Most honey...is not honey

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Food Policy & Law

Tests Show Most Store Honey Isn't Honey

Ultra-filtering Removes Pollen, Hides Honey Origins

by Schneider

<http://www.foodsafetynews.com/contributors/andrew-schneider/> | Nov

07, 2011

More than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores isn't

exactly what the bees produce, according to testing done exclusively for

Food Safety News.

The 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.

The food safety divisions of the World Health Organization, the

European Commission and dozens of others also have ruled that without

pollen there is no way to determine whether the honey came from

legitimate and safe sources.

<http://www.foodsafetynews.com/honey-without-pollen-food-safety-news1.pd

f> In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration says that any product

that's been ultra-filtered and no longer contains pollen isn't honey.

However, the FDA isn't checking honey sold here to see if it contains

pollen.

Ultra filtering is a high-tech procedure where honey is heated,

sometimes watered down and then forced at high pressure through

extremely small filters to remove pollen, which is the only foolproof

sign identifying the source of the honey. It is a spin-off of a

technique refined by the Chinese, who have illegally dumped tons of

their honey - some containing illegal antibiotics - on the U.S. market

for years.

Food Safety News decided to test honey sold in various outlets after its

earlier investigation

<http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/08/honey-laundering/> found U.S.

groceries flooded with Indian honey banned in Europe as unsafe because

of contamination with antibiotics, heavy metal and a total lack of

pollen which prevented tracking its origin.

Food Safety News purchased more than 60 jars, jugs and plastic bears of

honey in 10 states and the District of Columbia.

The contents were analyzed for pollen by Vaughn

<http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/11/top-pollen-detective-finds-honey-

a-sticky-business/> , a professor at Texas A & M University and one of the

nation's premier melissopalynologists, or investigators of pollen in

honey.

, who is director of the Palynology Research Laboratory, found

that among the containers of honey provided by Food Safety News:

* 76 percent of samples bought at groceries had all the

pollen removed, These were stores like TOP Food, Safeway, Giant Eagle,

QFC, Kroger, Metro Market, Teeter, A & P, Stop & Shop and King

Soopers.

* 100 percent of the honey sampled from drugstores like

Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS Pharmacy had no pollen.

* 77 percent of the honey sampled from big box stores like

Costco, Sam's Club, Walmart, Target and H-E-B had the pollen filtered

out.

* 100 percent of the honey packaged in the small individual

service portions from Smucker, Mc's and KFC had the pollen

removed.

* found that every one of the samples Food Safety

News bought at farmers markets, co-ops and " natural " stores like PCC and

Trader Joe's had the full, anticipated, amount of pollen.

And if you have to buy at major grocery chains, the analysis found that

your odds are somewhat better of getting honey that wasn't

ultra-filtered if you buy brands labeled as organic. Out of seven

samples tested, five (71 percent) were heavy with pollen. All of the

organic honey was produced in Brazil, according to the labels.

The National Honey Board, a federal research and promotion organization

under USDA oversight, says the bulk of foreign honey (at least 60

percent or more) is sold to the food industry for use in baked goods,

beverages, sauces and processed foods. Food Safety News did not examine

these products for this story.

Some U.S. honey packers didn't want to talk about how they process their

merchandise.

One who did was Bob Olney, of Honey Tree Inc., in Michigan, who sells

its Winnie the Pooh honey in Walmart stores. 's analysis of the

contents of the container made in Winnie's image found that the pollen

had been removed.

Olney says that his honey came from suppliers in Montana, North Dakota

and Alberta. " It was filtered in processing because North American

shoppers want their honey crystal clear, " he said.

The packers of Silverbow Honey added: " The grocery stores want processed

honey as it lasts longer on the shelves. "

However, most beekeepers say traditional filtering used by most will

catch bee parts, wax, debris from the hives and other visible

contaminants but will leave the pollen in place.

Ernie Groeb, the president and CEO of Groeb Farms Inc., which calls

itself " the world's largest packer of honey, " says he makes no specific

requirement to the pollen content of the 85 million pounds of honey his

company buys.

