Umf25+

[NZHS]

Unfortunately we are now out of stock of the Comvita UMF25+ Manuka Honey.

It is part of being a unique 100% natural product, only a very small amount of manuka honey is correctly at the UMF25+ level.

At the moment there is no word as to when we can get some more - it is a matter of waiting for the honey season to progress in New Zealand.

We do still have plenty of the Comvita UMF20+ manuka honey.

[sussexbrett]

Do you know yet when you will be getting more of this 25+ in?

[NZHS]

Hi Sussexbrett,

Regret that will not be any anytime soon. Actually now even the supply of UMF20+ is difficult - though for most people the UMF18+ will be just as good and there is much more ready availability of this.

We've pretty much been told not to expect any UMF25+ for the foreseeable future. And we also can't get any from other producers - we understand how important only offering genuine UMF® certified honey is.

[sussexbrett]

Has there been any update to this?

I've been able to keep buying 25+ manuka honey from other websites, so why do you keep not stocking it?

A pity as previously we'd found your delivery prompt.

[NZHS]

Unfortunately the update is that there is no update so to speak. There remains no UMF25+ available.

The reason we do not stock it is because no reputable supplier actually has any (and even genuine UMF20+ is now hard to get or unavailable).

We can be all but certain that the 25+ you indicate you have been buying is not a genuine UMF® 25+, and is from one of the several brands around labelled as 'active 25+'. This is absolutely not the same product, and likely a jar of UMF5+ from us would actually provide more beneficial properties to you.

The issue is in just what is being measured, and when / where. All honey has some 'active' properties in terms of a hydrogen peroxide activity. But 2 things, there is nothing special about that, and it is not stable and actually has been proven to disappear by up to 100% by the time you are buying the jar.

Only some manuka honey contains an extra, additional antibacterial property, which is what the research is actually based on, and is a stable property that remains in the honey over time. The UMF® quality standard only measures this special component.

The practice of some brands is to instead ask the lab to test for the 'total activity', and to include measuring the hydrogen peroxide activity, to thus create a higher number. Technically they claim it is still 'certified', as when the honey has just been taken from the hive the hydrogen peroxide level is high, and the lab has measured it.

But we firmly believe it to be a highly misleading practice in terms of indicating any benefit to the user.

Fact: A jar of 'certified Active 18+' taken from a shop shelf in the UK and independently tested again - was found to have an actual level of - 'undetectable' ! Because it never had any UMF® equivalent property in it, and the hydrogen peroxide level that had been originally tested for had by then disappeared.

For ourselves it is a really easy position to take - we would rather be out of stock of a product than to supply an item that we know is not actually of the quality that our customers are expecting.

See here for what we have available of genuine UMF® Manuka honey