Sugar in Honey: Glucose, Fructose, Calories, and Sweetness
Author: Ukrainian Psychological Hub · Published: September 29, 2026 · Editorial Policy
Honey is mostly sugar by weight, but it is not the same chemical substance as table sugar. A standard USDA FoodData Central reference for honey reports about 82.1 g of total sugars and 304 kcal per 100 g. The largest individual sugars in that reference are fructose and glucose, with much smaller amounts of sucrose and other sugars. A tablespoon weighing about 21 g therefore supplies roughly 17 g of total sugar and 64 kcal.
Those figures are reference values, not a promise that every jar is identical. Honey is a biological food whose sugar profile, water content, aroma, color, acidity, texture, and crystallization behavior vary with floral source, geography, climate, bee and processing factors. Modern reviews of honey composition make that variability central rather than treating honey as a standardized glucose-fructose syrup. See Wang and colleagues and da Silva and colleagues.
This article owns the direct “sugar in honey” intent: what sugars honey contains, how much sugar and how many calories typical servings contain, why fructose and glucose matter, why honey tastes as sweet as it does, how crystallization relates to sugar chemistry, and how U.S. Added Sugars labeling differs from the WHO concept of free sugars. The separate comparison question belongs to Sugar vs Honey: Sweetness, Nutrition, Taste, and Uses.
Quick answer: how much sugar is in honey?
Honey is a concentrated sugar solution. The USDA reference contains about 82.1 g total sugars per 100 g.
Fructose and glucose are the dominant sugars. In the USDA reference, fructose is about 40.9 g and glucose about 35.8 g per 100 g; sucrose is below 1 g per 100 g.
One tablespoon of honey, about 21 g in the USDA reference, contains roughly 17.2 g sugar and about 64 kcal.
One teaspoon is approximately one-third of that tablespoon by volume. Using the 21 g tablespoon reference, about 7 g of honey provides roughly 5.7 g sugar and 21 kcal.
Honey is usually fructose-rich, but the fructose-to-glucose ratio varies substantially by botanical origin. Some honeys therefore stay liquid longer while others crystallize quickly.
Honey is not simply “fructose.” It contains glucose, fructose, minor disaccharides and oligosaccharides, water, acids, volatile aroma compounds, enzymes, phenolics, minerals, and other minor constituents.
Honey’s sweetness is multisensory. A controlled 2024 study found honey and sucrose similarly sweet at equal mass concentrations when aroma was available, while honey aroma itself increased perceived sweetness.
In WHO terminology, sugars naturally present in honey are free sugars. In U.S. FDA labeling, pure honey is a single-ingredient sugar with special Added Sugars presentation rules.
What sugars are actually in honey?
Most of the carbohydrate in ripe honey is present as simple sugars. Fructose and glucose dominate, while sucrose, maltose and a wider set of di- and oligosaccharides occur in smaller amounts. Water accounts for much of the remaining mass, with acids, proteins, enzymes, phenolic compounds, minerals and volatile aroma molecules present at much lower concentrations.
A 2023 review of honey composition describes honey as a complex food whose composition changes with botanical and geographical origin. A 2025 review focused specifically on sugar detection in honey likewise identifies glucose and fructose as the principal monosaccharides and notes that more than twenty other sugars have been reported across honey types. See the composition review and the 2025 sugar-profile review.
That complexity matters for both food science and search intent. “How much sugar is in honey?” has a useful reference answer, but “what percentage of this exact jar is fructose?” is an analytical question. Floral origin, harvest conditions, maturation, storage and authenticity all affect the precise result.
Fructose
Fructose is usually the most abundant single sugar in blossom honey. It is a monosaccharide, meaning it is already a single sugar unit rather than the glucose-fructose disaccharide sucrose. Fructose is highly soluble in water and, in many sensory conditions, can taste very sweet. Its abundance helps explain why many honeys remain fluid and intensely sweet.
