While farmers and wholesalers are facing off over the price of melons, National Chief Veterinarian Miklós Süth - who, despite his somewhat odd title, is responsible for the safety of food eaten by Hungary's humans - is locked in a battle with conservative daily Magyar Nemzet over allegations that Süth failed to quickly order the removal of some allegedly "fake" honey from stores around the country.

On July 1, the paper wrote wrote that an examination carried out by an EU laboratory had showed nearly half of the honey sold at Hungarian stores was "counterfeit" (as in containing a larger than permitted amount of sugar syrup) and that Süth, who is also the state secretary of the agriculture ministry, did not immediately instruct stores to remove the bad stuff from their shelves, and apparently waited instead for the National Beekeeper Association of Hungary (OMME) to conduct some tests of its own. In the end, 143 tons of honey were destroyed and another 80 tons seized.

Süth told news portal Zoom that the paper had distorted the facts in its article, and pointed out that the authorities' hands are often tied when dealing with cases of allegedly fake honey.

The apparently definitive "Hungarian Food Book" (Magyar Élelmiszerkönyv) says real honey is a product to which nothing has been added by humans (or taken away), but it does not specify the amounts of vitamins and other ingredients it can contain. This means that if the honey sold in stores is found to contain ingredients considerably different from what is found in nature, the authorities are generally unable do much, even if they smell a rat among the bees.