Are we allowed to re-use glass jars for selling honey

[denito6]

hi everyone - looking for a bit of up-to-date advice regarding reusing glass jars for selling honey to the public.

Are we allowed to re-use jars if customers return them to us - of course after their visual inspection and sterilization and kitting out with new lids?

Somebody told me that the advise from Aberdeenshire Environmental Health is that reusing jars for re-selling is not allowed for marmalades, so wonder if this ban applies to honey as well?

online search came up with the following two articles - see links bellow - but wonder if anyone is aware of official position / update, that's more recent - especially post-BREXIT and in line with the government Net Zero plan?

https://www.somersetbeekeepers.org.uk/members-blog/re-use-of-honey-jars?fbclid=IwAR3f5ROana7AzgG36aq_DceyDQMAZRkiZhfI qT9jx7tWdEshfOTzUoWB_Ts

https://bee1st.co.uk/shop/the-food-standards-agency-and-re-use-of-jars/?fbclid=IwAR3vJNJibqx36GYz1dveZjGOfytb0wRTF9zsOhfP QRqut9gCAWaN8w6w2qg

Many thanks in advance

[gavin]

I don't know of any official position. In general, honey is non-sterile and bacteriostatic so if any recycling involves adequate cleaning of the jars (and replacing lids with new) then I would have thought it should be OK. There are differences in approaches by different Environmental Health departments on issues like the need to sterilise new, clean-packed jars or not for honey so you are unlikely to find unanimity on this issue too. In my case I use Dymo printer labels (thanks David!) which are great but a nightmare to remove properly so I've given up trying and any used jars go in the recycling.

The links you posted seem sensible. Guidance for Scotland would come from Food Standards Scotland and I can't find anything on this on their website.

If you do try to remove difficult labels, a paste of edible oil (if you can find any in the supermarket :-) ) and washing soda together with a kitchen metal scrubber is useful.

[denito6]

thanks, Gavin - I appreciate your thoughts and the useful tip about removing stubborn labels.

After doing some further research it turns that it's very much depending on who you talk to - every local authority has their own interpretation of applicable legislation. Angus Environmental Health are fine with reusing jars, but Aberdeenshire Environmental Health told my friend (who makes marmalades) 3 years ago, that she's not allowed to do this.

So I've asked the question at my local ADBKA forum chat and here too - just on the hope that we can all benefit from knowing where we stand legally.

Also I just read that glass jars definitely aren't part of the Scottish glass bottle deposit scheme - this is mad - how come the government is OK with single-use plastics (of all things that are taking ages to break down) and int he same time are banning the reuse of glass food containers for commercial purposes

I'm also thinking of asking the SBA the question to see if they'll have any recent info on the subject - off now to look out the appropriate contact for the Q&A section from the magazine......

[gavin]

You could also try the Markets Officer at the SBA who is currently Jaqui Ferguson: https://scottishbeekeepers.org.uk/about/structure-and-trustees

This sounds like a topic that needs some research and perhaps official advice so maybe a behind the scenes discussion would help, and perhaps a letter to the editor after that would bring the result into the public domain.