 Most of the honey sold in chain stores across the country doesn't meet international quality standards for the sweet stuff, according to a Food Safety News analysis released this week. One of the nation's leading melissopalynologists analyzed more than 60 jugs, jars and plastic bears of honey in 10 states and the District of Columbia for pollen content, Food Safety News said. He found that pollen was frequently filtered out of products labeled "honey." Among the findings: • No pollen was found in 76 percent of samples from grocery stores including TOP Food, Safeway, Giant Eagle, QFC, Kroger, Metro Market, Harris Teeter, A&P, Stop & Shop and King Soopers. • No pollen was found in 100 percent of samples from drugstores including Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS Pharmacy. • The anticipated amount of pollen was found in samples bought at farmers markets, co-ops and stores like PCC and Trader Joe's. Why does it matter where your honey comes from? An earlier Food Safety News investigation found that at least a third of all the honey consumed in the United States was likely smuggled from China and could be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals. Foreign honey also puts a squeeze on American beekeepers, who have been lobbying for years for an enforceable national standard to prevent foreign honey from flooding the market. The Food and Drug Administration does not have a standard of identity for honey like it does for milk or other products, a spokesman said. The lack of regulation is what enables potentially unsafe honey to make its way into the country, Andrew Schneider, author of the Food and Safety News report. "Where there's no pollen, there's no way for authorities to confirm where the honey came from, so it's easy to smuggle illicit honey into the country," he said. |
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I have friends who have hives. That's where I get my honey. If I really needed more (I don't use that much to begin with), I'd hit up my local farmer's market.
This product is truly amazing, fits your face nicely, comfortable, it doesn't having a headache because it squeezes your face too small. bags longchamp http://www.bagslongchampuk.info
If you want good quality honey I recommend Argentinean honey, take a look at wikipedia.org while you are at it.
Once again, China comes through with heavy metals in food. Hopefully they wipe themselves out before they wipe us and our economy out.
The FDA would just set standards for allowable levels of filth and Poisson making it easier to import. Buy local products.
"Poisson" = French for "fish."
Oui! Allowable levels of filthy French fish!
The article never gets around to saying exactly what harm honey without pollen might bring. Will someone risk infection? Rashes? Impotence? Stupidity? What? Before we get all excited about impure honey, just tell me what it might do to me. Then I can decide if it's worth searching out.
They can't really say anything about what it might do on a major news site like CNN, because that would be bad news for all the american distributors of this crap. But... this will raise your risk of (pretty much give you) heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and whatever unique chronic poisoning symptoms are present for each chemical contaminant. Organ damage may be permanent. This is more toxic crap from China. Our food here is also garbage, don't be fooled.
Dummy, read again. The article states that, without pollen, you can not determine it's origin. Thus, pollenless honey could very well be from unsafe sources like China (polluted with heavy metals, etc). Removing the pollen masks the origin of the honey, thus masking it's origin. Obviously, with pollen they can determine what type of flowers it was gathered from by the bees. Knowing which flowers will let them know where it is produced.
I guess without pollen you can't even tell whether the honey was made from flowers or from a bucket of corn syrup.
If you are using honey as a sugar substitute then there is no difference. If you understand the functions of the pollens in controlling allergies, and the sleep inducing effects of those elements of honey that are distilled away. (Sleep inducing properties used for thousands of years, among others)
I use raw orange blossom honey to manage bad asthma attacks. It is amazing! It helps relax the airways and makes coughs more productive. Not to mention that it is very soothing after the whole scary asthma attack in a nice cup of lemon zinger tea... Pure, raw honey has such amazing helpful properties!!!!
So, the question really is: Why the he// does the FDA allow this to happen, and when are we going to clear out that practically useless government agency and put people in there that actually feel like doing a job?
I fell in love with Australian honey when I purchased a jar from a local specialty store. When I returned they didn't carry it anymore I don't understand all the hoopla about honey/ I've never tasted anything like Australian honey. Do you know of an shops in the US that sells approved Australian honey? If sao, please let me know.
