Real honey is one of nature’s purest foods. However, most of the honey you buy at your local supermarket is not any healthier than white sugar, especially cheap honey. And much of it is likely manufactured in China where regulations on health and safety are in many cases, non-existent.
Americans consume more honey than anyone else in the world, nearly 400 million pounds every year. A third or more of that is likely to have been smuggled in from China and may be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals reports a Food Safety News investigation.
According to the FDA, the food safety divisions of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Commission (EU) as well as numerous other regulating bodies, in order for honey to be considered REAL, it must contain pollen.
Food Safety News investigation 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.
Millions of pounds of honey banned as unsafe in dozens of countries are being imported and sold in the US record quantities. In 2010 the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that almost 43 million pounds of honey entered the U.S. Of that, the Department of Commerce said 37.7 million pounds came from India, the same honey that is banned in the EU because it contained animal medicine and lead and lacked the proper paperwork to prove it didn’t come from China.
A red flag to FDA and the federal investigators should be that countries of origin don’t have anywhere near the capacity – enough bees – to produce the honey exported. It has to come from China. American Honey Producers Association.
“People don’t know what they’re eating,” says Karen Everstine, a research associate at the National Center for Food Protection and Defense. The honey business is only one example of an uncontrolled market. “We don’t know how it works, and we have to know how it works if we want to be able to identify hazards.”
There are more than 300 unique kinds of honey produced in the United States ranging from diverse floral sources as Clover, Eucalyptus and Orange Blossoms.
Do you know what is in the honey you are buying?
Always read the label. If it contains added glucose or high fructose corn syrup, it is not real honey.
Place a spoon of honey in a glass of water. If it dissolves it is fake.
Pure honey will not dissolve in water and will sink to the bottom of the glass.
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