Honey adulteration

[ReformedCharacter]

An investigation by the European Commission found that all 10 ordinary honey samples from the UK failed adulteration tests, with the honey, while blended or packaged in Britain, probably originating from overseas and mixed with sugar syrup.

The study found that 46 per cent of all samples tested were found to be fraudulent. The EU’s directorate general for health and food safety worked with 18 countries in the EU food fraud network and tested 320 samples, finding that 147 had “at least one marker of extraneous sugar sources” detected....

Last year, the UK imported more than 38,000 tonnes of honey from China, where there is a known risk of adulteration with sugar syrup.

Consumers will be unaware of the true authenticity and provenance of their honey because country of origin labelling is not required for a blended product from more than one nation.

Arturo Carrillo, the Mexico-based coordinator of the international Honey Authenticity Network, told The Guardian: “The UK is flooded with very cheap adulterated honey imported from China. What is disappointing is that the British authorities have been very, very much reluctant to accept and address this tremendous problem.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/26/uk-honey-fails-eu-authenticity-tests/

RC

[CliffEdge]

Doesn't matter does it? We have our own sovereign standards.

[ReformedCharacter]

Doesn't matter does it? We have our own sovereign standards.

It doesn't matter if you're happy to buy sugar syrup labelled as honey. 'Own sovereign standards'

RC

[CliffEdge]

Doesn't matter does it? We have our own sovereign standards.

It doesn't matter if you're happy to buy sugar syrup labelled as honey. 'Own sovereign standards'

RC

Presumably meet our standards for the definition of "honey". Mainly Chinese honey imported, not European, so what's it got to do with them, Europeans I mean. Unless we want to inflict it on them of course. Brit proles don't care about food quality, never have. Non issue, this.

[ReformedCharacter]

Presumably meet our standards for the definition of "honey".

No, that's the point, honey is honey not sugar syrup and 'our standards' require that honey should not be adulterated.

Mainly Chinese honey imported, not European, so what's it got to do with them, Europeans I mean. Unless we want to inflict it on them of course.

The article states, and it's not the first to do so, that imported adulterated Chinese honey (and often honey from elsewhere) is blended by honey suppliers in the UK and sold to consumers in the UK. Perhaps this is a reading comprehension issue.

Brit proles don't care about food quality, never have. Non issue, this.

So you consider yourself a 'prole'?

RC

[XFool]

Doesn't matter does it? We have our own sovereign standards.

"We'll have no satire here!"

[Golam]

The closer the origin of honey to your home the better.

[CliffEdge]

The closer the origin of honey to your home the better.

Depends where you live

[CliffEdge]

Presumably meet our standards for the definition of "honey".

No, that's the point, honey is honey not sugar syrup and 'our standards' require that honey should not be adulterated.

Mainly Chinese honey imported, not European, so what's it got to do with them, Europeans I mean. Unless we want to inflict it on them of course.

The article states, and it's not the first to do so, that imported adulterated Chinese honey (and often honey from elsewhere) is blended by honey suppliers in the UK and sold to consumers in the UK. Perhaps this is a reading comprehension issue.

Brit proles don't care about food quality, never have. Non issue, this.

So you consider yourself a 'prole'?

RC

By birth. I am a hereditary prole. I don't know much. But I know what's what, like most old todgers. Wisdom comes with age.

[ReformedCharacter]

I don't know much.

I think we can agree on that.

RC

[88V8]

It doesn't matter if you're happy to buy sugar syrup labelled as honey. 'Own sovereign standards'

Brit proles don't care about food quality, never have. Non issue, this.

True, on the whole. Don't care about quality or origin.

Even my wife who is fairly quality-sensitive balks at paying for organic produce or local honey.

V8

[Lanark]

Sometimes they just feed the bees on sugar syrup to 'speed up' the production rate and what you end up with is similar to honey thats been adulterated in a factory.

How to detect:
https://bee-america.com/blogs/news/how- ... fake-honey

[ReformedCharacter]

Sometimes they just feed the bees on sugar syrup to 'speed up' the production rate and what you end up with is similar to honey thats been adulterated in a factory.

How to detect:
https://bee-america.com/blogs/news/how- ... fake-honey

Almost all beekeepers over-winter their bees on syrup, some also use it to stimulate the queen to increase egg-laying in the spring. Provided that the syrup is taken down to the brood chamber or to a super used only for syrup and not honey extraction then any significant adulteration is unlikely.

The link (above) would determine whether a very high proportion of the honey is adulterated but would not be useful, I think, for lower levels. Bear in mind that historically the US market for honey has placed a premium on 'water white' honey, which looks much more similar to sugar syrup than the honey we are used to in the UK and from most of the rest of the world. The only really effective way of determining adulteration that I know of is Infrared-based spectroscopy:

https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/12560

RC