Thanks,
Fran
I pee in my honey... and Im not talking about the food
Dude. Just wrong. Wow. LOL. Why am I laughing. I must stop. You evil poster. You!
I am a bee hobbiest – one hive.
Raw honey tends to crystalize around the niduses in the honey, pollen and crystals. Not acceptable to the public.
A more knowlegable hobbiest informed me that the commercial honeys are microfiltered to remove the pollen and heated to 150 degrees to emulsify the crystals.
All this to satisfy the needs of the buying public. not true when i was a child and we expected the honey to crystalize – and reversed it by heating the honey in a waterbath.
I buy only local honey, that is the only way to be sure. And I NEVER buy any food that originated in China. There have been too many instances of contamination.
thats a really useful thing to know, I have half a dozen jars of honey at the back of my kitchen cupboard that have crystallization and I was about to throw them out as being "off", now I know they aren't and how to reverse it they wont go to waste :)
you're not very bright, are you?
lol
That's funny, and sadly ignorant of you. I'm not trying to mock you, but seriously, you didn't know that? Real, pure honey NEVER goes "off" unless it gets horrifically contaminated. There was honey found in the Egyptian pyramids that was still edible. Honey has no water in it and also has natural antimicrobial properties, thereby preserving it perfectly. Crystalizing is normal. Really, how could you not know that? I mean, did you live under a rock?
Anyway, I'm glad you won't be wasting good honey anymore.
If you thought the jars of honey were bad, why would you keep 6 jars of it hanging around your cabinets?
I actually didn't know that either. I hope that doesn't spawn more insults. I mean, seriously people?
I didn't know that either, and I moved out from that rock years ago. Hmmm.
Heh.. people just need a miniscule reason to start flinging insults at others.. Shows that some Humans, at least, have not evolved much from their ansestoral monkeys who fling their p oo to state their standpoint.
Learn to direct your frustrations on their sources people..
Leo, you might want to back off on calling people ignorant, because you're a bit misinformed yourself. Honey doesn't contain "no water" - it's typically around 17% water.
Buy local and buy raw!
I buy from a cucuzza farm in Louisiana, its sweet and smooth... Never been a fan of large chain honey. Farmers Markets always sell the best.
Great debate (for the most part...). Always buy regional honey from a small farm, why wouldn't you? Here's my favorite, from NC: http://imunchie.com/sunshinedaydream/munchies/southern-honey
When will people learn that China is NOT our friend? Chinese producers of a vast array of items do not care about anything other than the almighty profit. They poison our pets, children and themselves without a care in the world. Do all of us a favor: buy locally. Local honey also has the added benefit of helping your immune system against local allergens.
China isn't our enemy either. Stop being so paranoid; we're all part of the family of humanity.
Can't we all... just get along?
@MarineVet
Actually, China is our Economic and Military enemy. Not only that, they are a major aggressor towards many countries in the Asian Pacific area. Contrary to your President's statements, the rise of China is NOT in our (USA) best interest.
If the deregulation folks have their way, our food will be just as bad.
@MarineVet: Boy, aren't YOU a Pollyana...! China is not our friend, nor are they a friend to their own people as it relates to human rights.
Big governemt commies! The market will take care of this! Because, you know, it's ALWAYS in companies' best interest to do what's best for the consumer! Hey, the people that die from the unknown causes won't buy their product anymore, right??
We need to go to war against China.
We need to demand a trade embargo against China now!
You can't afford to, they own your banks and underwrite your stock market.
11-12% of US Debt is owned by China. It's a myth that China owns the US.
Correct, Limeygirl. Not only that – a plunge in the value of bonds that would be cause by China dumping what they own would cost China a great deal of money. They can't sell into the market fast enough to avoid crippling their own worth.