A 2024 study of 32 honey samples from different botanical and geographic origins found fructose to be the largest measured sugar across the tested honeys, while the exact amount varied by origin. The same study also found meaningful differences in sensory profiles. See Mongi and Ruhembe.
Glucose
Glucose is the second major sugar in many honeys and is especially important for physical behavior. Compared with fructose, glucose is less soluble in the limited water available in ripe honey. As honey becomes supersaturated with respect to glucose, glucose can leave solution and form crystals. That is why sugar composition is directly connected to whether a honey stays runny, becomes cloudy, forms large crystals, or develops a fine creamed texture.
A jar that crystallizes has not suddenly acquired extra sugar. The same molecules are reorganizing into a different physical state. Temperature, water content, seed crystals and handling also influence the process.
Sucrose and other sugars
Honey does contain sucrose, but usually far less than table sugar. Sucrose is made of one glucose unit chemically bonded to one fructose unit. During honey formation, bee enzymes and nectar chemistry contribute to the conversion of much of the original nectar sucrose into simpler sugars. Finished honey can also contain maltose, turanose, isomaltose, trehalose and other minor sugars.
Because honey is compositionally variable, one should not turn a typical sucrose percentage into an authenticity test at home. Professional honey authentication uses validated compositional, chromatographic, spectroscopic, isotopic and other analytical methods. Appearance, crystallization speed or sweetness alone cannot prove whether honey has been adulterated.
USDA reference values: sugar and calories in common honey portions
For a concrete reference point, USDA FoodData Central record 169640 reports 82.12 g total sugars and 304 kcal per 100 g of honey. Its standard tablespoon portion is 21 g. These values support the following practical estimates.
1 teaspoon, approximately 7 g: about 5.7 g total sugar and 21 kcal.
1 tablespoon, 21 g: about 17.2 g total sugar and 64 kcal.
2 tablespoons, 42 g: about 34.5 g total sugar and 128 kcal.
100 g: about 82.1 g total sugar and 304 kcal.
A one-tablespoon portion therefore contains a little over four teaspoons-equivalent by mass of sugar, even though the physical spoon contains honey rather than dry granulated crystals.
Household spoonfuls are not laboratory measurements. A rounded spoon, an underfilled spoon, a very viscous cold honey, or a large drizzle can change the mass substantially. If exact intake matters, the product label or a kitchen scale is more informative than judging a glossy stream by eye.
For the separate general calorie question about sugar itself, see Sugar Calories: How Many Calories Are in Sugar? The current article remains focused on honey.
Why can a tablespoon of honey contain so many calories?
Honey contains water, so gram for gram it is less energy-dense than dry granulated sugar. But honey is dense. A tablespoon holds a relatively large mass of honey, which is why a spoonful can contribute about 64 kcal even though 100 g of honey contains fewer calories than 100 g of pure sucrose.
This is a useful example of the difference between weight and volume. Nutrition comparisons become misleading when one ingredient is compared per gram and another per spoon. A fair comparison must state the unit: equal weight, equal volume, equal sweetness, or the amount actually used in a recipe.
The broader distinction among carbohydrate, total sugars and Added Sugars is explained in Sugar Nutrition Facts: Calories, Carbohydrates, and Added Sugars.
Is honey mostly fructose or glucose?
Usually fructose. In the USDA reference, fructose exceeds glucose, and modern honey studies often report the same general ordering. But the phrase “honey is mostly fructose” can also mislead: glucose remains a major component, and the ratio is not fixed across all honeys.
In the 2024 Tanzanian honey study, fructose and glucose were the principal sugars, while botanical and geographic origin changed the detailed profile. Other analytical work has likewise found broad variation among honeys. Kortesniemi and colleagues showed that botanical origin is tied to chemical and sensory differences, including differences that consumers can perceive.
The practical consequence is that two legitimate honeys can have different sweetness, viscosity, crystallization speed and flavor even when both labels simply say “honey.”
