Fake honey dupes consumers

Australian honey consumers have been warned about sales of fake honey in various stores throughout the country.

Australian Honey Bee Industry Council chairman Ian Zadow said more than 200 tonnes of Turkish product claiming to be honey has been imported into Australia and sold through many independent retail outlets in the past two years.

Australia consumes about 15,000 tonnes of honey each year.

"We have been made aware of product coming in from Turkey, which we then had tested and it showed to be 100 per cent corn syrup," he said.

"A complaint was first lodged through Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in September 2012 regarding false labelling."

Mr Zadow has claimed the council's investigations so far had uncovered five products that were in breach of labelling standards.

He said the industry could not afford bad publicity, but it was important to prevent a cheap and inferior product from causing damage to the already fragile Australian honey industry.

"We urge our honey consumers to check the label … to prevent purchasing a fake product," he said.

"And the best way to avoid being duped is to only buy Australian."