FWIW, the largest holder of US debt in the form of bonds is the US.
this personally doesn't bother me because honey isn't a particularly healthy sweetener anyway. as someone with a penchant for sweet tastes, i've learned a lot about sweeteners from nutritionfacts. org (particularly http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/the-healthiest-sweetener/)
i encourage everyone to check out this awesome site!!
We don't eat honey because we want to sweeten something. We eat honey because we like honey.
Quite correct. Honey has a unique – and strong – taste that pairs exceptionally well with some foods, not so well with others. Baklava wouldn't be baklava without honey, but honey with coffee...not so much.
everything in moderation. no sweetener is healthy in excess. that being said, locally sourced quality honey has all sorts of good stuff in it.
The Seattle PI ran a 5 month investigation into Honey laundering in the US.
You can find more information on the seattlepi site. Andrew Schneider is the reporter.
China ran into a problem in 1997 – a bacterial infection was wiping out their hives.
They chose to treat the problem with a cheap, but dangerous antibiotic. Quoting from one PI article:
"That was a mistake, said Michael Burgett, a professor emeritus at Oregon State University and an internationally known authority on bees and honey.
'You hear about people shooting themselves in the foot? Well, the Chinese honey-sellers shot themselves in the head,' he said.
The Chinese opted to use chloramphenicol, an inexpensive, broad-spectrum antibiotic that's so toxic it's used to treat only life-threatening infections in humans - and then only when other alternatives have been exhausted.
'That's on the big no-no list,' Burgett said. 'In the U.S., Canada and the European Union, chloramphenicol is on everyone's zero-tolerance list.'
Now, 11 years later, some of the honey buyers who take the trouble to test for it still find the banned antibiotic in some of their imported honey."
Other articles talk about the ease with which China is able to ship honey to countries like India or Malaysia. The labels on the barrels are changed or the barrels are repainted – and the manifests are changed. That allows them to get around the US tariffs on Chinese honey – as well as avoid the increased scrutiny because of the antibiotics.
2/3 of US honey is imported – and China is responsible for half of that.
Great. Now I have to double check what I take from those pic-a-nic baskets.
Harvest your own, buy local, be well!
Yeah but you guys don't want any Government regulation, remember?
Perry (and Paul) says get rid of the FDA and DOE (both of them)...
I believe they would simply get rid of the entire Government if given the chance. Now, isn't that Anarchy?
Don't use logic, you'll just confuse them.
you jump from FDA & DOE to anarchy, nice one. even without a federal government (which libertarians don't advocate) state and local governments are more than capable of maintaining order.
FDA and other agencies are corrupt to the core and serve only large corporations. Their interference in the market prevents small companies from competing with large ones. The same can be said for the FCC. We don't have free markets in the US, the most profitable markets are tightly regulated in the favor of large corporations. That's why they need to go.
Media consolidation started when the FCC stopped regulating ownership by order (law) of the U.S. Congress (run at the time by Republicans). If left to their previous regulatory scheme, there wouldn't have been a takeover by a small number of huge corporations like Clear Channel Communications. If you don't regulate markets, the players with the most capital simply buy out competitors and create virtual monopolies, and no state can effectively regulate national or international corporations. This is the thing that Libertarians don't seem to understand.
The greed of companys for a quick buck is short-sighted. They believe the american customer is stupid and could be tricked into a cheaper, unhealthy, unsafe, dangerous, product. And we the customers let them get away with it. Just like we rolled over as the banks took our homes, just like we let CEO's get the million dollar golden parachutes when they took our future life savings. We didn't notice were no longer a democracy but a just a two-party (Dem's/Rep's) government. We the people have been in denial for a long time and need to open our eyes to the real world around us.
I am a beekeeper of many decades. You want honey from within a 30 mile radius of your home if you want the anti-allergenic effect. You want your honey to be raw, which is to say unheated and unfiltered, if you want it to be maximally healthful. If you do buy local raw honey, do *not* expect it to remain liquid as it will crystallize (there are a few odd exceptions, e.g., Tupelo).
