Our expertise laboratory
A guarantee of quality
Every bottled honey is tested at harvest and bottling by our Honey Expertise Laboratory. Our Laboratory thus ensures the quality, authenticity, and origin of
each of our honeys.
A unique guarantee allowing 100% certified quality from apiary to jar !
1968
Created in 1968 in the heart of the Jura region within our Naturalim packaging facility, the Honey Expertise Laboratory ensures compliance with the quality standards of honeys provided by the Cooperative. Our team of 5 laboratory technicians, whom we call our honey « oenologists », handles the qualification and analysis of our harvests. Geographical origin, floral denomination, taste, and physicochemical quality : every honey is rigorously tested before bottling.
« I analyze the raw material throughout the process, from the sample to the bottling of the finished product. Traceability and quality must be ensured. The work is varied and we truly never get bored ! »
Tivardy, Laboratory Technician
Why analyze honey ?
Guaranteed quality
Thanks to the various tests performed, the quality of Les Compagnons du Miel honeys is 100% guaranteed : you can be sure of what you are tasting !
Certified traceability
Traceability is a major priority for us. We manage the entire production chain from hive to jar.
Fair compensation
The payment system for honeys is indexed on the quality delivered by the beekeepers. A great way to encourage member beekeepers to continuously improve their practices.
A secure
supply chain
Thanks to our Honey Expertise Laboratory, we democratize honey testing and foster a trustworthy French beekeeping supply chain.
No to honey standardization !
Market trends encourage sellers to simplify their offerings and propose a limited range of honeys with standardized flavor profiles.
Our Cooperative works to preserve the richness and diversity of honey flavors. In partnership with universities and research centers, our Expertise Laboratory conducts research projects to develop analytical tools fighting against honey standardization.
The cooperative also encourages its members to preserve the harvest of rare and unique honeys : Maple honey, Heather Calluna honey, Coriander honey…
Shared expertise
Renowned for its skill, our Expertise Laboratory has also provided certification testing services since 1988 for non-member beekeepers, biodiversity networks, certification labels…
The goal is to make honey testing as accessible as possible to strengthen transparency and quality across the entire industry.
Including tests for our Cooperative and external clients, the Expertise Laboratory conducts over 10,000 analyses per year !
10 000
Going further in high standards
Every year, the Expertise Laboratory expands its range of tests to guarantee authenticity and quality for consumers.
Adulteration testing was thus added to recurring analyses to verify the purity of marketed honey.
Adulteration is a fraudulent practice involving the addition of a lower-value substance to another product, which is then sold or presented as something it is not : in the case of honey, this often means sugar.
NECTAR
Nectar is generally secreted in flowers ; it is a sweet liquid intended to attract pollinators.
HONEY
Honey is the natural sweet substance produced by Apis mellifera bees from :
- plant nectar, or
- secretions of living parts of plants, or
- excretions of plant-sucking insects on the living parts of plants,
- which bees collect, transform by combining with specific substances of their own, deposit, dehydrate, store, and leave in honeycombs to ripen and mature.
HONEYDEW
Honeydew or honeydew honey involves an intermediary, usually an aphid, which pierces the plant, feeds on its sap, and excretes the excess sugary liquid as droplets that bees collect. Bees bring this honeydew back to the hive and process it just like nectar. This is the case, for instance, with Fir honey.
