Are Honey Packs Safe? What the FDA Actually Found

Updated 2026-09-21 · 8 min read

This is the question people actually type, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a brand defending itself. The short version: some honey packs are genuinely dangerous, the danger is specific and documented, and you can check any brand in about two minutes.

The short answer

Honey packs as a format are just honey in a single-serve sachet. There is nothing inherently unsafe about that. The problem is a specific category of them, usually sold as "royal honey" and marketed for sexual performance, where laboratory testing has repeatedly found undeclared prescription drugs.

So "are honey packs safe" has two answers depending on which you have picked up, and the label will not always tell you which one that is. The rest of this page is how to tell.

What the FDA actually found

The US Food and Drug Administration maintains a public database of products marketed as dietary supplements that were found to contain hidden drug ingredients. Honey-based products appear in it repeatedly, under names like Royal Honey, Royal Honey VIP and Kingdom Honey Royal Honey VIP.

The ingredients found were most often sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, and tadalafil, the active ingredient in Cialis. In at least one case an undeclared anti-inflammatory drug was found as well. None of these appeared on the label. In 2022 the FDA issued warning letters to four companies selling honey-based products of this kind.

Why that is dangerous, specifically

It is not dangerous merely because it is undeclared, although that is unlawful. It is dangerous because of what those drugs do to blood pressure.

Sildenafil and tadalafil interact seriously with nitrates, a class of medication commonly prescribed for heart conditions such as angina. The combination can drop blood pressure to unsafe levels. Someone on nitrates knows to avoid Viagra. Nobody reads a honey label expecting to check for a drug interaction.

That is the whole mechanism of harm: the person at highest risk is precisely the person with no reason to suspect they are taking a drug at all.

How to check any brand in two minutes

Search the brand and product name in the FDA tainted products database. It is free and searchable.
Read the ingredient list. Every active should be named with its own amount. A "proprietary blend" gives you one combined weight and hides everything inside it.
Be suspicious of any honey promising a fast physical effect, and especially a sexual one. Honey, royal jelly and ginseng do not do that on their own.
Look for a real company: a US address you can find on a map, and a phone number that reaches someone.
Treat crown, king, VIP and throne imagery as a category signal rather than a quality signal. That visual language is specific to the products that have had problems.
Ask the seller for third-party testing documentation, and notice whether you get a real answer.

Royal jelly is not "royal honey"

This confusion does real damage, because it makes a legitimate ingredient sound like a warning sign. Royal jelly is an ingredient: a secretion produced by worker bees, used in supplements for decades. "Royal honey" is a marketing category. A product can contain royal jelly without being royal honey, and plenty of the products the FDA warned about contained no royal jelly at all.

We wrote a fuller explanation in royal honey vs royal jelly.

Where ONYX stands, since you are entitled to ask

ONYX contains honey, deionized apple juice concentrate, royal jelly powder and Panax ginseng root extract. That is the complete list. No sildenafil, no tadalafil, no undeclared pharmaceutical ingredient, and no proprietary blend, because a proprietary blend is exactly where an undisclosed ingredient would hide.

We do not market it for sexual performance and we do not use the branding language of that category. We publish the full Supplement Facts panel, the ingredient list and the warnings on this site, not just on the box.

The ordinary safety questions, which still apply

Even an honestly labelled honey pack is not for everyone.

Bee allergy. Royal jelly is a bee product and a documented allergen, with reactions reported up to anaphylaxis. Asthma raises that risk.
Ginseng interactions. Panax ginseng may interact with blood thinners such as warfarin, with diabetes medication, and with some antidepressants.
It is sugar. A honey pack is mostly honey. Count it as the sweet food it is.
Never for infants. Honey of any kind must not be given to a child under 12 months, because of the risk of infant botulism.

More detail in who should not take royal jelly.

Our ingredients, amounts and warnings are published in full. Judge us on them.

Read the label

Sources

Every factual claim above traces to one of these. Opens in a new tab.

Tainted products marketed as dietary supplements (searchable database) U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Public Notification: Royal Honey contains hidden drug ingredient U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Public Notification: Royal Honey VIP contains hidden drug ingredient U.S. Food and Drug Administration
FDA warns four companies selling tainted honey-based products U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Problematic product spotlight: tainted royal honey LegitScript
Honey-based sexual supplements may contain Cialis and Viagra ingredients, FDA warns NBC News

Common questions

Are honey packs FDA approved?

No honey pack is, and no dietary supplement is. The FDA does not approve supplements before they go on sale. Manufacturers are responsible for their own safety and labelling, and the FDA generally acts after a problem appears. Any product claiming to be FDA approved is making a claim that cannot be true.

Which honey packs did the FDA warn about?

Products sold under names including Royal Honey, Royal Honey VIP and Kingdom Honey Royal Honey VIP, among others. The FDA keeps a searchable database of tainted products marketed as dietary supplements, and issued warning letters to four companies selling honey-based products in 2022.

What is actually in a tainted honey pack?

Testing most often found sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, and tadalafil, the active ingredient in Cialis. At least one product also contained an undeclared anti-inflammatory. None of it was on the label.

Is it safe to take a honey pack with blood pressure medication?

Ask your doctor before taking any supplement alongside prescription medication. The specific danger with tainted honey packs is that undeclared sildenafil or tadalafil interacts seriously with nitrate medication and can lower blood pressure dangerously. Panax ginseng also has documented interactions of its own.