FDA gets new power to stop honey fraud at the border and in stores

What it does

This bill directs the FDA to establish a standard of identity for honey, create a Honey Integrity Program requiring commercial honey packers to test their products for adulteration using advanced DNA and chemical methods, and report findings to federal authorities. Packers must certify compliance and report results; the FDA investigates and destroys adulterated honey. Packers pay fees to fund the program. Ordinary consumers benefit by gaining assurance that honey sold in the U.S. is genuine and not diluted or substituted with cheaper ingredients.

Why we flagged it

The bill's operative mechanism is establishing FDA testing and certification requirements for honey to prevent fraud. This is a straightforward consumer-protection and food-safety measure, not a subsidy, deregulation, or narrow carve-out.

What the text implies

• Packers excluded from the National Honey Board assessment (small or niche producers) are exempt from testing requirements, potentially creating a two-tier market where only larger packers face compliance costs.
• The Secretary has broad discretion to define 'economically motivated adulteration,' 'best available science,' and exclusion criteria for packers, which could lead to inconsistent enforcement or regulatory capture if industry input dominates standard-setting.
• Fee structure is open-ended ('such time and in such amounts as the Secretary may specify'), giving FDA flexibility but creating uncertainty for packers about future compliance costs.
• Interagency resource-sharing (CBP and USDA lab access) may strain existing agency capacity if honey testing becomes a major workload.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Consumers gain direct protection against economically motivated adulteration (dilution, substitution, or ingredient fraud) in a commodity they purchase regularly. The bill imposes compliance costs on packers, which may be passed to consumers, but the core benefit—assurance of product authenticity and safety—outweighs the likely modest cost increase.

Who stands to gain

• domestic honey producers (protection from adulterated imports)
• legitimate honey packers (competitive advantage over fraudulent suppliers)

Named in the bill

FDA (Food and Drug Administration), Secretary of Health and Human Services, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Agriculture, National Honey Board, Commercial honey packers

Where it stands

12 cosponsors: 7 Democrats, 5 Republicans.

• Mar 14, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Mar 14, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

2 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $150,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 2 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.

W. Steube, the sponsor, reported $624,000 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• American Honey Producers Association — $120,000 on 2 filings
• Mondelez International, Inc. — $30,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.