Honey is a natural sweet substance that bees collect nectar, secretions or honeydew from plants, mix with their own secretions, and fully brew them. Honey is the first sweetener discovered by humans, and its application dates back to human origin; in fact, it is said that honey was part of the diet of people in the Paleolithic Age.

      The earliest evidence to prove the relationship between humans and bees comes from a cave painting in Spain, which depicts the scene of ancient people using temporary beehives to collect honey. This is also evidence of the development of beekeeping during the Neolithic Age.

      From the written record on the Sumerian stele, the date when people began to consume honey was 2000-2100 BC. During the ancient Egyptian period, the beekeeping industry experienced significant development. Representative products produced by beekeeping factories (such as beeswax, honey, pollen, propolis and royal jelly) were used as medicine and ceremonial products. Honey pot residues and related substances were found in the tombs of several pharaohs. In Greece and Rome, honey was also used as medicine and energy food; in India, it has been closely related to Ayurvedic medicine and Unani medicine for centuries.

      In Persia, the efficacy of honey is also recognized. About 1,000 years ago, scientist, philosopher, and doctor Avicenna also mentioned the curative effect of honey in his book "Medicine". In Europe, from the Middle Ages to the later Renaissance, beekeeping continued to develop. The prosperity of beekeeping also aroused the creative passion of artists, such as the Florentine painter Pierodi Cosimo, who created the work "The Discovery of Honey". Later, in the seventeenth century, "Introduction to Beehive" was widely copied in Spain. It was one of the earliest works to record beekeeping in Spanish.

      At present, honey is widely used in nutrition and has become a nutritional supplement with pharmacological effects recognized all over the world. Therefore, honey has played an important role in human diet since the emergence of human beings. With the wide application of honey in nutrition, people began to use it in the treatment of some diseases and nominated it as a functional nutrient or "health product".

      Almost every country in the world produces honey, and honey is recognized as an important energy food. Because of its high nutritional value and unique flavor, honey is increasingly recognized by consumers and is often used as a substitute for other sweeteners. Although it should not be regarded as an independent food according to people's daily dietary standards, it can be used as a potential dietary supplement.

      The most important ingredient in honey is sugar, which accounts for more than three-quarters of the total honey ingredients, including monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides and polysaccharides; glucose and fructose in monosaccharides account for about the total sugar content of honey They can be directly absorbed from the digestive tract into the blood or tissue fluid, and then transported to the corresponding organs or tissue units as the main energy source for life activities. They can also be converted into fatty acids and corresponding biochemical reactions through the corresponding biochemical reactions in the body. Amino acids and so on meet physiological needs.

      Therefore, honey is the best food for infants, young children, the elderly, and the infirm with poor digestive function, and it is also the most direct and effective energy source for athletes, heavy physical workers and high-intensity mental workers.

      Due to the improvement of people's living standards and consumers' preference for natural food honey, the increase in honey consumption has driven the increase in honey consumption. From 2001 to 2017, the global honey production showed a steady growth trend. In 2017, the global honey production reached 1.86 million tons. my country's honey production has always ranked first in the world. In 2017, its output reached 550,000 tons, accounting for 30% of global honey production.