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    Ingredient guide · Ingredient reference

    Honey has only a trace vitamin C amount in the reference record

    The USDA reference lists 0.5 mg vitamin C per 100 g honey. A small spoon-sized mass contributes much less than 1 mg.

    Read the evidence ↓

    Supplement Science Insights Editorial Team

    Published September 23, 2026

    The amounts in the reference foods

    USDA’s final SR Legacy 2018 release reports honey: 0.5 mg per 100 g; honey: 0.5 mg per 100 g. These are named historical reference foods, not measurements of a current package or meal. [1]

    What changes the interpretation

    This is a historical generic honey entry, not a measurement of a named floral variety. It does not establish identical vitamin C content in every jar or show that honey provides a substantial daily amount. If honey is added to lemon juice or fruit, those ingredients contribute separately and should not be credited to the honey itself. [1]

    A hypothetical portion comparison

    At20 g honey, the reference vitamin C estimate is 0.1 mg;40 g gives 0.2 mg. Increasing the amount doubles the calculation but does not turn a trace concentration into a concentrated vitamin C food. The example is not advice to increase sweetener intake. The table uses the explicitly chosen edible weights. Scale a matching per-100-g value by the grams eaten divided by 100; a count of pieces or an unspecified spoonful is not the same denominator. [1]

    Hypothetical example — compare the chosen edible portions with the original food descriptions
    FoodChosen portionNutrient estimate
    Honey20 g0.1 mg
    Honey40 g0.2 mg
    Honey has only a trace vitamin C amount in the reference record — original article outline diagram
    Original editorial diagram of this article’s sections; no product photograph or clinical finding is depicted.

    Sources for this article

    1. USDA FoodData Central — SR Legacy April 2018 composition and portion tables
      Source consulted: 2026-09-20. This is a reference resource, not a claim that we conducted the studies or tested a product.