apimondia to Belarus, meeting at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, seminars for beekeepers (April of 2013). Implementation of an initiative to hold classes for children in primary schools to promote the consumption of honey, the story of the life of bees, and the history of beekeeping. September 2019 participation in the 19th International Congress “Apislavia 2019” in Montreal. Since September 2021 teaching Honey sensory analysis to the students of the Faculty of Biology and Ecology at “The Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno” (Republic of Belarus). October 2021 took part in the show “The Brain” in Moscow, Russia.
ROBERTO COLOMBO - Italy
Roberto Colombo works at the Agriculture Environment Research Center (Italy) and previously worked at the National Institute of Beekeeping. He currently holds the position of technical manager of the chemical laboratory. He has been involved in sensory analysis of honey since 1988 and since 1992 he has been a teacher of sensory analysis in the courses organized by the National Register of Experts in Sensory Analysis of Honey. In the field of sensory analysis of honey since 1996, he has been involved in the technical management of honey competitions.