Will the real honey please stand up?

Many consumers have to be aware of the fact that some honey found in grocery shelves may not be authentic. Texas A&M University professor Vaughn Bryant, a melissopalynologist (studies the pollen in honey) has analysed samples of honey sold in groceries, big box stores, farmer’s markets, and even food and drug stores around the United States. His verdict, nearly 75% of the honey sold had their pollen filtered out.

“Large importing companies take all the pollen out of honey because they claim it makes the honey clearer and prevents crystallisation, therefore making it easier to sell,” Mr Bryant said. “However, by removing the pollen, you also remove clues needed to verify where the honey was produced and what nectar sources are dominant. This means that with no traces of pollen, honey sellers can take cheap honey and claim it’s a type that sells for a premium price.”

According to Mr Bryant, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration does not require honey to contain pollen. Importers can therefore take this out from their product, and offer to buyers at a lower price. Without pollen, traceability cannot be performed and accurate pricing is impossible. This has opened doors to honey fraud.

“There are about 350,000 different species of plants and each species produces a unique pollen type,” Mr Bryant said. “Plants are best suited to specific ecological conditions. You don’t find mesquite trees growing in Canada and you don’t find spruce or fir trees growing in Texas. If I find mesquite pollen in a honey sample, I know it didn’t come from Canada, or if I find spruce or fir pollen in a honey sample, I know it’s not from Texas.”

Knowing the origin of honey is vital not only for accurate pricing, but for obtaining the quality of the product. For example, source countries have different standards on pesticides or use of antibiotics in beehives that are supposed to keep bees healthy.

Honey from China

The leading producer of honey is China, which exports much of its output worldwide.  “They need to export a lot of it and in the past they were accused of ‘dumping’ their excess honey on the market at prices below the world price. This was hurting the U.S. beekeeping industry, so the U.S. put a high tariff on Chinese honey. After that, Chinese honey was too expensive to import, so one solution was to sell it to other countries. Some of those other countries then resold the Chinese honey to the U.S. claiming the honey was produced in the second country. This is called ‘transshipping’ and it is illegal and has been a big problem,” Mr Bryant said.

Creating a law against transshipping

The Senate bill S-662, a customs reauthorisation bill, aims, amongst other provisions, to stop honey transhipments by requiring the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency to compile a database of the specific characteristics of imported honey to verify country of origin and engage foreign governments for assistance in creating the database. The CBP would also be required to consult with the honey industry to develop industry standardsTest running, chaussures, montres cardio gps et habits sports