Blockchain could track honey from hive to jar, busting fraud with transparent supply chains & smart contracts.
Why do you need a blockchain? A regular database can do that as well, and they use a lot less energy.
Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain
131–140 of 241 posts
Re: Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, it's not. Honey is defined by the USDA as being flower nectar that's been processed by bees[1]. Artificial honey can not be called honey[2]. If they're mixing it with high fructose corn syrup, then there should be a way to scientifically determine that. [1] https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/Extracted... [2] https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/Extracted...
A 90s percent of honey is fructose, glucose, and water. A very high 90s percent of corn syrup is fructose, glucose, and water. Getting the ratios the same is trivial. There is nothing magical about fructose or glucose from different sources, they’re exactly the same simple molecule. If you had very clean corn syrup, you could undetectably dilute honey and it would be quite the same. Lab tests being what they are thes…
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10346535/
Numerous studies have concluded that honey does have a better effect on health than the same amount of simple syrup, at least.
> It has been demonstrated that honey consumption can influence plasma lipid, glucose, and insulin levels through different biochemical mechanisms. The decrease in blood glucose may be due to the fact that honey has a stimulatory effect on insulin secretion and improves insulin sensitivity
Re: Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the article: An EU investigation published last year found 46% of imported sampled products were suspected to be fraudulent, including all 10 from the UK. Samples used in October by the UK branch of the Honey Authenticity Network for a novel form of DNA testing found that 24 out of 25 jars from big UK retailers were suspicious.
It's extremely common for honey sold in the UK to be labelled as a 'blend of EU and non-EU honey', or similar. There's no doubt in my mind that what this really means is that they've no real idea where the honey comes from. On the rare occasion I do buy honey it's usually Scottish Heather Honey, which is as delicious as it is expensive.
Yeah as soon as I see 'blend of EU and non-EU honey' then I'm noping out of there as it just means disguised sugar syrup.
Actual location authenticated honey costs actual real money.
Re: Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you talking about a specific country or anywhere (in the West, I assume)?
What I had heard was that anything that isn't "single source" likely has sugar syrup added. this includes all major brands. I wouldn't even trust the expensive "organic" versions of big brands. Apparently exported Chinese "honey" is the main offender which gets mixed with other sources. Two of the supermarkets in the UK I shop in have their own brand "Spanish Forest Honey", that claims to be single source from Spain.…
Interesting you appear to be getting downvoted for presumably accurately stating that China is the majority source of fake honey.
It was such a known problem that China had to start laundering its honey, I believe at one point Singapore suddenly became one of the world's latest exporters or "honey"
Re: Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain
#135Feels like wherever you turn, you see a high-trust society disintegrating into a low-trust one.
Rose colored glasses looking at the past. Nostalgia for something that never was.
How do you reconcile this with the narrative that life was unlivable 100 years ago and everyone was miserable and died of disease young?
Re: Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain
#136Here's a very straightforward guide to buying honey. If you see honey at a supermarket, no you don't, that's sugar syrup. If you see honey online, no you don't, that's sugar syrup. If you find an old dude with a small stand and a bunch of (most likely unlabelled) jars who only accepts cash, that's where you get real honey.
The "down to earth local grower" is a form of marketing that appeals to you. It's not a guarantee of quality, and probably more variable. Many vendors at farmer's markets just buy and relabel stuff, because producing goods efficiently enough to make a profit is actually hard.
Re: Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain
#137Here's a very straightforward guide to buying honey. If you see honey at a supermarket, no you don't, that's sugar syrup. If you see honey online, no you don't, that's sugar syrup. If you find an old dude with a small stand and a bunch of (most likely unlabelled) jars who only accepts cash, that's where you get real honey.
This isn’t true at all in the United States at least. Sugar syrup or even honey adulterated with sugar syrup behaves differently. I’ve had some cheap generic brand bottles that flowed too easily, dissolved too quickly, and never crystallized. Probably sugar syrup. But I haven’t seen this once since over a decade ago in my college days when I shopped at some questionable neighborhood supermarkets. Everything I’ve boug…
My brother in law owns bees and gifts us honey. One is strong, thick, crystallised easily. One is thin and flows very easily, very see through. These things aren’t good indicators of adulteration at all
Re: Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain
#138I kept bees for about 15 years. Personally, I see 0 reasosn to have any kind of "award" anyway. This is a purely subjective process. Different people like different things. Honey is as varied as the forage that it's produced from. This whole process of determining a "We're #1" is just a symptom of the autistic ape.
I agree, especially when you consider that apparently they have a hard time detecting mixed in sugar syrup. What are they basing the ratings on, if they can't ensure the baseline "it's honey"?
Re: Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain
#139Here's a very straightforward guide to buying honey. If you see honey at a supermarket, no you don't, that's sugar syrup. If you see honey online, no you don't, that's sugar syrup. If you find an old dude with a small stand and a bunch of (most likely unlabelled) jars who only accepts cash, that's where you get real honey.
The "down to earth local grower" is a form of marketing that appeals to you. It's not a guarantee of quality, and probably more variable. Many vendors at farmer's markets just buy and relabel stuff, because producing goods efficiently enough to make a profit is actually hard.
I'm pretty sure my own father is not masquerading as a beekeeper to market his honey to me. You're right though that it alone doesn't pay the bills, but it does definitely help.
Re: Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain
#140Feels like wherever you turn, you see a high-trust society disintegrating into a low-trust one.
Actually I think the opposite is true in many cases. Food quality and safety standards are higher than ever. This stuff sticks out because it’s getting caught and called out. There was a time when information spread slowly, tracking supply chains was basically impossible, and many businesses would do shady things because they knew they were unlikely to get caught. Now we can sample things like honey with lab equipmen…
It’s high trust in very specific ways. Walk into a supermarket and a box of X name brand whatever and it’s 99.99% guaranteed to be manufactured by the company it says on the box and be safe to consume no need for holographic stickers or whatnot.
However, pick up a high value product and it’s likely to be some effectively identical fake while still being sold by the company it says on the box. An expensive restaurant is quite likely to be selling you fish when it says it’s fish but it may not be the correct species of fish etc etc.
Eating at a random food truck is safe because we care a lot about safety, but let the buyer beware around just about anything else.