Groeb sells retail under the 's brand and says he buys 100 percent

pure honey, but does not " specify nor do we require that the pollen be

left in or be removed. "

He says that there are many different filtering methods used by

beekeepers and honey packers.

" We buy basically what's considered raw honey. We trust good suppliers.

That's what we rely on, " said Groeb, whose headquarters is in Onstead,

Mich.

Why Remove the Pollen?

Removal of all pollen from honey " makes no sense " and is completely

contrary to marketing the highest quality product possible, Mark Jensen,

president of the American Honey Producers Association, told Food Safety

News.

<http://www.foodsafetynews.com/food-safety-news-good-honey-sample.pdf>

" I don't know of any U.S. producer that would want to do that.

Elimination of all pollen can only be achieved by ultra-filtering and

this filtration process does nothing but cost money and diminish the

quality of the honey, " Jensen said.

" In my judgment, it is pretty safe to assume that any ultra-filtered

honey on store shelves is Chinese honey and it's even safer to assume

that it entered the country uninspected and in violation of federal

law, " he added.

Adee, whose 80,000 hives in multiple states produce 7 million

pounds of honey each year, told Food Safety News that " honey has been

valued by millions for centuries for its flavor and nutritional value

and that is precisely what is completely removed by the ultra-filtration

process. "

" There is only one reason to ultra-filter honey and there's nothing good

about it, " he says.

" It's no secret to anyone in the business that the only reason all the

pollen is filtered out is to hide where it initially came from and the

fact is that in almost all cases, that is China, " Adee added.

The Sioux Honey Association, who says it's America's largest supplier,

declined repeated requests for comments on ultra-filtration, what Sue

Bee does with its foreign honey and whether it's ultra-filtered when

they buy it. The co-op markets retail under Sue Bee, Clover Maid, Aunt

Sue, Natural Pure and many store brands.

Wenger, director of quality services for Golden Heritage Foods, the

nation's third largest packer, said his company takes every precaution

not to buy laundered Chinese honey.

" We are well aware of the tricks being used by some brokers to sell

honey that originated in China and laundering it in a second country by

filtering out the pollen and other adulterants, " said Wenger, whose firm

markets 55 million pounds of honey annually under its Busy Bee brand,

store brands, club stores and food service.

" The brokers know that if there's an absence of all pollen in the raw

honey we won't buy it, we won't touch it, because without pollen we have

no way to verify its origin. "

He said his company uses " extreme care " including pollen analysis when

purchasing foreign honey, especially from countries like India, Vietnam

and others that have or have had " business arrangements " with Chinese

honey producers.

Golden Heritage, Wenger said, then carefully removes all pollen from the

raw honey when it's processed to extend shelf life, but says, " as we see

it, that is not ultra-filtration.

" There is a significant difference between filtration, which is a

standard industry practice intended to create a shelf-stable honey, and

ultra-filtration, which is a deceptive, illegal, unethical practice. "

Some of the foreign and state standards that are being instituted can be

read to mean different things, Wenger said " but the confusion can be

eliminated and we can all be held to the same appropriate standards for

quality if FDA finally establishes the standards we've all wanted for so

long. "

Groeb says he has urged FDA to take action as he also " totally supports

a standard of Identity for honey. It will help everyone have common

ground as to what pure honey truly is! "

What's Wrong With Chinese Honey?

Chinese honey has long had a poor reputation in the U.S., where - in

2001 - the Federal Trade Commission imposed stiff import tariffs or

taxes to stop the Chinese from flooding the marketplace with dirt-cheap,

heavily subsidized honey, which was forcing American beekeepers out of

business.

To avoid the dumping tariffs, the Chinese quickly began transshipping

honey to several other countries, then laundering it by switching the

color of the shipping drums, the documents and labels to indicate a

bogus but tariff-free country of origin for the honey.

Most U.S. honey buyers knew about the Chinese actions because of the

sudden availability of lower cost honey, and little was said.