Why honey can crystallize: the fructose-glucose balance matters
Ripe honey is a concentrated solution with more dissolved sugar than ordinary water would comfortably hold under many conditions. Glucose is the key crystallizing sugar because it is less soluble than fructose. When conditions favor nucleation, glucose can form crystals and leave a more fructose-rich liquid phase around them.
A recent review of honey sugar analysis describes the fructose-to-glucose ratio and glucose-to-water relationship as useful indicators of crystallization tendency. Higher fructose relative to glucose generally favors slower crystallization, while more glucose relative to available water favors crystallization. See the 2025 review.
Crystallization is therefore a normal consequence of honey chemistry, not a simple sign that sugar was added. Authenticity cannot be diagnosed by the presence or absence of crystals. Some genuine honeys crystallize rapidly; others remain liquid for long periods.
Why does honey taste so sweet?
The immediate answer is concentration: roughly four-fifths of honey’s mass is sugar in the USDA reference. But sweetness intensity cannot be predicted from total sugar grams alone. The identity of the sugars, their concentration, temperature, viscosity, acidity, aroma and the food in which honey is eaten all affect the final sensory experience.
For the receptor-to-brain foundation of sweetness, see Why Does Sugar Taste Sweet? Receptors, Brain Signals, and Perception. Honey activates the same sweet-taste system through its sugars, while adding a much richer aroma context than purified table sugar.
Fructose contributes strong sweetness, but honey is not a fructose solution
Fructose can be sweeter than sucrose or glucose under many test conditions, which makes it tempting to explain honey’s sweetness with one molecule. Whole-food sensory perception is more complicated. Honey also contains glucose, minor sugars, acids and dozens of volatile compounds; temperature and concentration can shift relative sweetness; and the nose contributes to what people experience as flavor.
The safe formulation is therefore: fructose is an important contributor to honey sweetness, but the perceived sweetness of honey emerges from the complete mixture.
Aroma can make honey seem sweeter
A particularly useful 2024 controlled sensory experiment compared sucrose with clover, wildflower, alfalfa and orange honey across multiple concentrations. With aroma available, the honeys and sucrose were equivalently sweet overall at equal mass concentrations. When aroma was manipulated, honey aroma significantly increased sweetness intensity. At 100 g/L, aroma increased perceived sweetness by roughly 23% to 43% depending on floral source. See Mulheron, DuBois, and Mayhew.
This result fits the broader literature on odor-induced sweetness enhancement: smells associated with sweet foods can amplify experienced sweetness through multisensory integration. A 2023 review summarizes evidence and conditions affecting this phenomenon. See Zhang and colleagues.
The English Hub develops the broader mechanism in Sweetness Perception: Why the Same Sugar Can Taste Different.
Honey does not have one universal sweetness level
Clover, orange blossom, acacia, buckwheat, eucalyptus, heather and multifloral honeys do not share one identical chemical or sensory profile. Some are delicate and floral; others can be malty, resinous, herbal, bitter, medicinal, fruity or strongly aromatic. Sweetness is experienced against that background.
In research on Finnish honeys, botanical origin was associated with distinct sensory and chemical profiles, and consumer liking was higher for sweeter, milder and more familiar samples in that participant group. This illustrates a general principle: liking depends on the whole sensory pattern, not sugar concentration alone. See Kortesniemi et al..
A darker or more aromatic honey can even feel less purely sweet than a mild honey because bitterness, acidity, strong volatiles and expectation compete for attention, despite both containing high sugar concentrations.
Does honey count as added sugar? FDA and WHO use different terms
This question causes confusion because everyday language, U.S. Nutrition Facts rules and WHO public-health terminology classify sugar in different ways.
FDA: pure honey is a single-ingredient sugar with special Added Sugars labeling
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration defines Added Sugars broadly enough to include sugars from honey and sugars packaged as such. At the same time, pure honey is a single-ingredient food: no second ingredient has been added to a jar of genuine pure honey. To prevent the Nutrition Facts panel from implying that table sugar was literally added to the honey, the FDA created special presentation rules for single-ingredient sugars and syrups. See the FDA’s Added Sugars explainer and honey-specific guidance.
