The HouseTesting
Numbers, not adjectives.
Every batch Thymelia bottles will carry a laboratory certificate of analysis, published on this site in full — real units, against the legal limits, per batch. This page explains what gets tested, what the figures mean, and what testing cannot tell you.
What “raw” has to prove
Heat is the enemy. Two measurements expose it: HMF, which rises when honey is heated or stored badly, and diastase, an enzyme that heat destroys. UK law (assimilated from the EU honey rules in the Honey (England) Regulations 2015) sets the limits for all honey — raw honey should sit far inside them, and each batch page will show exactly where ours lands.
- HMF (hydroxymethylfurfural)Rises with heat and age
- A compound that accumulates in honey with heating and age. Legal limit: 40 mg/kg. Fresh, unheated honey typically measures in single figures.
- Diastase activityDestroyed by heat
- A natural honey enzyme, measured on the Schade scale, destroyed by heat. Legal minimum: 8. High readings are consistent with honey that has never been meaningfully warmed.
The batch record
Published for every batch, in this form:
The RecordPublished per batch
| Analyte | Reference | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Moisture | house limit ≤ 17.5 g/100 g | published per batch |
| HMF | legal limit ≤ 40 mg/kg | published per batch |
| Diastase activity | legal minimum ≥ 8 Schade | published per batch |
| Pollen analysis | thyme share of count | published per batch |
| Residue multi-screen | multi-compound panel | published per batch |
Whose laboratory?
The per-batch certificate comes from the producer’s accredited laboratory and travels with the harvest we buy — we publish it unedited. On top of that, we will commission independent UK verification periodically as a deliberate check on the paperwork, and publish those results side by side with the originals.
Batch lookup
Every jar will print its lot code, and entering it here will return the full filed record: apiary and coordinates, extraction date, the certificate in real units, and how many jars the batch drew. The lookup ships with the first harvest — like everything on this page, it goes live when there is a real batch to look up, not before.
What testing cannot tell you
A certificate can show what the honey is and what was never done to it. It cannot tell you how the honey tastes, or how it will set in your cupboard. Pollen analysis reads the forage, not the flavour — for that, open the jar.