If you are seeking varietal honey, e.g., orange, you will be dealing with itinerant beekeepers who are providing agricultural pollination services from which honey is a marketable byproduct. There is nothing wrong with that, and it does mean it is likely to be domestic but highly unlikely to be raw.
Find a local beekeepers association and get to a source with their help. If wanting to know the state of the domestic market, see The National Honey Report at http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/fvmhoney.pdf
Yea!! Those Vegans should just relax and drink their milk.
This comes as no surprise to me. In fact, the same can be said about maple syrup. Buy local from local farmers. That's your only chance of getting the product that you expect.
Re Maple Syrup, if it is labelled as "Maple" and from Canada or Vermont, it is probably the good stuff. Most of the imitation stuff is made from corn sugars and is just labelled as Pancake Syrup. Quebeckers call this stuff (Log Cabin, Aunt Jemima, Mrs Butterworth etc.) "Pole Syrup" suggesting that it comes from tapping telephone poles.
Let us not forget dear New York producers–2nd largest state! Come on!
"Pole syrup"–so funny, I'll remember that. My dear spouse once bought some "pole syrup" to save money–gaah, that imitation maple flavor literally makes me gag–I have to leave the room. When the real thing is too dear I'll use blueberry syrup, honey, or a bit of powdered sugar–anything but that nasty "pole syrup"!
Why are we still talking about China? If we all stop buying anything and everything from that country then we have one less problem to solve.
If we stop buying anything from China, we will consume almost nothing. Americcan corporations have sold us out to
the cheapest foreign peddlars, most of whom hate Americans. So much for safety. EXCELSIOR OWS!!!
Renelda , I agree kind of. We have actually sold ourselves out, you, me Liz the 99% group and others. The corps and businesses must make a profit so they can pay bills... By the time they pay for gas, equipment, salaries and other USA expenses such as meeting US health standards and requirements, the price of their goods is higher than the stuff from China, India, So. Africa and numerous other Nations. So when you go to the store to buy that honey and one jar is $5(USA) and the other is $3,(China) guess which one you buy. So finally the USA guy has to use stuff from India or somewhere so he can sell at $3. So the USA person that made $15 per hour loses his job to a person that makes $ ! per hour and that company does not have to follow all the USA product regulations. So we basically sell ourselves out by buying the cheap cr–. from those other countries. We need tariffs!
It doesn't surpize me to learn this about China, I'm a Bee keeper and now i see why people keep coming back to me for their Honey
If you check where most of the apple juice/cider comes from you will also see China listed. I only buy from local sources with Cider also.
Psuedo Honey from China? Why on EARTH is it legal to import food from there. They poison their own people, for Pete's sake. I'll now not ever eat honey again. I can see good reason for eating local now. Foods grown by people who are my neighbors and friends. China can't be trusted.
Thanks to this article I will never look at honey the same way. If China's own people can't trust China's milk, infant formula, toys...we should't have to either. China doesn't protect it's own children and it certainly won't protect ours.
This shouldn't even be an issue...what other US foods might be adulterated with Chinese garbage?
If I remember correctly, China sentenced them to death for there bad products.
I agree completely Jeanne.....the Chinese cannot be trusted to provide safe products.
Buy a jar of honey from the super market and buy a jar of honey from me and do a taste test and see who passes on all qualities.
Taste, sweetness, color and purity and then get back to me at eddieb1@juno.com
HA! Kevin got burned. Typos are common, don't be an ass. Let's see you write a column for CNN!
Clearly, someone needs to be informing the consumer on this. That means someone should be doing this kind of testing on a regular basis. Now, we can do it through the FDA (if we fund the FDA!) or we can use private entities that perform product testing, like Consumer's Union. But how many anti-regulation-of-anything Libertarians will pay a for product testing and certification service that will ensure people's safety and product quality?
