80% of Grocery Store Honey Adulterated / UnPure

[Scoot_4_20]

80% of Grocery Store Honey Adulterated and Not Pure

by: PF Louis
NaturalNews

Excerpts:

Almost 80% of the brands from big box grocers and pharmacies tested by Food Safety News had no trace of pollen. Add 100% without pollen in those little packets of honey provided by airlines and restaurants. Products are listed here (http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/…).

Both pure and adulterated honeys have similar identification markings, pollen. Fake honey has no pollen. Honey can be legitimately filtered to remove wax and other large particles. But ultra-filtering removes the pollen completely.

“Ultra filtering makes no sense,” asserted Mark Jensen, president of the American Honey Producers Association. He went on to say no real honey producer would do that because it’s costly and diminishes quality.

But Jensen added this stinger: “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 in violation of federal law.”

Chinese honey is fake funny honey that bypasses strict tariffs, imposed a few years ago to keep cheap Chinese honey from squeezing USA bee keepers out of the honey market. The reason it’s so cheap is that it usually has no honey in it!

This is probably not a Chinese conspiracy. The Chinese are having the same issues with funny honey on their grocery shelves.

Read the Full Article Here: http://www.naturalnews.com/034123_honey_pollen.html

 

[Turk]

I always buy (or given) locally made Honey.

 

[needsducktape]

This is really interesting. I am a BIG advocate of going to local farmer's market and buying local. Its tastes AMAZING -in addition to actually being natural. Raw honey is where its at...

 

[asiancivicmaniac]

You consume pure sugar, pollen or no pollen.

 

[sasilverbullet]

In the health-food arena we've known this for many years. It's gotten worse lately with the introduction of honey from foreign sources.

Eating honey that's locally made is best, as it has pollen from your area. That will help you if you're allergic to your local pollen. In Germany, the prescribe "bee pollen" to folks with allergies. Yes, Doctors over there actually prescribe herbal/natural remedies, and they're filled at the "Apothercary", or what we call a drugstore. It's a potent mixture of all the stuff in the air for their locale. Works wonders on folks with allergies.

 

[asiancivicmaniac]

If anything, you should be more cautious about getting fake honey from unregulated sources

The truth

 

[CivicFan]

You get what you pay for. I've known quite a few bee keepers. The ones who were in it as a hobby or for the benefits of honey, let their bees make honey from harvested nectar.

The ones who were in it for the money had sugar syrup available for the bees to consume instead of nectar. It still qualifies as honey but in reality it contains little flower nectar.

Given how unregulated honey is in this country, I shudder to think what is sold in the supermarkets as honey. The governments only care about the tariffs collected but the actual content of these substances are not certified.

 

[aquariuscsm]

My favorite kind is the honey that still has the homeycomb in it,yum!

 

[Tempest]

Quote:

§52.1393 Styles.


(a) Filtered. Filtered honey is honey of any type defined in these standards that has been
filtered to the extent that all or most of the fine particles, pollen grains, air bubbles, or other
materials normally found in suspension, have been removed.

http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELDEV3011895

Straight from the USDA. Sorry, but this story seems to be WAY overblown. NO proof or evidence has been presented that these honey offerings are of Chinese origin yet:"In my judgment, it is pretty safe to assume" is offered up as fact.

Quote:
Ultrafiltered honey is processed by very fine filtration under high pressure to remove all extraneous solids and pollen grains. The process typically heats honey to 150–170 °F (approx. 65–77 °C) to more easily pass through the fine filter. Ultrafiltered honey is very clear and has a longer shelf life; it crystallizes more slowly because the high temperature breaks down sugar seed crystals, making it preferred by the supermarket trade.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey

So the idea that the "only reason" to "ultrafilter" honey is to hide Chinese honey is flat wrong.

Please get the facts.

 

[greenaccord02]

The only honey I ever buy. This stuff is great.
http://www.fainshoney.com/honey1.asp

 

[Tempest]

Quote:
There is a popular misconception that pollen is an ingredient of honey. There can be trace amounts of pollen mixed into honey, but it's not actually part of the honey. Pollen is the primary protein, fat, and mineral source for the bees, while honey is almost pure carbohydrate sugars.

And:
Quote:
There is no legal definition for raw honey in the United States.

http://www.uvasgold.com/gba/honey.shtml

 

[stephen9666]

I know bee colonies have been collapsing in recent years, but it's still easy to find local honey in my area (Eastern Kansas).

 

[asiancivicmaniac]

Originally Posted By: Tempest

Quote:
There is no legal definition for raw honey in the United States.

http://www.uvasgold.com/gba/honey.shtml


I have a problem with that sites downplaying of botulism. Clostridium botulinum can form endospores that remain dormant until environmental factors suit them to be active. When they become active they produce an endotoxin that's potent enough to kill many through paralysis in the minutest amounts. This tells me that site is biased and unreliable.

 

[Tempest]

How many people die from botulism in honey?

Since these people had all of these samples and ran them through a lab to test for harmless pollen, why didn't they test for actual harmful contaminants?

 

[crinkles]

My FIL is a beekeeper. We get raw honey from him sometimes. Just stick a bucket under a 44gal drum and decant after he spun the frames