Trademark Office agrees some labeling of Manuka honey could mislead consumers

Source: One News
http://tvnz.co.nz/business-news/honey-trademark-bid-declined-5647576

An attempt to trademark six labels relating to the antibacterial properties of honey has been rejected by the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) on the basis some could have potentially misled consumers.

Henry Soo Lee's application to register six trademarks was also opposed by the Unique Manuka Factor (UMF) Honey Association.

Mr Lee was ordered by the office to pay $6890 in costs to UMF after all six label applications were turned down.

Mr Lee is a director and shareholder of several companies in the health supplement and honey industry.

He applied to register four Non-Peroxide Activity (NPA) labels and two Total Activity Per cent (TAP) labels to use on honey products.

The association opposed Mr Lee's trademark applications for the TAP labels due to their potentially misleading nature.

All honeys have a certain level of antibacterial activity, usually due to the presence of hydrogen peroxide, which is referred to as peroxide activity.

UMF Honey Association general manager John Rawcliffe said peroxide activity is unstable and is degraded by light and heat.

A jar of honey that had been tested as to PA levels at the time of its production will probably not have the same PA levels when it is sold and consumed, he said.

Therefore labelling honey with a specific TAP level could be misleading, Mr Rawcliffe said.

Mr Lee said he did not intend to use the TAP label in a misleading way.

The association had opposed Mr Lee's applications because it had an obligation to protect the quality of the market and consumers, Mr Rawcliffe said.

The association also opposed Lee's application to trademark four NPA labels because the UMF Honey Association had a competing trademark it had licensed out to him.

NPA is a measure of the special antibacterial qualities in manuka honey. Honey with higher levels of NPA is more expensive.

The association focuses on the promotion of NPA as a measure of the special antibacterial qualities in manuka honey, and on maintaining the integrity and reliability of NPA as a measure of those special qualities.

The NPA label would be directly competing with the UMF Honey Association label, Mr Rawcliffe said.

Within the licence agreement those using the UMF label could not have a competing brand, he said.

"You can't have your cake and eat it."

Rawcliffe said 38 companies were licensed to use UMF's NPA label.

In the mid-1990s manuka honey was discovered to have special antibacterial properties that were more stable than those of other honeys. A lot of controversy has occurred over claimed benefits from it since.

Traders developed the rating systems so consumers could rely on representations made about the NPA level.

Further information about the differences consumers should know about between 'TA' labeled manuka honey and the UMF® quality standard certification can be seen here:
http://www.newzealandhoneyshop.co.uk/manuka-five-top-tips.html

Oh dear, 'Fake' Manuka Honey in the headlines

In today's New Zealand Herald on Sunday there is a story about fake manuka honey being sold around the world - http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11113964. There is a similar story in the UK' Sunday Times.

One of the behind the scenes issues is that not all of the beekeepers and producers can agree on a set standard for manuka honey, or a definition for what should be able to be labelled as 'manuka'. Of course you will never be able to get all of them to agree, as with the demand and associated premium pricing for manuka there is money to be made by some in selling as low a quality product as possible.

Part of the issue applies to all types of honey - what should constitute a proper mono-floral product. After all the bees will always end up visiting a variety of flowers in the area even if there happens to be predominantly one type at the time.

Concentrating on the percentage of a single floral source however does not address the main concern from the consumers perspective when it comes to manuka.

The premium reputation that has come about for manuka honey is based around various scientific research showing benefits from a unique non-peroxide activity that some manuka has, and which is additional to the common peroxide activity found in all honeys (and that the peroxide activity is not stable).

So consumers have become educated to expect that they are receiving this special non-peroxide activity when buying a jar of manuka honey. Problem has become that with limited supply of honey containing this, many brands have instead supplied honey with none of the non-peroxide activity, instead labelling it based on a supposed level of common peroxide activity but failed to be clear to consumers on the difference.

It should be pointed out that while inevitably there are some New Zealand parties involved in this, it is not solely a New Zealand issue. Equally whether in the UK or other countries there are the local companies and brands involved.

Whilst these current headlines do not make pretty reading, hopefully in the interests of consumers around the world it will convince the appropriate authorities to more closely investigate and take action against those companies (in the UK or anywhere else) that have been misleading people.

The good companies have been trying to lead on this issue for some time, and this publicity of the issues should enable them to compete more fairly, and allow greater clarity to consumers on just which products do contain the unique non-peroxide activity.

Medicinal Manuka Honey Not All Equal - NZ News Report

Professor Molan, who undertook much of the original research into manuka honey and it uses in medical cases (eg wounds), is quoted as saying:

"A very large percentage of the honey that is sold and claimed to have anti-bacterial action doesn't. Only the proper manuka honey does."

His concern today is the wide variety of honey products purporting to contain manuka.

The best thing for us to do is point you in the direction of the NZ news report from the Waikato Times. It is reproduced online here:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/8764343/Medicinal-manuka-not-all-equal-research

Hope for a better honey harvest for 2013

The drier summer New Zealand has been having at the start of 2013, while not so good for farmers overall, has been a boost for beekeepers. Early reports are that there will be a better harvest of honey for this year, especially when compared to the poor 2012 year.

While the following news story is generalised and applies across all honey types, other comments also support a better year for the harvest of manuka honey as well. Of course it must be seen after the appropriate testing has been done as to how much of the manuka crop will contain the special non-peroxide property and be able to gain the UMF certification.

A NZ Herald news story:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10871028