The FDA -- either because of lack of interest or resources -- devoted

little effort to inspecting imported honey. Nevertheless, the agency had

occasionally either been told of, or had stumbled upon, Chinese honey

contaminated with chloramphenicol and other illegal animal antibiotics

which are dangerous, even fatal, to a very small percentage of the

population.

Mostly, the adulteration went undetected. Sometimes FDA caught it.

In one instance 10 years ago, contaminated Chinese honey was shipped to

Canada and then on to a warehouse in Houston where it was sold to jelly

maker J.M. Smuckers and the national baker Sara Lee.

By the time the FDA said it realized the Chinese honey was tainted,

Smuckers had sold 12,040 cases of individually packed honey to

Ritz-Carlton Hotels and Sara Lee said it may have been used in a

half-million loaves of bread that were on store shelves.

Eventually, some honey packers became worried about what they were

pumping into the plastic bears and jars they were selling. They began

using in-house or private labs to test for honey diluted with

inexpensive high fructose corn syrup or 13 other illegal sweeteners or

for the presence of illegal antibiotics. But even the most sophisticated

of these tests would not pinpoint the geographic source of the honey.

<http://www.foodsafetynews.com/food-safety-news-Vaughn--honey-test

er.pdf> Food scientists and honey specialists say pollen is the only

foolproof fingerprint to a honey's source.

Federal investigators working on criminal indictments and a very few

conscientious packers were willing to pay stiff fees to have the pollen

in their honey analyzed for country of origin. That complex, multi-step

analysis is done by fewer than five commercial laboratories in the

world.

But, Customs and Justice Department investigators told Food Safety News

that whenever U.S. food safety or criminal experts verify a method to

identify potentially illegal honey - such as analyzing the pollen - the

laundering operators find a way to thwart it, such as ultra-filtration.

The U.S. imported 208 million pounds of honey over the past 18 months.

Almost 60 percent came from Asian countries - traditional laundering

points for Chinese honey. This included 45 million pounds from India

alone.

And websites still openly offer brokers who will illegally transship

honey and scores of other tariff-protected goods from China to the U.S.

FDA's Lack of Action

The Food and Drug Administration weighed into the filtration issue years

ago.

" The FDA has sent a letter to industry stating that the FDA does not

consider 'ultra-filtered' honey to be honey, " agency press officer

Tamara Ward told Food Safety News.

She went on to explain: " We have not halted any importation of honey

because we have yet to detect 'ultra-filtered' honey. If we do detect

'ultra-filtered' honey we will refuse entry. "

Many in the honey industry and some in FDA's import office say they

doubt that FDA checks more than 5 percent of all foreign honey

shipments.

For three months, the FDA promised Food Safety News to make its " honey

expert " available to explain what that statement meant. It never

happened. Further, the federal food safety authorities refused offers to

examine 's analysis and explain what it plans to do about the

selling of honey it says is adulterated because of the removal of

pollen, a key ingredient.

Major food safety standard-setting organizations such as the United

Nations' Codex Alimentarius, the European Union and the European Food

Safety Authority say the intentional removal of pollen is dangerous

because it eliminates the ability of consumers and law enforcement to

determine the actual origin of the honey.

" The removal of pollen will make the determination of botanical and

geographic origin of honey impossible and circumvents the ability to

trace and identify the actual source of the honey, " says the European

Union Directive on Honey.

The Codex commission's Standard for Honey, which sets principles for the

international trade in food, has ruled that " No pollen or constituent

particular to honey may be removed except where this is unavoidable in

the removal of foreign matter. . . " It even suggested what size mesh to

use (not smaller than 0.2mm or 200 micron) to filter out unwanted debris

-- bits of wax and wood from the frames, and parts of bees -- but retain

95 percent of all the pollen.

Food Safety News asked to analyze foreign honey packaged in

Italy, Hungary, Greece, Tasmania and New Zealand to try to get a feeling

for whether the Codex standards for pollen were being heeded overseas.

The samples from every country but Greece were loaded with various types

and amounts of pollen. Honey from Greece had none.

You'll Never Know

In many cases, consumers would have an easier time deciphering state

secrets than pinning down where the honey they're buying in groceries

actually came from.

