Most Store Honey Isn’t Honey
November 9th, 2011Via: Food Safety News:
More than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores isn’t exactly what the bees produce, according to testing done exclusively for Food Safety News.
The results show that the pollen frequently has been filtered out of products labeled “honey.”
The removal of these microscopic particles from deep within a flower would make the nectar flunk the quality standards set by most of the world’s food safety agencies.
The food safety divisions of the World Health Organization, the European Commission and dozens of others also have ruled that without pollen there is no way to determine whether the honey came from legitimate and safe sources.
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.
i think something like 89-90% of the honey sold in Japan comes from China. whatever it is, it is definitely NOT honey. i only buy Japanese or NZ honey.
Emailed dutch gold (local honey manufacturer in my area, linked article) and received lengthy response copied in full here:
Thank you for reaching out to Dutch Gold Honey with your question regarding honey, pollen and filtration. A recent article has caused quite a bit of confusion regarding the honey industry’s standard practice of straining or filtering honey, which has been in place for more than one-half a century and ultrafiltration, a modern process that, when applied to honey, does not result in a product that can be called, honey.
Please find Dutch Gold Honey’s filtration statement below. This also includes links to the National Honey Board’s website and the USDA Grading Standards for Honey. I hope this answers your questions.
Filtration
Dutch Gold Honey, Inc. provides a pure, all-natural US Grade A Honey to consumers, food service operators and food manufacturers. To ensure the quality of the honey and to slow the natural process of crystallization, Dutch Gold strains or filters all raw honey to remove pieces of beeswax and other materials that would be visible to the human eye, such as dust and pollen, from the honey prior to packaging. This filtration process, which has been an industry standard for over half a century, does not alter the nutritional profile of the honey and allows Dutch Gold Honey to meet the USDA Grading Standards for a Grade A extracted, filtered honey.
The honey industry standard practice of straining and filtration should not be confused with ultrafiltration. When honey is ultrafiltered, water is added to the honey, so that it can be filtered, under pressure to the molecular level. This process removes microscopic material from the honey. After the water is removed, the resulting colorless sweetener is derived from honey, but is not considered “honey” in the United States.
Dutch Gold Honey does not and has never ultrafiltered honey.
For additional information regarding filtration, please visit the National Honey Board’s website at http://www.honey.com and click on “Why is Honey Filtered” on the upper right hand corner of the home page. The USDA grading standards for honey are also available at http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELDEV3011895.
For over 45 years, we have been buying honey from the same beekeeping families from all over the US. Example: Orange Blossom honey is bought from beekeepers in Florida; Clover, Alfalfa, Wildflower and Buckwheat honey is purchased from beekeepers in the Midwestern states and Dakota areas. Nothing is added to our honey. Quality and purity are very instrumental to Dutch Gold. The raw honey we purchase is tested for purity and residues and must pass all our stringent quality requirements before it is accepted for use. We will not compromise our reputation or our quality.
Nutcase food industry once again.
I get my honey from Riga, Latvia thanks to friends of ours who have family there. It is not the same stuff as found in the stores. It definitely comes from bees living in a box in the garden.
We have a few sources of local, totally raw/unprocessed/unheated/unfiltered honey.
I thought it would be totally outlawed in the U.S., but it’s available:
http://www.reallyrawhoney.com/category_s/43.htm
used to get honeycomb at the farmers market, havent seen it in a decade tho. odd to spread and kinda crunchy. almost barfed a year ago at my parents house when i realized the honey i used earlier that evening was flavored HFCS. not even this untraceable pollen free “honey”.
My grandfather used to raise bees, on a hobby farm. This brought back wonderful memories of that delicious raw, crunchy stuff.
This is the certified organic raw honey that pookie buys for her family in Amerika. Yum.
http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/organic_raw_honey.htm