INDEPENDENTLY VERIFIED

AQ Assured by AsureQuality, New Zealand's Government-owned food assurance company.

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Tai Tokerau Mānuka Honey UMF™ 10+
250g/500g

PRODUCT ATTRIBUTES VERIFIED BY AQ ASSURED

  • New Zealand made
  • NZ FernMark
 

This Mānuka honey is produced by bees from Tai Tokerau Honey’s hives which are moved around the North Island of New Zealand with the Mānuka flowers during the peak honey-making season.

New Zealand Mānuka honey is produced by bees collecting nectar from the Mānuka plant (Leptospermum scoparium). Mānuka plants can be found growing throughout New Zealand. The majority of Tai Tokerau’s honey is produced and harvested in the Far North region of New Zealand.

Tai Tokerau Honey holds a NZ Fernmark License (License number: NZFM100164) which verifies New Zealand as its country of origin. The Fernmark license is a formal government recognition of Tai Tokerau Honey's connection to New Zealand.

Supply Chain

There are systems in place throughout Tai Tokerau Honey’s supply chain to ensure that each jar of honey meets high standards of safety and quality.

The Apiary

  • The Apiaries where their hives are located are registered with New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries, and comply with their annual hive inspection and reporting requirements.
  • The beehives meet New Zealand requirements to construct beehives with materials that are not a source of hazard to the honey.
  • Honey boxes are covered during transportation to the factory to minimise contamination.

The Factory

The Mānuka honey hive boxes are transported from the Apiary to the factory, accompanied by signed Harvest Declarations that detail the apiary location that the boxes have come from.

  • The extraction and bottling facility in Kaitaia is owned and operated by Tai Tokerau Honey.
  • Samples of honey are taken during the extraction process and tested by an accredited laboratory for authenticity, safety, quality and UMF level.
  • The Mānuka honey is packed into jars with tamper-proof lids and seals.
  • All jars of Tai Tokerau Honey are labelled with a batch number for traceability purposes.
  • The final product is tested again at an independent accredited laboratory for authenticity, safety, quality and UMF level.
  • The honey is stored in a facility that is covered by an audited Risk Management Plan to ensure quality of the honey remains high.
  • The extraction and bottling facility is audited biannually by NZ Government owned AsureQuality to ensure Risk Management Plan (RMP) requirements are met.

Transport Assurances

The transport company that delivers Tai Tokerau Honey is required to have a current New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries Risk Management Programme before it can carry any Tai Tokerau Honey products, as per New Zealand’s Animal Products Act, 1999. This transport company is audited regularly by authorised personnel to ensure that the required standards are being met and maintained.

Shipping

Tai Tokerau Honey products are packed to order, then transported via NZ Post, a New Zealand Government owned postal service, where it will be processed and tracked via barcoding and traceability systems until final delivery to the consumer via China Post.

Consumer

The packaging this honey is delivered in carries the AQ Assured brand and QR code on label for consumers to scan for more information on the safety and quality measures undertaken throughout the product supply chain.

Sustainability is incorporated into Tai Tokerau Honey’s core beliefs and practices. They work closely with local Iwi and landowners to create a productive and sustainable industry which cares for the land.

Tai Tokerau Honey products are obligated to be produced in compliance with New Zealand’s Resource Management Act (2009), and local council Resource Management Plans, which set rules and regulations around management of the New Zealand Environment. The regulation and compliance monitoring of environmental concerns is under the NZ Government-owned Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).These rules include:
  • Disposing of waste in ways that prevent pollution
  • Controlling manufacturing emissions to ensure air quality is maintained
  • Using only approved chemicals in a way that will not harm the environment
  • Operating within a safe distance of waterways to avoid erosion and product water quality
Tai Tokerau Honey were the Winners of the 2018 - Excellence in Environmental Awareness and Management award, as part of the Tai Tokerau Maori Business Awards.

Tai Tokerau Honey supports the Tai Tokerau community by contributing to the local employment opportunities and supporting local honey businesses by providing a contract bottling service.

Tai Tokerau Honey’s landowners receive yearly reports which update them on the activity and results from the season. They also share their successes and failures with whanau and the wider community to keep them involved.

Safety and quality are important to Tai Tokerau Honey and they take precautions to ensure their honey meets high safety and quality standards. Their supply chain is vertically integrated, so they control the entire process from harvesting the honey to filling the jar.

Laboratory Testing

During the extraction process, samples of honey are sent to an accredited laboratory to be tested, then the final product is tested again for authenticity, safety, quality and Unique Manuka Factor (UMF™). 

Tai Tokerau Honey is a member of the UMF™ Honey Association (License number 2110). UMF™ is a grading system undertaken by the more than 100 New Zealand honey producers that form the UMF™ Honey Association. This grading system requires laboratory testing for three grading attributes in order to determine the UMF™ rating.

Tai Tokerau Honey meets the Ministry for Primary Industries requirements for all honey labelled as Mānuka for export be tested by a recognised laboratory, ensuring that it meets the scientific definition of Mānuka honey. The Mānuka honey definition is made up of a combination of 5 attributes (4 chemicals from nectar and 1 DNA marker from Mānuka pollen).

Auditing 

All Tai Tokerau Honey’s extraction, bottling, transport and storage facilities are audited to verify the requirements of the Risk Management Programme (RMP).

This product is 100% NZ honey.

This batch of honey has been independently tested to contain at least 10+ UMF™.