Why there is no legal definition of honey
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The petition, and the denial
A standard of identity is a federal recipe: a legal definition of what a food must be to carry a name. Ketchup has one. Chocolate has one. Honey was petitioned for one and FDA denied it on October 5, 2011, concluding a standard was not necessary and that its existing authorities could achieve the same goals.
What that means in practice
It does not mean anything can be called honey. Misbranding and adulteration provisions still apply, and a blend still has to be named as a blend. What it means is that there is no single federal paragraph defining the product, so the constraints come from several places at once rather than from one.
It also explains why state rules carry so much weight here. Where the federal layer is thin, the state layer is doing the work, which is the opposite of how people often assume food law is arranged.
What still constrains you
- Statement of identity. Honey is honey. A blend is a blend, named as one.
- Grades, if you claim one. Optional to use, binding once used. See US grades.
- Your state. Which is where the real requirements live.
Where the rules actually come from
Four layers, and they are doing different jobs.
Federal misbranding and adulteration law. Present whether or not a standard exists. Honey with added syrup sold as honey is adulterated, and that was true before the petition and after the denial.
FDA's labeling guidance for honey. Issued after the denial, it sets out how the agency reads the existing rules as applied to honey: what may be called honey, how a blend must be named, and how a floral source may be used. Guidance is the agency's thinking rather than a regulation, which is a real distinction and not a reason to ignore it.
USDA grade standards. Voluntary, and binding once claimed.
Your state. Several states adopted their own honey standards, in some cases defining the product and prohibiting additions outright. Where that is true, the state definition is the operative one for you, and it can be stricter than anything federal.
Why this exists at all
The petition was not about small producers. It came from an industry facing imported honey that had been diluted with cheap syrups, and sometimes filtered to remove the pollen that would identify its origin. A standard of identity was sought as an enforcement tool.
The denial reasoned that existing authority already reached that conduct. Which is defensible, and it left the product without the one-paragraph definition people often assume is there, and left detection of adulteration to laboratory testing rather than to a legal recipe.
That is the useful context for a small producer: the ambiguity you run into is the residue of an import fight, not a gap anyone left for you.
What it means for what you say
You cannot lean on a federal definition to make your honey sound more official, because there is not one to cite. What you can do is be specific in ways a diluter cannot: the county, the harvest month, the floral source, your name on the jar. Specificity is the claim that is actually available to you.
Avoid the word "pure" as a differentiator. It sounds like it means something defined and it does not, and it invites the customer to ask what you mean rather than what you have.