On a U.S. package of pure single-ingredient honey, the label must declare the percent Daily Value for Added Sugars, while the gram amount of Added Sugars need not appear in the usual “Includes X g Added Sugars” line. A footnote may explain the gram contribution. This is a labeling rule, not evidence that a manufacturer poured sugar into pure honey.
The distinction among these terms is developed in Added Sugar: What It Is, Where It Hides, and How Labels Count It.
WHO: sugars naturally present in honey are free sugars
The World Health Organization uses the term free sugars for monosaccharides and disaccharides added to foods and beverages by manufacturers, cooks or consumers, plus sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit-juice concentrates. In WHO terminology, honey sugars therefore count as free sugars even when the honey is pure and no ingredient was added to the jar. See the current WHO Healthy Diet guidance.
For the dedicated terminology, see Free Sugars: What the Term Means and How It Differs From Added Sugar.
Does “natural sugar in honey” mean something different nutritionally?
“Natural” can describe provenance or processing, but it does not erase the carbohydrate, sugar or calorie content of honey. Honey does contain minor compounds that refined white sugar lacks, and different honeys have different chemical profiles. Those facts can coexist with the simpler nutritional fact that a typical tablespoon still contains about 17 g of sugar.
Consumer research shows why wording matters. A systematic review of 72 studies across 32 countries found that perceived food naturalness is important to many consumers. More recent experimental work found that “natural” claims can raise perceived naturalness and healthiness, sometimes through heuristic judgment rather than objective nutrient information. See Román, Sánchez-Siles, and Siegrist and Radaelli and colleagues.
Honey is especially capable of attracting this naturalness halo because its origin, color, floral source and minimally transformed image are salient. The psychological effect is real as a perception phenomenon; it does not create a separate category of calories.
Portion perception: a drizzle is hard to quantify
Honey’s viscosity and pourability make portion estimation psychologically different from counting sugar cubes or measuring level teaspoons of granulated sugar. A “small drizzle” can vary widely in mass, especially when poured directly from a squeeze bottle. Visual impression and serving language are therefore poor substitutes for a measured portion.
This matters because concentrated foods can look small while carrying substantial mass. A tablespoon of honey is only one spoonful, yet the USDA reference puts it at about 17 g of sugars. If a person adds honey to yogurt, oatmeal, toast, tea and a dressing on the same day, the relevant quantity is the combined amount, not whether each individual drizzle looked modest.
The practical solution is simple when precision matters: read the serving size on the label, measure the portion for a few days, or weigh it. That can recalibrate visual judgment without turning ordinary eating into compulsive tracking.
Does using honey train a “sweet tooth”? The evidence is not that simple
It is common to assume that repeated exposure to sweet foods inevitably increases a generalized desire for stronger sweetness. Human evidence does not support such a simple rule.
A systematic review of sweet-taste exposure found a small, heterogeneous evidence base and equivocal long-term effects on generalized sweet preference. More recent reviews have reached similarly cautious conclusions. See Appleton and colleagues.
That does not mean habits are irrelevant. People can learn specific routines: honey in morning tea, honey on toast, honey with yogurt, or a preferred sweetness level in oatmeal. Cues, convenience, expectations and repeated recipes can make a particular combination feel normal. But this is ordinary learning and habit formation, not proof of a clinical “sugar addiction.”
Honey in tea, coffee, yogurt and oatmeal: sugar chemistry meets sensory context
Tea
In tea, honey contributes sweetness, viscosity and botanical aroma at the same time. Those cues interact with bitterness, astringency, temperature and expectations. The dedicated article Tea with Honey: Sweetness, Aroma, Comfort, and Expectations covers that sensory and psychological interaction.
Coffee
In coffee, honey can suppress perceived bitterness through sweetness while adding its own floral, fruity or caramel-like aroma. Because honey is not a neutral sweetener, a robust variety can become part of the coffee flavor rather than disappearing into it. The amount of honey still determines how much sugar and energy are added.