The majority of the honey that 's analysis found to have no pollen

was packaged as store brands by outside companies but carried a label

unique to the food chain. For example, Giant Eagle has a ValuTime label

on some of its honey. In Target it's called Market Pantry, Naturally

Preferred and others. Walmart uses Great Value and Safeway just says

Safeway. Wegmans also uses its own name.

Who actually bottled these store brands is often a mystery.

A noteworthy exception is Golden Heritage of Hillsboro, Kan. The company

either puts its name or decipherable initials on the back of store

brands it fills.

" We're never bashful about discussing the products we put out " said

Wenger, the company's quality director. " We want people to know who to

contact if they have questions. "

The big grocery chains were no help in identifying the sources of the

honey they package in their store brands.

For example, when Food Safety News was hunting the source of nine

samples that came back as ultra-filtered from QFC, Fred Myer and King

Sooper, the various customer service numbers all led to representatives

of Kroger, which owns them all. The replies were identical: " We can't

release that information. It is proprietary. "

<http://www.foodsafetynews.com/food-safety-news-Sue-Bee-honey-ad.pdf>

One of the customer service representatives said the contact address on

two of the honeys being questioned was in Sioux City, Iowa, which is

where Sioux Bee's corporate office is located.

Carlson, a public relations person for Target, waved the

proprietary banner and also refused to say whether it was Target

management or the honey suppliers that wanted the source of the honey

kept from the public.

Similar non-answers came from representatives of Safeway, Walmart and

Giant Eagle.

The drugstores weren't any more open with the sources of their house

brands of honey. A Rite Aid representative said " if it's not marked made

in China, than it's made in the United States. " She didn't know who made

it but said " I'll ask someone. "

Rite Aid, Walgreen and CVS have yet to supply the information.

Only two smaller Pacific Northwest grocery chains - Haggen and

Metropolitan Market - both selling honey without pollen, weren't bashful

about the source of their honey. Haggen said right off that its brand

comes from Golden Heritage. Metropolitan Market said its honey - Western

Family - is packed by Bee Maid Honey, a co-op of beekeepers from the

Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British

Columbia.

Pollen? Who Cares?

Why should consumers care if their honey has had its pollen removed?

" Raw honey is thought to have many medicinal properties, " says Kathy

Egan, dietitian at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.

" Stomach ailments, anemia and allergies are just a few of the conditions

that may be improved by consumption of unprocessed honey. "

But beyond pollen's reported enzymes, antioxidants and well documented

anti-allergenic benefits, a growing population of natural food advocates

just don't want their honey messed with.

There is enormous variety among honeys. They range in color from

glass-clear to a dark mahogany and in consistency from watery to chunky

to a crystallized solid. It's the plants and flowers where the bees

forage for nectar that will determine the significant difference in the

taste, aroma and color of what the bees produce. It is the processing

that controls the texture.

Food historians say that in the 1950s the typical grocery might have

offered three or four different brands of honey. Today, a fair-sized

store will offer 40 to 50 different types, flavors and sources of honey

out of the estimated 300 different honeys made in the U.S.. And with the

attractiveness of natural food and the locavore movement, honey's

popularity is burgeoning. Unfortunately, with it comes the potential for

fraud.

Concocting a sweet-tasting syrup out of cane, corn or beet sugar, rice

syrup or any of more than a dozen sweetening agents is a great deal

easier, quicker and far less expensive than dealing with the natural

brew of bees.

However, even the most dedicated beekeeper can unknowingly put incorrect

information on a honey jar's label.

has examined nearly 2,000 samples of honey sent in by beekeepers,

honey importers, and ag officials checking commercial brands off store

shelves. Types include premium honey such as " buckwheat, tupelo, sage,

orange blossom, and sourwood " produced in Florida, North Carolina,

California, New York and Virginia and " fireweed " from Alaska.

" Almost all were incorrectly labeled based on their pollen and nectar

contents, " he said.

Out of the 60 plus samples that tested for Food Safety News, the

absolute most flavorful said " blackberry " on the label. When

concluded his examination of the pollen in this sample he found clover

and wildflowers clearly outnumbering a smattering of grains of

blackberry pollen.