The FDA has plenty of funding - too much is you ask me. The FDA is not interested in protecting the American public, and certainly not small home-farm based natural food producers. They are there to maximize the profits of large drug companies and mass producers. Involving the FDA is pretty much the last thing you want to happen. I say we just get rid of the FDA and the public will be a lot better off.
I know this is a blog, but that doesn't mean some sort of standards shouldn't be followed:
The lack of regulation is what enables potentially unsafe honey is able to make its way into the country, Andrew Schneider, author of the Food and Safety News report.
I assume you wanted this to read:
The lack of regulation is what enables potentially unsafe honey to make its way into the country, according to Andrew Schneider, author of the Food and Safety News report.
Try proofreading next time before posting next time.
I know this is just a comment in response to a blog, but some standards should be followed:
"Try proofreading next time before posting next time."
Practice what you preach?
All of this Chinese poison tastes like crap. I hate buying Chinese crap. Put a big tariff on all Chinese crap.
First, tell us how to collect a tariff on smuggled goods. The point is that once it gets into the food distribution network, there's no way to tell its origin, whether smuggled from China, locally harvested, or whatever.
Most food labeling is unreliable or non-existent. I buy honey from local producers (they are all over the country). There is a Catholic shrine near me that sells honey made by Trappist monks. Don't trust what you see in the big markets. It could come from anywhere.
Buy American... Especially from our small and local farmers. They have been growing Organic before it was a fad. Support OUR economy, and save the country for future generations. Basically, if you love your country, support her by putting our hard earned cash back into her, and not into foreign products. And if we do not set up higher regulations for the food entering this country, think of the health of your children, your parents, your loved ones, and ask.. how much food in the freezer and pantry is made in China? In this economy, our American's need their jobs more than a Chinese businessman needs extra green in his wallet.
Contact your local farmers market or farmer co-op. Buy local honey. Ask for it just like that, "Local honey". Not only will you be supporting your local small businesses but local honey contains 'local' pollen which helps curb environmental allergies in people who are pollen-sensitive and/or asthmatics who are triggered by pollen and spores.
Semi-interesting article and comments omit the single worst activity of honey manufacturers and marketers: The miniscule amount or complete absence of honey in the bottles and jugs of "HONEY" on the grocers shelves. Instead, the sweet goo is cheap corn syrup with "honey" and "other flavors" as well as "colors" to give the appearance of honey for a whole lot of money, when actual product is just a super cheap substitute.
Even KFC's "honey" packets, served with bisquits, is mostly corn syrup and water. Not their fault, a fact of life in the marketplace...more and more "theft by deception".
WHEN ARE WE GOING TO PUT THESE SNEAKY CHINESE IN THEIR PLACE?
When will we stop letting fanatically anti-regulatory conservatives leave us vulnerable to these fraudulent practices?
American firms don't care any more about us than Chinese ones do. I
It's the lack of regulatory effort that let this–and our collapsed economy and our generally polluted and worthless food–happen here.
Don't blame the Chinese for our own failures.
I could not agree with you more. We need more food safety regulations–not fewer
My goodness you can't trust the honey bear?
staceyann dolenti
LOL! Where's the Like button?
Wow, you really have to watch everything you buy and eat these days. If you can't trust the honey bear who can you trust.
staceyann dolenti
You can't trust the honey bear if the Chinese filled it (or some sneaky US businessman; probably a Republican). Remember when they poisoned our dogs & cats? Remember when they poisoned their own babies?
Sharp....shut up!!!!
Sharp is 100% correct! ... and with Republicans crying about deregulating everything so the poor mega corps that control 80% of the food in this country can make an even bigger profit, you can expect nothing but more crap like this. They don't care, they've got their own guys heading up the FDA. Because we all know that the import lesson here is that we have keep making sure the big corporations keep making their millions.
This article is timely. Just last night I lay awake in bed for hours, worrying about the proliferation of illicit honey.
I think rather you were laying awake at night, dreaming about illicit Honey's.
I was wondering what was wrong with my mead....
A Dolop of Capitalism in My Tea Please! And Hold the Regulations!!
