Honey has sugar in form of Fructose & Glucose collected by bees from flowering plants like Mustard, Eucalyptus, Litchi etc. However, sugar (sucrose) sourced from C4 plants like Cane which is cheap and easily available can be broken into Fructose & Glucose through a simple heating process. This is then added to pure honey to reduce its cost. The C4 sugar in Honey is limited to maximum of 7% (as per standard recommended by Codex Alimentarius Commission Guidelines). When C4 Sugar is above this level, the international laboratories consider it as a sure sign of added sugar from external source in honey.
Also, Honey imported in India may contain high quantity of ‘Rice Syrup’ which is essentially other form of sugar like maltose etc. obtained from treatment of starch available in Rice. This addition of Rice Syrup is difficult to test and track. Indian labs are not equipped to test presence of ‘Rice Syrup’. Thus, it is very much required to test honey for purity as per international standards. And only tested honey can be guaranteed for purity.