Labs to Test for Methylglyoxal as Measurement of Manuka Honey Activity

Manuka Honey Pioneers Welcome Ratification of Testing Method

Press Release: Manuka Health, 9/13/2011

Global leaders in the production of therapeutic grade manuka honey, Manuka Health, have welcomed the announcement that the leading testing laboratories in Singapore, New Zealand government-owned AsureQuality, will now be testing for methylglyoxal as their measurement of activity in manuka honey.

Manuka Health developed what has become the gold standard for the manuka honey industry in 2008, believing that consumers around the world deserved to be able to have total faith in the active potential of the manuka honey products they were buying.

CEO Kerry Paul is pleased to see some further progress toward the standard being adopted worldwide. “We’ve said for a long time that a methylglyoxyal-based scale would be the standard against which all manuka honey would be measured in the future. Many within the industry have tried to promote very outdated and unreliable testing in the past. We’ve got a way to go, but this is great first step.”

Manuka Health has worked with several leading laboratories Hills and AsureQuality to get consistency in methylglyoxal testing. There is a need to have several laboratories capable of providing a repeatable scientific test as the scientific body of evidence supporting methylglyoxyal as the primary factor contributing to the unparalleled antibacterial properties of New Zealand manuka honey continues to mount up….