But the master beekeeper, who has been keeping hives for more than 40 years, has found herself in a fight against a tricky and evolving foe — honey fraudsters.
The practice of adulterating honey is well known, and historically adulterants such as ash and potato flour have been used.
Now, advancements in technology and science have made it much easier, with “bespoke, designer or bioengineered” syrups used as diluting agents capable of fooling authenticity tests, Ingram said.
She founded the UK Honey Authenticity Network (HAN UK) in 2021 to raise awareness about natural honey and warn of the threat posed by fraud.
“One of the impacts we’re seeing all over the world is beekeepers going out of business,” she said.
Adulterated honey can be sold to retailers for a price several times lower than genuine producers can afford.
As well as producing their own honey, many larger-scale beekeepers have crop pollination contracts with farmers, delivering thousands of colonies to growers across the country.
If they go out of business due to unfair competition, this vital natural method of pollinating crops is reduced and food production suffers.
The British Beekeepers Association, which represents more than 25,000 producers and where Ingram is a honey ambassador, wants the risk of fraud to be recognised to protect the industry and consumers.
“I’d like to see an acknowledgement that there is actually an issue here,” she said.
In May, the European Union updated its honey regulations to ensure clearer product labelling and a “honey traceability system” to increase transparency.
On the labelling for blended honeys, for example, all countries of origin are now required to appear near a product’s name, where previously it was only mandatory to state whether blending had occurred.
Labelling in the UK, which has now left the EU, is not as stringent and Ingram believes consumers are “being misled” by vague packaging.
Behind the EU action is an apparent increase in adulterated honey arriving in the 27-nation bloc.
The substandard adulterates can have adverse effects on consumers’ health, such as raising the risk of diabetes, obesity, and liver or kidney damage.
Between 2021 and 2022, 46 percent of the honey tested as it entered the EU was flagged as potentially fraudulent, up from 14 percent in the 2015-17 period.
Of the suspicious consignments, 74 percent were of Chinese origin.
Honey imported from the UK had a 100-percent suspicion rate.
The EU said this honey was probably produced in third countries and blended again in the UK before being sent to the bloc.
