The Buzz About Genuine and Corrupted Honey

We Need Our Busy Bees

If the honeybees die, we die. That’s the story told on various internet sites but it is an exaggeration. There is however no doubt we would suffer greatly as a result of a honeybee extinction.

   Due to human dependence on honeybee pollination of food crops, we would lose or experience serious reduction in foods from apples to coffee to lemons and limes. Not to mention watermelon, among many other menu mainstays. Probably 70 percent of our grown food supply would be affected.

  
Inspires a bit of appreciation for honeybees, doesn’t it? And therefore, it is reasonable to say, for honey. But there’s a problem with honey these days. Call it corruption. Can you trust that the product is that real honey -- or have you been suckered by an adulterated mix?

   Honey is among foods most likely to be adulterated. It may well be the most debased of all.

                      Sweetening the Pot

   Cheaters cut honey with cane, corn or rice syrup, beet sugar, or an assortment of sweetening agents. One recent case showed the added mixture was simply sugar water.

   Cheaters get away with it because there is not a lot of monitoring of the product as it comes to the marketplace. It comes there from all over the world. Although the US has a great variety of honey available, perhaps 300 different types, we don’t produce near the quantity demanded. So, sixty to eighty percent of honey in US markets is imported. And that fuels the problem. Source countries may not be particular about what goes into the product they are calling “honey.”

   It is often asserted that Chinese honey has been banned because of adulteration, and this appears to be true of the European market. Chinese honey has certainly been found to contain contaminants. In the US, though, the ban is a way to keep cheap honey out of the market. However, it is well known that the Chinese “launder” their honey through other countries, where it is then shipped into the US without Chinese identification.

   So, the US has inspectors to catch the bad stuff, right? Most likely not. Larry Olmstead, in his book Real Food, Fake Food says “there are few federal standards for honey, no government certification and no consequences for making false claims.”

                      The Pollen Problem

   Another obstacle facing those who hope to purchase real honey is that pollen is filtered out of most store-bought honey. The huge commercial producers say this makes no difference in terms of nutritive value. The US Department of Agriculture’s industry-funded Honey Board joins in: “The amount of pollen in honey is minuscule and not enough to impact the nutrient value of honey. Honey is still honey, even without pollen.”

   On the other hand, you will often find it stated that the Food and Drug Administration says honey without pollen isn’t honey. As far as I can tell, that statement is non-binding, the regulators don’t enforce labeling, except producers must indicate if their product is a “blend.”

   So, what’s the deal with pollen? It has adherents, particular in the health food field. Pollen’s qualities are said to include enzymes, antioxidants and anti-allergenic benefits. “Raw honey is thought to have many medicinal properties,” Kathy Egan, dietitian at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., told Food Safety News.  “Stomach ailments, anemia and allergies are just a few of the conditions that may be improved by consumption of unprocessed honey.”

   Furthermore, many folks simply want their honey in its natural state, unprocessed. Ironically, though, part of the reason for filtration is that the big commercial outfits believe buyers want a clear, pollen-free honey. And, grocers want filtered honey due to its longer shelf life. So your supermarket or drug store honey probably has the pollen filtered out. And the little packets offered by restaurants are invariably filtered.

   What to do if you want honey similar to what may have  graced great-grandma’s table? Larry Olmstead and many others suggest buying local, at the farmers market or food co-op. He says: “What’s especially sad is that it is easy to buy real honey, made by small producers all around the country, and widely available at farmers’ markets and gourmet stores. By simply avoiding big supermarket brands and buying it from someone who makes it locally, you should be safe.”