Sana'a: The Yemen Standardization, Metrology and Quality Control Organization presented a scientific paper at the Scientific Conference on Medicinal Honey. The paper, presented by the Authority's Board Advisor, Eng. Abdulghani Sharaf Ghalib, was titled "Honey Standards: From Food Consumption to Medicinal Applications." It highlighted the vital role of standards in defining the technical requirements for honey according to its intended use, covering honey for direct consumption, food processing, and health and medicinal applications, while ensuring the highest levels of quality, safety, and authenticity.
According to Yemen News Agency, the paper explained the scientific principles behind developing technical requirements for each category, noting that different applications require different specifications while maintaining essential product safety and consumer protection standards. It also reviewed key international and regional standards and presented a comprehensive comparison of technical requirements for different honey categories, including physical, chemical, and microbiological characteristics, contaminant limits, pesticide and veterinary drug residues, traceability, botanical origin verification, carbon isotope fingerprinting, and additional requirements for medicinal-grade honey.
The paper stressed that the rapid expansion of honey's health and medicinal uses requires national and international standards to evolve by introducing additional technical requirements that enhance product safety, effectiveness, and quality, while strengthening confidence in local, regional, and international markets. It concluded with recommendations to update national standards in line with scientific advances, support honey research, prepare technical guidelines for medicinal honey, and develop a dedicated national standard for honey used in health and medicinal applications once sufficient scientific evidence becomes available.
The Authority's participation reflects its national role in developing standards, strengthening the quality infrastructure, conformity assessment system, and supporting domestic products.