Jars of a brand of honey called Gozo Wild Flower Honey were seized by the health authorities after a complaint that the product actually contains a high level of cane sugar.

Samples were taken from the honey for testing, Environmental Health director John Attard Kingswell said.

The authorities are still waiting for the results from abroad but Mr Attard Kingswell said that about 26 jars were sealed and seized by the department, adding that further action would be taken according to the outcome.

The authorities were alerted about the possibility of high sugar content in the honey, bought at an outlet near the Ġgantija temples, by a Valletta resident.

According to Paul Borg, a quick analysis of the honey by his son's chemistry teacher found it had very high cane sugar content, which had been slightly caramelised.

"Apart from being dangerous to diabetics, one is led to believe this is a healthy product," Mr Borg said.

The producer, Charles Vella, denied adding any sugar to the honey, although he admitted feeding sugar to his bees. "I don't want to deceive people," he said, adding he was not a big producer and only churned out a few jars of honey.

Malta's honey regulations clearly lay down that honey is the natural sweet substance produced by Apis Mellifera bees from the nectar of plants or from secretions of living parts of plants or the excretions of plant-sucking insects on the living parts of plants.

This is collected by the bees and then transformed by combining with specific substances of their own, deposited, dehydrated, stored and left in honeycombs to ripen and mature.

Moreover, honey placed on the market or used in any product intended for human consumption shall not have anything, including food additives, added to it.

"Therefore, any addition to natural honey renders the product not suitable to be labelled as honey, irrespective of whether the added ingredients are declared on the label or not," Mr Attard Kingswell said when contacted.

He said the department would be conducting further checks throughout the year to ensure honey producers complied with the specifications, and action would be taken against those who did not do so in order to protect consumers' rights.