So, if they do pass regulations that require honey testing to determine local pollen source, what is to stop the Chinese from mixing US domestic honey with their 100% pure illicit honey in order to pass/fool the US regulations??
Maybe the reason the US hasn't passed regulations is because there is no way to effectively enforce those regulations. In addition, honey is a very 'clean' food source and does not require additives or preservatives to keep for many years.
It would be more prudent and less expensive to US taxpayers to simply "let the buyer beware" and to educate others(=the public) about the hazard of foreign honey. The American Beekeepers would be better off spending their Lobbying Dollars on public announcements & advertisements that promote the many benefits of natural honey and that capitalize (not a bad word) on the 'green' benefit of buying local honey products that do not make a huge carbon footprint on the environment.
If you were to go one more step in this query process, you might ask why do we even buy honey from China/foreign sources?? The answer would be.. what do we not want to buy from China and that would be....expensive electonic and mechanical products. These technologies have huge political lobby power that has real power over the US government and can squash any little honeybee with a single flick. So it is more prudent and profitable for US politicians to restrict the purchase of China's technological products while allowing the purchase of inconsequential products...such as honey & party supplies. This is why the American Beekeepers are just wasting money & time on lobbying efforts.
I will do my part by sharing this information with email connections and hope that the buzy buzz on China's latest attempt to poison Americans will drown out the lazy government drones – who may one day get the notion to enact legislative regulations on honey that will require testing and ultimately add to the cost of local honey production. The birds and bees and I are praying that this effort to promote local honey will succeed on a grass roots level that will lead to the sweet success of the American Beekeepers and a golden victory for Capitalism.
I'm not sure if you're just trolling or really serious here, but if you read and understood the article, you would know that the problem isn't honey that says "Product of China" on the label. Easy to read, easy to avoid if you're so inclined. No problem.
The trouble, rather, is honey smuggled (you know, illegally imported?) from China that bypasses all usual safety standards. And because the honey sold in many locations is filtered to remove the pollen, I think I can guess where the illicit honey is winding up.
This smuggling of honey is, indeed, a dollop of unrestrained capitalism with your Libertarian tea. I hope you like it. The trouble with your approach is that it creates an unlevel playing field, in which I cannot decide whether to buy Chinese honey or not. If honey is required to contain pollen, concealing the origin becomes impossible, those using smuggled honey can be caught, and those selling Chinese honey have to do so in the open, just like those selling other things made in China already do, and we can all make whatever informed choice we like.
Might that make honey cost a little more? Yes, but I'm OK with that.
The point flew right over Flyinguy's head: if those darn Chinese are smuggling illicit honey into the US to be passed-off as legit US-produced honey... Then it would be a trivially simple matter for them to add a small amount of "legit" honey to the filtered Chinese stuff, providing enough pollen to beat the tests.
This is just another flimsy excuse to expand the federal bureaucracy and its unaccountable power to harass and punish.
You can have your pricey honey from your farmers' market. Keep your snout out of the rest of ours' business.
It's not just a matter of the pollen. The HEAVY METAL contamination can STUNT your kid's brain. The illegal antibiotics are illegal for very good reasons. The pollen only identifies where the honey came from. Grow a brain for Christ's sake.
your's was one of the best responses i have read on anysubject, ever. thanx for sharing
Natural honey contains pollen in a specific concentration. Just adding a bit of American honey to Chinese honey would not obscure its origins.
Your antiregulatory zeal is what allows this to happen, turning a blind eye to both the illegally exporting Chinese producers and the illegally importing American distributors.
If your ideology requires you to serve your children whatever you're offered, defended only by your apparently Mystical Market Sense, good for you. Knock yourself out.
But I want my meat from inspected sources, and I don't want honey filled with heavy metals and antibiotics.
So you butt out of our business, we'll butt out of yours, and you can poison your family to your heart's content.
