Posted on 08/15/2011 9:41:42 AM PDT by fso301
A third or more of all the honey consumed in the U.S. is likely to have been smuggled in from China and may be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals. A Food Safety News investigation has documented that millions of pounds of honey banned as unsafe in dozens of countries are being imported and sold here in record quantities.
And the flow of Chinese honey continues despite assurances from the Food and Drug Administration and other federal officials that the hundreds of millions of pounds reaching store shelves were authentic and safe following the widespread arrests and convictions of major smugglers over the last two years.
Experts interviewed by Food Safety News say some of the largest and most long-established U.S. honey packers are knowingly buying mislabeled, transshipped or possibly altered honey so they can sell it cheaper than those companies who demand safety, quality and rigorously inspected honey.
(Excerpt) Read more at foodsafetynews.com ...
Thank goodness I have my own hives.
I only buy verified honey from little guys. You buy supermarket commodity honey like “Sue Bee” and the honey comes from anywhere. It says so on the label
don’t eat asian food unless you know how it was grown... a large amount of their foods are grown in human waste
This article is long on scary allegations, but relatively short on facts.
Interesting he only gets his quotes from the people most interested in keeping competitors out.
Thanks for pointing that out.
Thanks for posting
Seriously, what's the problem here? Fertilizer is not exactly a shocking idea. Or do you mean something about how it is mixed into the soil (or not)?
“a large amount of their foods are grown in human waste”
Also true of Europe.
” some of the largest and most long-established U.S. honey packers are knowingly buying mislabeled, transshipped or possibly altered honey “
A big part of the problem is right here. Greed knows no special localities/countries!
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100429154003.htm
Scientist Tracks Origins of Bootleg Honey from China
ScienceDaily (Apr. 30, 2010) — A Texas A&M University scientist spends hours at a time peering at slides of pollen samples, comparing them to track down the origins of honey with questionable heritage. Some of the samples contain labels from other countries when in fact they originated in China but were re-routed to avoid tariffs of up to 500 percent, says Vaughn Bryant, a palynologist and an anthropology professor at Texas A&M University.
The tariffs were attached to the import of Chinese honey about two years ago because exporters there were "dumping" it in the U.S. -- selling it at a much lower price than its cost, which is about one-half what it costs U.S. honey producers. The practice has almost ruined the market for domestic honey, says Bryant, who is also director of the palynology laboratory at Texas A&M.
China is the largest honey producer in the world.
Bryant, who examines more than 100 honey samples a year for importers, exporters, beekeepers and producers, says he believes he is the only person in the United States doing melissopalynology -- the study of pollen in honey -- on a routine basis. For the last five years, he has analyzed the pollen in honey samples from all over the world to determine the nectar sources and origin of the honey.
He examines imported samples purported to come from Viet Nam, Cambodia, Indonesia and Laos, and usually discovers that the samples are blends "with a little honey from those countries and a majority of the blend coming from Chinese sources."
"Now there are lots of shenanigans going on to avoid having to pay those tariffs, and the investigators are way behind in following them," Bryant says. "The beekeepers of the U.S. have been pleading with the FDA to enact stricter guidelines about accurate labeling for honey, but that is a long, slow process. Meanwhile, I'm trying to help out here and there, but it's almost impossible to keep up."
Some foreign exporters get around the tariff by mixing honey from different sources, while others infuse up to 50 percent high fructose corn syrup into the honey, he says.
DNA studies of the pollen in honey is expensive and difficult, Bryant says. Isotopic studies can reveal the source, provided you have a database of isotope signatures, which for now are very limited, he adds.
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I only buy local honey
I try to stay away from anything asian but like everything else, the food is hard to differentiate.
Whenever you buy prepared food, the ingredients in it don’t have to say where anything comes from.
Not really, but I like biased journalists with an agenda and scaremongering even less.
I sent you a source and link that verifies what you called “scaremongering”. So the original post is telling the truth. I’ve known about ChiCom honey flooding our markets for years. Seems a 500% duty was slapped on their honey so the ChiComs found ways to send (smuggle) their honey here via rerouting via Australia and other places
You sure about that? "Sue Bee" is a grower co-op and they've always been adamant that they only sell 100% US honey.
Sue Bee Honey - American Honey
In light of recent reports in the media of tainted or adulterated foods, Sue Bee Honey would like to reiterate to the American consumer its longstanding commitment to quality. "All Sue Bee Honey sold in grocery stores in the United States is 100% American and 100% pure," according to Sue Bee Honey President and Chief Executive Officer David Allibone.
Private label or store brand honey packaged by Sue Bee Honey also is 100% American and 100% pure. When Sue Bee states “100% American or American grown,” it is referring to honey bees owned by American beekeepers producing honey in the U.S. and pollinating U.S. crops.
Sure, buy from the little guy if you can, but if you can't, I don't think "Sue Bee" is a bad second choice. I just posted because I don't want people to bypass an American product just because of an internet posting.
I buy local.
I get mine from the local farmers market .
Response: Of course!
Comment: People naturally flush their wastage into the cesspool.
oh we are talking about food. :)
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