Yogurt, oatmeal and toast
In foods with texture, honey is rarely perceived as sweetness alone. It changes lubrication, coating, aroma release and contrast with acidity or bitterness. A tangy yogurt may seem less sour; toasted grains may seem more dessert-like; and a visible golden drizzle can signal indulgence before tasting. These are multisensory effects layered onto the same underlying sugar grams.
Raw, filtered, organic and crystallized honey: do they have less sugar?
Processing and origin can change aroma, enzymes, phenolic compounds, moisture and other characteristics, but labels such as raw, filtered, organic or local do not mean that the honey stops being a concentrated sugar source. A raw honey may differ sensorially and chemically from a heavily heated product, yet its dominant macronutrient remains carbohydrate.
The chemistry of heating and storage is reviewed by da Silva and colleagues, who discuss changes in honey constituents during storage and thermal treatment. Those changes should not be translated into the claim that ordinary processing converts honey from a sugary food into a non-sugary one or vice versa.
Crystallized honey is likewise not “more sugary” than liquid honey merely because crystals are visible. Crystallization is a phase change dominated by glucose behavior. Gently reliquefying honey can change crystal structure and aroma exposure, but it does not make the existing sugar disappear.
How to read a honey label without getting confused
Check the ingredient statement. A pure single-ingredient honey product may simply be identified as honey and may not need a separate ingredient list; blends with other sweeteners must be labeled accordingly under FDA guidance.
Read serving size first. Sugar and calorie numbers are meaningful only for the stated amount.
Distinguish Total Sugars from the FDA Added Sugars concept. The label presentation for pure single-ingredient honey is a special case.
Do not interpret “0 g added sugar” language from unrelated food categories as a universal description of honey. FDA rules for single-ingredient sugars and syrups are specific.
Treat floral-source names mainly as provenance and sensory information unless a specific regulated claim says more.
Do not assume raw, organic, local or dark honey is automatically lower in sugar. Those descriptors answer different questions.
If the product contains honey plus corn syrup, cane sugar or another sweetener, it is a multi-ingredient product and should not be interpreted as compositionally equivalent to pure honey.
The FDA’s Proper Labeling of Honey and Honey Products guidance explains how pure honey differs from honey blended with other sweeteners or flavor ingredients.
Sugar in honey and health: what this article can say confidently
The established food-composition facts are straightforward: honey is rich in sugars, supplies calories, and contains fructose and glucose as its principal sugars. It also contains small amounts of other constituents. Public-health organizations therefore do not treat unlimited honey intake as nutritionally irrelevant simply because honey is produced by bees.
The WHO recommends limiting free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake and notes potential additional benefits from reducing them further; its definition explicitly includes honey sugars. See WHO Healthy Diet.
This does not mean that honey and purified sucrose are chemically identical foods or that every health outcome must be identical. It means that health discussions should preserve both levels of truth: honey is compositionally richer than table sugar, and honey remains a concentrated source of free sugars and energy.
This article does not provide blood-glucose targets, A1C interpretation, continuous-glucose-monitor advice, hyperglycemia or hypoglycemia management, or individualized diabetes treatment. Those questions belong to clinical care rather than a food-composition article.
For the general digestive pathway of dietary sugars without individualized glucose-management advice, see Sugar Digestion: What Happens After You Eat Sugar.
Important safety point: no honey for infants under 12 months
Honey should not be given to infants younger than 12 months because it can contain spores associated with infant botulism. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises not to give honey to a child under one year of age and not to add it to infant food, water, formula or pacifiers.
This safety rule is separate from honey’s sugar content. It applies even if the honey is marketed as raw, organic, local or premium.
Common myths about sugar in honey
Myth: honey is not sugar
Honey is not identical to table sugar, but most of its mass is sugars. Fructose and glucose dominate. Calling honey “not sugar” confuses the name of a food with the chemistry inside it.
