Airborne Honey, New Zealand’s oldest honey brand, introduced the world’s first honest, undamaged and traceable (HUT) honey jar label at the Andaz Hotel in Shanghai last month.
Airborne Honey presented their new label to an audience of 250 people, including 60 media at, “China and New Zealand Celebrating the Future”, an event designed to celebrate strengthening trade relationships between the two countries. New Zealand and Chinese government representatives attended, including Prime Minister John Key.
Airborne Honey, which can be found in premium department stores throughout Shanghai and Dalian, was one of only four New Zealand export companies invited to present at the event.
According to Airborne Honey sales and marketing manager, John Smart, the HUT label (Honest Undamaged and Traceable) was created in response to a need for greater food traceability and quality assurance.
”Mothers and families all over the world, from China to New Zealand, are asking questions about the quality and safety of the food they are feeding their families,” says Mr Smart.
“Unless every single batch of honey is measured and recorded, there is no way of knowing how good the quality is. At Airborne Honey, we can tell consumers more about the quality of honey in the jar than any other brand.”
The HUT label, which can now be found on all Airborne Honey jars, enables 
consumers to verify the quality and origin of the honey they are buying.
Honest means that the pollen percentage of the honey is displayed on the jar. If the percentage is high, it tells the customer that the honey is true to the variety printed on the label. For example, a Clover Honey should have more than 40 percent clover pollen, and a Manuka Honey will have over 70 percent Manuka pollen.
Undamaged on the Airborne Honey label demonstrates that the honey has not been heat damaged. Airborne Honey supports this by printing the HMF number on the label. A low HMF number means the honey has not been damaged through improper processing and storage.
Traceable means that every jar of Airborne Honey can be tracked all the way back to the beehive. All Airborne Honey labels features a batch number, which allows the company to do this.
Mr Smart says that providing customers with a premium product and the reassurance that the food they’re eating is as pure and undamaged as possible has been part of the company’s culture since it was founded.
It is an ethos that appeals to Chinese customers who have become increasingly discerning when it comes to food traceability, safety standards and quality.
They are also keen to avoid antibiotics and hormones in their food, additions that are illegal in the New Zealand beekeeping industry.
www.airborne.co.nz
