Honey Testing Batch #8: Glyphosate Detected in Four of Five Samples

Our latest round of independent honey testing has found glyphosate in four of the five honeys tested, including one of two certified-organic products.

The highest result — 0.0597 mg/kg in J.Friend & Co Beechwood Honeydew — was below New Zealand’s maximum residue level (MRL) for glyphosate in honey of 0.1 mg/kg (100 ppb), but it is still a clearly detectable and quantifiable glyphosate residue.

No AMPA or glufosinate was detected at the laboratory’s reporting level of 0.010 mg/kg (10 ppb) in any of the five samples.

Batch 8 Test Results

Testing was performed by Hill Laboratories using LC-MS/MS analysis with a glyphosate reporting limit of 0.002 mg/kg (2 ppb).

Want to support more independent testing? Your donation helps fund the next round.

One Result Stands Out

The J.Friend & Co Beechwood Honeydew result is clearly different from the rest of this batch.

At 0.0597 mg/kg, it contained almost ten times the glyphosate concentration of the next-highest sample.

It is still below the legal MRL of 0.1 mg/kg (100 ppb). But an MRL is a regulatory limit used to determine whether residues comply with permitted pesticide use. It should not be interpreted as a dividing line between “safe” and “unsafe”.

There is another regulatory number worth understanding: the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI). New Zealand’s ADI for glyphosate is 1 mg per kilogram of body weight per day — equivalent to 70 mg per day for a 70 kg adult.

Looked at through that lens, the amount of glyphosate someone would consume from a spoonful of this honey is extremely small.

But that isn’t really the question our testing programme is trying to answer.

We don’t eat glyphosate from one jar of honey in isolation. Our testing has found residues in honey, bread, flour, bran and breakfast cereals. The question that interests us is what those individual detections tell us about how frequently glyphosate is entering the food supply, where it is coming from, and our cumulative exposure from different foods over time.

Regulatory compliance is important. But it is not the only question worth asking.

For our testing, the more interesting question is not simply whether a product complies with the MRL.

It is where glyphosate is turning up, at what concentrations, and how often.

What About The Organic Honey?

For the first time in our honey testing programme, this round included two certified-organic honey products.

Woodland Honey Certified Organic Raw Mānuka Multifloral was reported at <0.002 mg/kg, while TranzAlpine Organics Organic White Clover Honey contained 0.0062 mg/kg (6.2 ppb) of glyphosate.

That raises an interesting question: how does a measurable glyphosate residue end up in certified-organic honey?

Bees forage over large areas. They do not recognise farm boundaries, organic certification or neighbouring properties where herbicides may be used.

Testing the finished honey cannot tell us where the glyphosate originated or how the bees encountered it.

That makes honey particularly interesting for our testing programme. The residues found in honey may tell us something about the wider landscape in which the bees have been foraging.

We have previously described honey as a canary in the coal mine.

Perhaps an even simpler way of putting it is this: The bees are doing the environmental sampling for us.

Why We Keep Testing Honey

This is Batch #8 of our independent honey testing programme, and the results continue to show considerable variation.

Across our testing we have found honey samples reported below the laboratory’s reporting limit, honeys containing very small residues, and honeys with substantially higher concentrations. Previous testing has also identified honey samples above New Zealand’s 0.1 mg/kg MRL.

No single jar can tell us why that variation occurs.

But with each round of testing, the picture becomes a little clearer.

This isn’t about declaring individual jars of honey dangerous. Nor can our relatively small testing programme tell us how representative these products are of all New Zealand honey.

What it can do is provide information that would otherwise not exist publicly.

And we will keep looking.

Previous Glyphosate Honey Test Results

This article reports the eighth round of independent glyphosate testing of retail honey commissioned by No More Glyphosate NZ.

Since June 2025, we have been purchasing honey products from normal retail outlets and submitting them for independent laboratory analysis at Hill Laboratories.

Each round provides another snapshot in time. While results can vary between brands, batches, seasons and floral sources, repeat testing helps build a clearer picture of how glyphosate residues appear across New Zealand’s honey supply over time.

You can read our previous honey testing reports here:

Batch 1 — June 2025: Seven popular New Zealand honey products were independently tested, with glyphosate quantified in three samples and four reported at <0.010 mg/kg.

Batch 2 — August 2025: The second round expanded the programme with additional mānuka and blended honey products available to New Zealand consumers.

Batch 3 — August 2025: Seven more retail honey products were tested, including the first Wrights Mānuka sample.

Batch 4 — September 2025: One sample exceeded New Zealand’s current Maximum Residue Limit (MRL), making it the highest glyphosate result recorded in our honey testing programme to date.

Batch 5 — July 2026: Five further retail honey products were independently tested, with low levels of glyphosate detected and quantified in all five samples.

Batch 6 — July 2026: Five retail honey products were tested, with glyphosate detected and quantified in four of the five samples. The round also provided further evidence of batch-to-batch variation among repeat-tested products.

Batch 7 — August 2026: Glyphosate was detected in all five honey samples tested, with results ranging from 0.013 mg/kg to 0.036 mg/kg.

As our independent testing programme continues, we intend to revisit previously tested brands, analyse new products, and monitor how results change over time.

Our aim remains the same: to provide consumers with transparent, independently obtained information about glyphosate residues in the foods they buy and eat.

Related Reading

Here are further articles from No More Glyphosate NZ exploring why glyphosate residues matter, what emerging research is finding at low concentrations, how glyphosate ends up in honey, and what exposure may mean for bees and consumers:

Glyphosate Showed Genotoxic Effects in Human Cells at Every Concentration Level Tested
A 2026 study found evidence of chromosome damage in human intestinal cells at every glyphosate concentration tested — including the lowest, 0.01 mg/L. The researchers did not test lower concentrations, leaving unanswered the question of where, if anywhere, the observed effect disappears.

How Does Glyphosate End Up in Honey Without Killing the Bees?
Explains how bee foraging, crop spraying, and contaminated landscapes lead to glyphosate showing up in honey.

Even the Beekeepers Know: Glyphosate Is Everywhere
Looks at the marketing of honey as pure and health-giving, and the contradiction posed by glyphosate residues.

Where Have All the Pollinators Gone? Glyphosate’s Impact on Bees
Summarises the research on how glyphosate affects bee navigation, gut health, and colony strength.

Testing Costs & Transparency

One advantage of honey testing is cost. Glyphosate analysis of honey typically costs around $104 per sample, compared with approximately $400 per sample for many more complex food products.

When we first launched our independent testing programme, a number of supporters chose to make regular monthly donations specifically to fund honey testing. Combined with the lower cost of analysis, their ongoing support has enabled us to continue testing retail honey over successive batches and build a growing independent dataset of glyphosate residues in New Zealand honey.

Thank you to everyone whose donations make this testing possible.

Image Source & Attribution

The feature image on this page was created by No More Glyphosate NZ using licensed stock photography and additional graphic elements, which were combined and edited in Canva for publication.