For the most part we are not talking about intentional fraud here.

Contrary to their most fervent wishes, beekeepers can't control where

their bees actually forage any more than they can keep the tides from

changing. They offer their best guess on the predominant foliage within

flying distance of the hives.

" I think we need a truth in labeling law in the U.S. as they have in

other countries, " added.

FDA Ignores Pleas

No one can say for sure why the FDA has ignored repeated pleas from

Congress, beekeepers and the honey industry to develop a U.S. standard

for identification for honey.

Gentry owns the small Cross Creek Honey Company in Interlachen,

Fla., and she isn't worried about the quality of the honey she sells.

" I harvest my own honey. We put the frames in an extractor, spin it out,

strain it, and it goes into a jar. It's honey the way bees intended, "

Gentry said.

But the negative stories on the discovery of tainted and bogus honey

raised her fears for the public's perception of honey.

<http://www.foodsafetynews.com/food-safety-news-honey-samples-tested.pdf

> She spent months of studying what the rest of the world was doing to

protect consumers from tainted honey and questioning beekeepers and

industry on what was needed here. Gentry became the leading force in

crafting language for Florida to develop the nation's first standard for

identification for honey.

In July 2009, Florida adopted the standard and placed its Division of

Food Safety in the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in

charge of enforcing it. It's since been followed by California,

Wisconsin and North Carolina and is somewhere in the state legislative

or regulatory maze in Georgia, Virginia, land, Ohio, New York,

Texas, Kansas, Oregon, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia and

others.

Ambrose's battle for a national definition goes back 36 years. He

said the issue is of great importance to North Carolina because it has

more beekeepers than any other state in the country.

He and others tried to convince FDA that a single national standard for

honey to help prevent adulterated honey from being sold was needed. The

agency promised him it would be on the books within two years.

" But that never happened, " said Ambrose, a professor and entomologist at

North Carolina State University and apiculturist, or bee expert. North

Carolina followed Florida's lead and passed its own identification

standards last year.

Ambrose, who was co-chair of the team that drafted the state beekeeper

association's honey standards says the language is very simple, " Our

standard says that nothing can be added or removed from the honey. So in

other words, if somebody removes the pollen, or adds moisture or corn

syrup or table sugar, that's adulteration, " Ambrose told Food Safety

News.

But still, he says he's asked all the time how to ensure that you're

buying quality honey. " The fact is, unless you're buying from a

beekeeper, you're at risk, " was his uncomfortably blunt reply.

Silva, counsel for the American Honey Producers Association said

the standard is a simple but essential tool in ensuring the quality and

safety of honey consumed by millions of Americans each year.

" Without it, the FDA and their trade enforcement counterparts are

severely limited in their ability to combat the flow of illicit and

potentially dangerous honey into this country, " Silva told Food Safety

News.

It's not just beekeepers, consumers and the industry that FDA officials

either ignore or slough off with comments that they're too busy.

New York Sen. Schumer is one of more than 20 U.S. senators and

members of Congress of both parties who have asked the FDA repeatedly to

create a federal " pure honey " standard, similar to what the rest of the

world has established.

They get the same answer that Ambrose got in 1975: " Any day now. "

----------------

See " Top Pollen Detective Finds Honey a Sticky Business "

<http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/11/top-pollen-detective-finds-honey-

a-sticky-business/> on Food Safety News.

© Food Safety News

S. Kalman PhD, RD, FACN

Director, BD - Nutrition & Applied Clinical Trials

Miami Research Associates

6141 Sunset Drive

Suite 301

Miami, FL. 33143

Direct -

Office ext. 5109

Fax

Email: dkalman@...

Web: www.miamiresearch.com

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[Guest guest]

Most food...is not food!

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> http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/11/tests-show-most-store-honey-isnt-h

> oney/

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> Food Policy & Law

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> Tests Show Most Store Honey Isn't Honey

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[Guest guest]

Most food...is not food!

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> oney/

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> Food Policy & Law

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