I've been tossing and turning since the realization that "Maple Syrup" wasn't actually "Maple Syrup" at night... I think I'm going to have to join a support group now with this honey problem.
I can't live in a world where products mislead us with their names... If I buy ketchup and find out it's not really made of tomatoes... I'll surely go bald.
I'm not a big user of honey, but knowing Trader Joe's sells it up to standards is good. I agree it's best to buy local honey, but if it's tough to find, I'll buy some at Trader Joe's. Not comfortable with the possibilty of contaminents! Never thought of it before either. Who knew pollen in honey made such a difference?
I get my honey from a neighbor who keeps bees. Same with the maple syrup. It's too bad that lax regulations allow things like this to happen, when they clearly affect hard working American farmers.
There is some evidence that eating very local honey helps people with seasonal pollen allergies- another reason to buy it from a local beekeeper.
Buy honey from private local beekeepers. It tastes much better and is usually cheaper, fresher. I really only like the taste of one particular honey I get from one seller. You can taste the difference in the flowers and plants that were used to make the honey.
Isn't the issue then one of contaminated honey in regards to heavy metals and such, not that it is "fake" in any way. It is all still honey, but the illegal stuff is cheaper because of lax regulations in other countries (read: China.) The complaint here seems to be one of, "Hey, don't filter out those impurities, which make it easier for us determine the origin, instead of actually testing the product for heavy metals or other dangerous substances."
Something as simple and obvious as antibiotic residues or heavy metal contaminants isn't nearly as important to the professional busybodies as having a tool that allows them to create ever more bureaucracy.
Finding a problem and fixing it doesn't lead to an increase in budgeted money, more employees or bigger offices with fancier desks.
Starve the federal bureaucratic beast. At every opportunity, just say no to more government sticking its nose-and its laws and regulations and fees and taxes and forms and BS-into your life.
What an uninformed zealot you are!
"Honey" can be anything from pure natural honey to a syrup loaded with any number of manufactured and–sometimes–dangerous synthetic sweeteners.
The appropriate concentration of pollen bespeaks both natural sources and can reveal the specific source. Adulterating the ersatz "honey" with collected pollen won't work because it is even more expensive to collect pure pollen than it is to collect honey.
You are so ideologically fixated on "starving the federal beast" that you have starved your own brain of information and the power to reason.
In the future, perhaps you should buy food from the back of a truck that ships from unknown, uninspected sources. Maybe the "invisible hand" of the free market will pump your stomach for you.
Tip of the Day: The Constitution is not an instrument of evil.
What, so now you want Obama regulating Honey?!! You want to pay $2 more a bottle for the stuff in addition to whatever extra taxes will be required to police the industry as much as this article calls for? You liberals need to learn when to keep your big noses out of stuff. Let the Honey industry regulate itself. Nobody has died from eating honey, and when/if they do it'll be a fluke event that still won't require BIG GOVERNMENT to step in. Grocery stores don't have any interest in killing customers, so you can REST ASSURED that it's being carefully watched BY THE INDUSTRY and there's no need for more OBAMA REGULATIONS. Abolish the Dept of Education because parents can do a better job at home and abolish the FDA and EPA. Government has never done ANYTHING for ANYBODY and our FOUNDING FATHERS wished for government to be as tiny and far removed as possible. Support the 3rd Amendment that keeps Government out of your Home!! End Abortion and End Gay Marriage. ONE NATION UNDER GOD AND GOD ALONE!
LOL! What an idiot! Hope you're sterile.. one of you is too much.....
John you and your kind are proof that abortion should be kept legal.
You want government out of our homes...yet are willing to let government regulate what people do wth their bodies (abortion) and who they choose to spend their lives with (marriage).
What a hypocrite!
There will always be some laws, the point is government is out of control so the question is how far do we allow the gov to go. People with morals or ethics will always differ in opinion from those who have none or whose change with the times or are guided by tv and hollywood.
Lordbozo is more like it. Troll.
