Royal jelly is the food, produced by bees for raising their queen, and not their king, as suggested by the poet! It is produced by special management of the bee colonies. In one bee season a royal jelly beekeeper can produce about 500 g of this precious jelly. In Switzerland no royal jelly is produced for commercial purposes.
Royal jelly is a foodstuff. The legal food requirements, as well as the specific requirements for royal jelly are indicated in the regulation on food from animal origin, especially chapter 11.
Criteria from the former Swiss Food Book (2003) can be used for quality assessment..
Gelée royale, Kapitel 23C des ehemaligen Schweizerischen Lebensmittelbuches (German (PDF, 35 kB, 14.09.2016) and French (PDF, 35 kB, 15.09.2016)) Royal jelly, Chapter 23C of the former Swiss Food Book
Alles um das Gelée Royale (German (PDF, 85 kB, 14.09.2016) and Italian (PDF, 114 kB, 14.09.2016)) Harvest, composition, quality criteria of royal jelly
S. Bogdanov (1999)
