Are we eating FAKE Honey?

A study conducted for Food Safety News shows that at least 75% of the honey sold in the U.S. is actually not real honey, according to Food & Drug Administration standards.  In order for honey to be deemed "honey" in the United States, the honey must contain pollen as it naturally would.  While the FDA has a strict rule on what is and what isn't considered real honey, they actually dno't bother to check the honey sold, and so many people are consuming fake, nutrient-depeleted honey. 

Here are some additional, somewhat disappointing details provided by the article:

In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration says that any product that’s been ultra-filtered and no longer contains pollen isn’t honey. However, the FDA isn’t checking honey sold here to see if it contains pollen.

Ultra filtering is a high-tech procedure where honey is heated, sometimes watered down and then forced at high pressure through extremely small filters to remove pollen, which is the only foolproof sign identifying the source of the honey. It is a spin-off of a technique refined by the Chinese, who have illegally dumped tons of their honey – some containing illegal antibiotics – on the U.S. market for years.

Food Safety News decided to test honey sold in various outlets after its earlier investigation found U.S. groceries flooded with Indian honey banned in Europe as unsafe because of contamination with antibiotics, heavy metal and a total lack of pollen which prevented tracking its origin.

Food Safety News purchased more than 60 jars, jugs and plastic bears of honey in 10 states and the District of Columbia.

The contents were analyzed for pollen by Vaughn Bryant, a professor at Texas A&M University and one of the nation’s premier melissopalynologists, or investigators of pollen in honey.

Bryant, who is director of the Palynology Research Laboratory, found that among the containers of honey provided by Food Safety News:

•76 percent of samples bought at groceries had all the pollen removed, These were stores like TOP Food, Safeway, Giant Eagle, QFC, Kroger, Metro Market, Harris Teeter, A&P, Stop & Shop and King Soopers.

•100 percent of the honey sampled from drugstores like Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS Pharmacy had no pollen.

•77 percent of the honey sampled from big box stores like Costco, Sam’s Club, Walmart, Target and H-E-B had the pollen filtered out.

•100 percent of the honey packaged in the small individual service portions from Smucker, McDonald’s and KFC had the pollen removed.

•Bryant found that every one of the samples Food Safety News bought at farmers markets, co-ops and “natural” stores like PCC and Trader Joe’s had the full, anticipated, amount of pollen.

And if you have to buy at major grocery chains, the analysis found that your odds are somewhat better of getting honey that wasn’t ultra-filtered if you buy brands labeled as organic. Out of seven samples tested, five (71 percent) were heavy with pollen. All of the organic honey was produced in Brazil, according to the labels.

HONEY WITHOUT POLLEN

Here is a list of the honey tested by Food Safety News

that showed no traces of pollen. Analysis showed that

the absence of pollen was consistent regardless of the

size of the jar. In some cases, the stores where the

honey was purchased are not listed because the same

brands can be found in many different outlets.  It's shocking really ...

•

American Choice Clover Honey

•

Archer Farms Orange Blossom Honey

•

Archer Farms Organic Classic Honey

•

Busy Bee Organic Honey

•

Busy Bee, Pure Clover Honey

•

CVS Honey

•

Fred Meyer Clover Honey

•

Full Circle Pure Honey

•

Giant Eagle Clover Honey

•

GE Clover Honey

•

Great Value, Clover Honey

•

Haggen Honey, Natural & Pure

•

HT Traders Tupelo Honey

•

Kroger Pure Clover Honey

•

Market Pantry Pure Honey

•

Mel-o 100 % Pure Honey

•

Natural Sue Bee Clover Honey

•

Naturally Preferred Fireweed Honey

•

Rite Aid Honey

•

Safeway Clover Honey

•

Silver Bow Pure Honey

•

Stop and Shop Clove Honey

•

Sue Bee Clover Honey

•

Thrifty Bee Honey

•

Valutime Honey

•

Walgreen MEL-O honey

•

Western Family Clover Honey

•

Wegman Clover Honey

•

Winnie the Pooh, Pure Clove

 

 

The simplest solution to this is to purchase local raw honey from a local beekeeper if at all possible.  Be careful, be smart, be ready! 

There is no panic in being prepared!   Robin