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Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain

theguardian.com

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Re: Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain

#81

Post by akira2501 »

foolfoolz wrote: post #61
zug_zug wrote: post #38

I think the FDA should build towards mass food analysis. To sell something en masse you should have to put down a deposit, and the FDA should do an annual analysis of your food (via mass spectometry) from samples from the food store. They should mix dozens of samples from different states to get good coverage. Should you fail (illegal pesticides, ingredients differ than label, too much lead, whatever) then you lose y…

we already have this in the FDA. it’s just isolated to nutrient labels for most foods. the deposit is your business. failing a random annual FDA inspection is already extremely financially impactful what you’re looking for is deeper analysis than nutrition labels. this is actually something small local brands start with. they pay for private “certifications” like organic, non gmo, etc.

> failing a random annual FDA inspection

What is involved in that inspection and what does it take to actually fully fail it? Is it like most government tests where the first failure means you just have to fix the problems and schedule your retest?

> they pay for private “certifications” like organic, non gmo, etc.

As a consumer these have the _least_ value out of anything on the label to me.

Re: Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain

#82

Post by akira2501 »

Michelangelo11 wrote: post #5

Feels like wherever you turn, you see a high-trust society disintegrating into a low-trust one.

We used to sell _literal_ "snake oil" as a curative.

What you may actually be witnessing is a low awareness society turn into a high awareness one. What is being highlighted is you never should have had that trust in the first place.

Re: Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain

#83

Post by fsckboy »

the reason that adulterated honey is difficult to detect is that honey is just sugar syrup, and if you add more sugar syrup you'll get more sugar syrup than you started with.

the mistaken belief is that there is something special about natural honey. people: it's sugar syrup, it'll give you diabetes as fast as a truckload of mountain dew.

Now, I don't believe in homeopathy, perhaps you do. But that's what the honey cult is, homeopathic. What the govt should allow is the sale of labelled fake honeys, it would be dirt cheap and would taste indetectably different, i.e every bit as good, and no more unhealthy.

(if you don't like the viscosity of your sugar syrup, change the %age of water. if you want it to crystalize, dry it out. it's rock candy, not magic)

Re: Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain

#84

Post by acomjean »

yumraj wrote: post #59
skylurk wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honey supply chains are opaque and global, plus the incentives to cheat are clearly there and it's hard to definitively prove a batch was not adulterated. I'd say it's fair to be suspicious. That said, this old article seems to think its not as common a problem as you would expect: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2011/11/25/142659547/re...

We buy from Costco and most/all of it crystallizes after some time. Not sure if that makes it good honey, but there’s that.

You can heat it in a microwave to reverse the crystallization.

Do not do this ifs the honey is in a squeezable bear container. The honey will boil, make a hole in the bear and spray honey all over the inside of your microwave (the turntable helps this). This will make a huge mess and will make opening the microwave more challenging.

Re: Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain

#85

Post by tharkun__ »

School-Cotton wrote: post #17
Etheryte wrote: post #10

Here'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.

How do you know this? Is there actual reporting on what percentage of honey in supermarkets is adulterated, rather than just anecdotal reports that at least some is?

And he is definitely globally wrong anyway.

Our local supermarket sells honey from a local beekeeper that we've also bought honey from directly before. Only that one local supermarket has their honey and it's closer to us than driving to the beekeeper. And yes it has a nice looking but plain label on the jar.

He is probably mostly right about large quantity, imported honey tho.

Re: Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain

#86

Post by sholladay »

Etheryte wrote: post #37
School-Cotton wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know this? Is there actual reporting on what percentage of honey in supermarkets is adulterated, rather than just anecdotal reports that at least some is?

There are many studies into this, but this Forbes article [0] is a good example: > Of 123 honey exporters to Europe, 70 are suspected of having adulterated their products, and out of 95 European importers checked, two-thirds are affected by at least one suspect batch. This is only one example, similar stings elsewhere have likewise found bleak results. As the son of a beekeeper I can attest to this, the honey you fin…

Agreed that fresh honey and store honey are very different. You would think that, given how different they are, it would be easy to detect the fake honey. But apparent lyrics not.

Re: Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain

#87

Post by _3u10 »

jart wrote: post #79
Etheryte wrote: post #10

Here'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.

But all the honey labels say the only ingredient is honey. We've always been able to assume that with things like jams, or any other food, when manufacturers adulterate it with things like corn syrup, or even mild poisons, they proudly say so on the label. To not do so is fraud. How can people just claim that an entire industry is committing fraud??? Even this article doesn't mention anything about proof, just suspic…

That’s because honey is sugar syrup with a liberal sprinkling of marketing. The sugar syrup they are blending it with doesn’t have the right marketing and is therefore not honey.

Re: Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain

#88

Post by secondcoming »

pbronez wrote: post #23
School-Cotton wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know this? Is there actual reporting on what percentage of honey in supermarkets is adulterated, rather than just anecdotal reports that at least some is?

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.

Re: Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain

#89

Post by secondcoming »

phatfish wrote: post #73
pfortuny wrote: post #21

Earlier 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.…

Sainburys has Scottish Heather Honey. According to the label it's 100% Scottish honey.

Re: Beekeepers halt honey awards over fraud in global supply chain

#90

Post by yumraj »

acomjean wrote: post #84
yumraj wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We buy from Costco and most/all of it crystallizes after some time. Not sure if that makes it good honey, but there’s that.

You can heat it in a microwave to reverse the crystallization. Do not do this ifs the honey is in a squeezable bear container. The honey will boil, make a hole in the bear and spray honey all over the inside of your microwave (the turntable helps this). This will make a huge mess and will make opening the microwave more challenging.

I think the general recommendation is to put the bottle in warm/hot water. I don’t believe microwaving is a good idea, unless done at low power for longer.
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