Myth: honey is basically pure fructose
Fructose is often the largest single sugar, but glucose is also a major component and minor sugars are present. The ratio changes with origin.
Myth: pure honey cannot count as Added Sugars
Everyday ingredient language and FDA Nutrition Facts terminology answer different questions. Pure honey has no extra sweetener added to it, yet FDA Added Sugars rules treat single-ingredient honey as a sugar that contributes added sugars to the diet, with special label presentation.
Myth: natural honey sugar does not count as free sugar
Under WHO terminology, sugars naturally present in honey are explicitly included in free sugars.
Myth: crystallized honey has had sugar added
Crystallization can occur naturally when glucose forms crystals in supersaturated honey. It is not, by itself, evidence of adulteration.
Myth: darker honey automatically contains less sugar
Color reflects botanical origin and chemistry, including pigments and phenolic compounds, but darkness is not a reliable visual meter for total sugar.
Myth: honey is always sweeter than sucrose
Honey can be powerfully sweet, and its aroma can enhance sweetness, but a controlled 2024 experiment found honey and sucrose equivalently sweet at equal mass concentrations with aroma present. The result is more informative than the blanket slogan “honey is always sweeter.” See Mulheron et al..
Myth: switching from sugar to honey automatically reduces calories
It only reduces calories if the actual amount and recipe produce that outcome. Honey contains water and is less calorie-dense by weight than dry sucrose, but it is dense by volume. Spoon-for-spoon comparisons can therefore surprise people.
Practical meaning: how to think about honey without oversimplifying it
Treat honey as a distinctive food ingredient, not as a moral category. Its sugar chemistry explains much of its energy value, crystallization and sweetness. Its aroma, acidity, texture and provenance explain why two honeys can taste dramatically different even at similar sugar concentrations.
If the goal is flavor, choose honey for the floral and aromatic profile you want. If the goal is sweetness alone, measure how much is actually needed in that food. If the goal is understanding a nutrition label, separate Total Sugars, FDA Added Sugars and WHO free sugars instead of treating the words as synonyms.
If the goal is reducing sugar intake, substitution and reduction are different strategies. Replacing one spoon of granulated sugar with one spoon of honey changes the ingredient; using less total sweetener changes the dose. Sensory aroma enhancement may sometimes help a formulation feel sweet with less sweetener, but the outcome must be demonstrated in the actual food rather than assumed from the word “honey.”
For the direct ingredient comparison, continue with Sugar vs Honey: Sweetness, Nutrition, Taste, and Uses.
Frequently asked questions
How much sugar is in one tablespoon of honey?
Using the USDA reference serving of 21 g per tablespoon, honey contains about 17.2 g of total sugar and roughly 64 kcal.
How much sugar is in one teaspoon of honey?
One teaspoon is approximately one-third of a tablespoon. Using the USDA 21 g tablespoon reference, about 7 g of honey provides roughly 5.7 g total sugar and about 21 kcal.
What percentage of honey is sugar?
The USDA reference is about 82% total sugars by weight. Real honeys vary with botanical origin, geography, moisture and other factors.
Is honey glucose or fructose?
Both. Fructose is usually the largest individual sugar, with glucose close behind. Honey also contains smaller amounts of sucrose, maltose and other sugars.
Why does honey crystallize?
Glucose is less soluble than fructose in honey’s limited water. Under favorable conditions it forms glucose crystals. Sugar ratios, water content, temperature and seed crystals all affect the rate.
Does crystallized honey have more sugar?
No. Visible crystallization is mainly a change in physical state, not the creation of additional sugar.
Is honey an Added Sugar on U.S. labels?
FDA Added Sugars rules include sugars from honey and sugars packaged as such. Pure single-ingredient honey has special presentation rules: the percent Daily Value for Added Sugars is declared, while the usual gram declaration can be handled differently.
Does honey count as free sugar?
