Sugarbag honey on the menu of food regulators assessing a code change

Food regulators are considering an application from the Australian Native Bee Association for honey from Australia's native stingless bees to be accepted as a standardised food.

Commonly called sugarbag, honey from the native bees cannot currently be sold in Australia.

The official food standard currently only recognises honey produced from European bees.

The European bees were introduced to Australia more than a century ago to aid in pollinating crops and to produce honey for sale.

Honey produced by the native bees has been harvested by First Nations people as part of their diet for thousands of years.

Stingless bees are small (less than 5mm) which in the wild live mainly in tree hollows.

In recent times, fans have successfully experimented in keeping these bees in hives to extract the small amount of honey they produce - said to be about one kilogram per hive.

The native bee association says the honey is in demand by consumers for its rarity and unique taste.

The association does not consider there to be any identified public health and safety risk from having the honey approve for consumption.

Regulators have been used to create a separate standard for the native honey and be called "native bee honey".

The association first made the application to Food Standards Australia New Zealand in July last year and it is now being assessed.

FSANZ says the public will be able to comment on the application before the honey code is amended.