Fact check
Is honey in Malaysia fake?
Is honey in Malaysia fake?
Two numbers are on the public record. In February 2024 a USM researcher, Dr Zulkifli Mustafa, said 90 per cent of Malaysia's honey market was fake. The Health Ministry replied that of 769 samples taken since 2016, 45 — 5.85 per cent — did not comply with the composition standard. They are measuring different things.
The line reaches you the same way every time: a TikTok caption, a comment under a marketplace listing, a forward from a relative. Ninety per cent of the honey sold here is fake. A government figure was published beside it that almost nobody forwards.
Where did the 90% fake honey claim come from?
From a Berita Harian report in February 2024. Dr Zulkifli Mustafa, a senior lecturer in the Neuroscience Department at the School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, said 90 per cent of Malaysia's honey market — stingless bee honey, or kelulut, explicitly included — consisted of fake product.
That kelulut was swept in matters, because the honey types sold in Malaysia are not one pool. The claim was picked up and syndicated widely, which is why it resurfaces.
What did the Health Ministry actually find?
On 14 February 2024 the Health Ministry answered with its own monitoring data: 769 honey samples drawn from various brands from 2016 onwards, of which 45 — 5.85 per cent — did not comply with the standard in Regulation 130 of the Food Regulations 1985, and enforcement action followed.
What does Regulation 130 actually measure?
Three things, all compositional. Honey sold in Malaysia must contain at least 60 per cent reducing sugars, no more than 10 per cent sucrose, and no more than 80 mg/kg of hydroxymethylfurfural, or HMF. Missing any one threshold makes a sample non-compliant, and that is what the ministry's 45 samples did.
What the standard sets out for honey
Reducing sugars
- What the standard requires
- At least 60%
- What it reads as
- The sugar profile honey should have
Sucrose
- What the standard requires
- No more than 10%
- What it reads as
- Table-sugar content beyond what honey carries
HMF
- What the standard requires
- No more than 80 mg/kg
- What it reads as
- Heat exposure or long warm storage
| What is measured | What the standard requires | What it reads as |
|---|---|---|
| Reducing sugars | At least 60% | The sugar profile honey should have |
| Sucrose | No more than 10% | Table-sugar content beyond what honey carries |
| HMF | No more than 80 mg/kg | Heat exposure or long warm storage |
Why do the two figures not actually contradict each other?
Because they measure different things. The ministry tested composition against a written standard, on samples it drew itself. The 90 per cent is a researcher's characterisation of a market, on a broader and undefined reading of "fake" that takes in adulteration, mislabelling and origin claims, and that folds in the entire kelulut segment.
Two statements about the same market
Who said it
- The 90% claim
- Dr Zulkifli Mustafa, USM
- The Health Ministry figure
- The Health Ministry
What was assessed
- The 90% claim
- The market, as the speaker described it
- The Health Ministry figure
- 769 samples drawn from 2016
What "fake" covers
- The 90% claim
- Undefined — adulteration, labelling, origin
- The Health Ministry figure
- Failure against three written thresholds
The published result
- The 90% claim
- 90 per cent of the market
- The Health Ministry figure
- 45 samples, 5.85 per cent
| The 90% claim | The Health Ministry figure | |
|---|---|---|
| Who said it | Dr Zulkifli Mustafa, USM | The Health Ministry |
| What was assessed | The market, as the speaker described it | 769 samples drawn from 2016 |
| What "fake" covers | Undefined — adulteration, labelling, origin | Failure against three written thresholds |
| The published result | 90 per cent of the market | 45 samples, 5.85 per cent |
So "fake" is doing a great deal of unexamined work between the two. A jar can be genuine honey and fail on HMF alone, because it sat somewhere hot. Another can carry an origin claim that does not survive scrutiny and pass every compositional test.
Has the 90% claim been withdrawn?
No. It has been disputed, not retracted. The Health Ministry published a different number, and the Domestic Trade Ministry — through its minister, Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali — sent its enforcement division to USM for the material behind the claim, without confirming or denying it. No correction has been reported.
Does either number tell you anything about your own jar?
Neither one does. A compliance rate describes a sample of a market, not the jar in your kitchen, and a market-wide characterisation is not a test result at all. Judging the honey you own is a separate job — and the popular kitchen tests do not do it.
The water test, the thumb test, the burning matchstick and the ant test are all defeated by syrup tuned to match honey's thickness and moisture — and ants go to sugar in any form. Our guide to telling real honey from sugar syrup takes them apart and says what to check instead.
What should you do the next time the number reaches you?
Do not repost it, and do not dismiss it either. Put four questions to any honey statistic, then judge the jar you own on its own evidence. A seller who names every ingredient is making a checkable statement: SUBUR publishes all ten by name.
Four questions to put to any honey statistic
- Who said it, and in what capacity. A named researcher, a ministry and an unattributed caption are three different things.
- What was actually measured. Samples against a written standard, or an impression of a market.
- What "fake" was made to mean. Added syrup, a wrong origin, a heat marker over the limit.
- Whether the counter-figure travelled with it. The ministry answered the next day. Almost nothing forwarding the claim carries that.
If your own label leaves a question open, ask the shop that sold it — ours is on the contact page.
Ten ingredients, named on the label
No certification claim and no lab number — just the full list of what is in the jar.
See what is insideFrequently asked questions
Is 90% of honey in Malaysia really fake?
That figure is Dr Zulkifli Mustafa of Universiti Sains Malaysia characterising the market in February 2024, on a broad reading of "fake" he did not define. The Health Ministry's own monitoring produced a very different number. The two are measuring different things, and the claim has been disputed rather than withdrawn.
Who said Malaysian honey was fake?
Dr Zulkifli Mustafa, a senior lecturer in the Neuroscience Department at the School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia. He was quoted in a Berita Harian report in February 2024 saying 90 per cent of Malaysia's honey market, stingless bee honey included, consisted of fake product.
What did the Health Ministry find when it tested honey?
On 14 February 2024 the ministry said it had taken 769 honey samples from various brands from 2016 onwards, and that 45 of them — 5.85 per cent — did not comply with the composition standard in Regulation 130 of the Food Regulations 1985. Enforcement action followed against the companies and products concerned.
What is Regulation 130 of the Food Regulations 1985?
It is the composition standard for honey sold in Malaysia, and it is what the Health Ministry said its samples were tested against. It requires at least 60 per cent reducing sugars, no more than 10 per cent sucrose, and no more than 80 mg/kg of hydroxymethylfurfural, better known as HMF.
What is HMF in honey?
Hydroxymethylfurfural is a compound that forms in honey as it is heated, or as it sits for long periods in warm conditions, so its level reads as a heat and age marker rather than as a purity measure. Malaysia's composition standard for honey sets a ceiling of 80 mg/kg for it.
Does non-compliant honey mean fake honey?
Not automatically, and this is where the two words part company. A sample can fail on HMF because it was heated or stored long and warm, without anything having been added to it. Failing a written composition standard and being a deliberately adulterated product are different findings, though headlines use one word for both.
Was kelulut honey included in the 90% claim?
Yes, explicitly. The claim as reported covered stingless bee honey along with the rest of the market, which is one reason it landed so hard — kelulut is farmed here and sold as a domestic product. The Health Ministry's response did not break its 769 samples down by honey type.
Was Subur Honey among the samples the ministry tested?
Nothing published says so, in either direction. The Health Ministry has not named the brands in its monitoring programme, and this site publishes no laboratory result, no certification and no test status of its own. Any page claiming a product passed or failed that monitoring is claiming something the record does not contain.