Yes under WHO terminology. WHO explicitly includes sugars naturally present in honey within free sugars.
Is honey sweeter than table sugar?
It depends on concentration and context. Honey contains sweet fructose and glucose, while its aroma can enhance perceived sweetness. In a 2024 controlled study, honey and sucrose were equivalently sweet overall at equal mass concentrations when aroma was present.
Does raw honey have less sugar than regular honey?
Not as a general rule. Processing can affect aroma, enzymes and other minor compounds, but both raw and conventionally processed honey remain sugar-rich foods. Check the actual product label or analysis.
Does organic honey contain less sugar?
Organic status does not inherently mean lower sugar. It refers to production standards, not a guaranteed reduction in fructose, glucose or calories.
Can babies eat honey?
No honey should be given to infants under 12 months because of infant botulism risk, according to the CDC.
Related Articles
Sugar Nutrition Facts: Calories, Carbohydrates, and Added Sugars
Added Sugar: What It Is, Where It Hides, and How Labels Count It
Free Sugars: What the Term Means and How It Differs From Added Sugar
Sweetness Perception: Why the Same Sugar Can Taste Different
Why Does Sugar Taste Sweet? Receptors, Brain Signals, and Perception
Is Fruit Sugar Bad for You? Whole Fruit, Juice, and Added Sugar
References
Appleton, K. M., Tuorila, H., Bertenshaw, E. J., de Graaf, C., & Mela, D. J. (2018). Sweet taste exposure and the subsequent acceptance and preference for sweet taste in the diet: systematic review of the published literature. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 107(3), 405–419. PubMed · DOI
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2026). Foods and Drinks to Avoid or Limit: Honey Before 12 Months. CDC
da Silva, P. M., Gauche, C., Gonzaga, L. V., Costa, A. C. O., & Fett, R. (2016). Honey: Chemical composition, stability and authenticity. Food Chemistry, 196, 309–323. PubMed · DOI
Kortesniemi, M., Rosenvald, S., Laaksonen, O., et al. (2018). Sensory and chemical profiles of Finnish honeys of different botanical origins and consumer preferences. Food Chemistry, 246, 351–359. PubMed · DOI
Mongi, R. J., & Ruhembe, C. C. (2024). Sugar profile and sensory properties of honey from different geographical zones and botanical origins in Tanzania. Heliyon, 10(18), e38094. PubMed · DOI
Mulheron, H., DuBois, A., & Mayhew, E. J. (2024). Quantifying the sweetness intensity and impact of aroma in honey from four floral sources. Journal of Food Science, 89(12), 9732–9741. PubMed · DOI
Radaelli, D., Hässig-Wegmann, A., Román, S., Sanchez-Siles, L., & Siegrist, M. (2025). The misuse of “natural” claims on food products and how they can influence perceptions of naturalness and healthiness. Food Research International, 220, 117094. PubMed · DOI
Ressutte, J., Anjos, O., Gallardo, E., & Spinosa, W. (2026). Sugar detection and quantification in honey bee and stingless bee honey—A review. Journal of Apicultural Research, 65(2), 262–288. Article · DOI
Román, S., Sánchez-Siles, L. M., & Siegrist, M. (2017). The importance of food naturalness for consumers: Results of a systematic review. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 67, 44–57. Article · DOI
U.S. Department of Agriculture. FoodData Central. Honey, SR Legacy, FDC ID 169640. USDA FoodData Central record
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Added Sugars on the Nutrition Facts Label. FDA
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Guidance for Industry: Declaration of Added Sugars on Honey, Maple Syrup, Other Single-Ingredient Sugars and Syrups, and Certain Cranberry Products. FDA
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Guidance for Industry: Proper Labeling of Honey and Honey Products. FDA
Wang, H., Li, L., Lin, X., Bai, W., Xiao, G., & Liu, G. (2023). Composition, functional properties and safety of honey: a review. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 103(14), 6767–6779. PubMed · DOI
World Health Organization. (2026). Healthy diet. WHO