You know that no one has died from honey? You somehow know the cause of every death? Personally, I don't want my honey to contain random antibiotics and heavy metals.
Then buy local. We need more government because you cant do things for yourself?
i don't know where to begin with your post. first, how about if we are dealing with china and all of our american jobs are going or have gone there, we make them have the same ecological and worker standards that we must adhere to. if they just keep poisioning the water and the air and their products sooner or later we will be breathing, drinking and living with the same crap as the rest of the world is because of china and india. just so the big corporations can make more and more and more. how much is enough? is there ever enough when it comes to some corporations making money? must they do it on the backs of the american people? yes, to bad your mother didn't have an abortion, but she was married to your gay other mother right? what god are you talking about? allah? ra? sun god? you are so typical, how many guns do you have?
Gay comment aside, I agree. We should be singing trade agreements with countries that are willing to meet our health, saftety, labor and evnironmental rules. Too late now, I guess.
Hahahaha! Too funny!
Hey go ahead and buy the cheap stuff that might come from China. WHat you get is WHAT you pay for. I guess you would hope the EPA disappears. Of course then you won't want to pump water from a well cause Corporations do care about not polluting!
Just go and vote Republican!
I,m ancer) to get where the dem/rep part of justcorruption comes in or has anything to do with honey production...
Until I became too weak (I have terminal cancer), I raised bees for honey production and sold queens/worker replacements for people for their uses. There were more problems with regs and endemic industry problems starting with Carter going through Clinton than in any other period. Coincidence? I think not.
@vincent, yeah it's a pain in the butt to have to do things legally isn't it? Law and order are for other people, right? Why should you have to ensure that the stuff you sell isn't poison? Isn't that the buyer's problem?
Dear Lord, Please calm down and stick to the issue. I am sure that you are a very educated person who has made good choices in life and would like to see other do the same. Perhaps you are suffering from an overload of media and political hype that has been shoved down the public throat in an effort to promote political animosities and generate higher TV ratings. Do not allow yourself to fall victim to these manipulations at a time when there are so many young people who need your stabily and true understanding. Look beyond the generalizations and don't allow yourself to be polarized to the extreme. Your example of success in life is reason enough for you to be a role model to others. Take on the voice of a kind and understand spirit that will allow others to come to understand the truth. The answer that you gave shows that you are angry and not thinking clearly before you speak. It is important that people stop looking gor government regulations to dictate right and wrong. That includes not regulating honey as well as not regulating the birds and the bees.. Let us rely on smart consumerism and successful role models to stimulate the economy and family values. And let us keep the angry hurtful words and poor judgements to ourselves.
Hi, Sandy. You have much wisdom and optimism about human nature. However, I'm beginning to realize that the people who write in these blogs are lazy, unworldly, were taught not to think independently, and seem to have less-than a high school education. I've reduced my blood pressure considerably by thinking of these bloggers as entertainment value a la Archie Bunker. Breathe, imagine the color blue, let the ocean waves fill your thoughts, and relax your jaw. Peace.
All of the "smart consumerism" in the world can't detect heavy metals in your honey or salmonella in your chicken. Is that another euphemism for "free market principles", which is the polite way to say let greed run rampant and the buyer beware? You're welcome to set up a black market to deal in unregulated food products and use your family as lab rats but most of us want to know within reason that the food we eat was produced and packaged under sanitary standards.
Went to exhibit at National Archives recently documenting the origins of the FDA. Based on that exhibit LordBobo I can assure you that things were far worse before the FDA was created. Canned meat which was spoiled and caused many deaths, ingredients such as Coal Tar were used to provide more substance and the per capita incidence of food poisoning was much higher than it is today even with e coli and listeria outbreaks. Therefore, I would say your absolute statement that the "Government has never done ANYTHING for ANYBODY" is false.
@LordBobo
"You liberals need to learn when to keep your big noses out of stuff. Let the Honey industry regulate itself. "
From the article:
Foreign honey also puts a squeeze on American beekeepers, who have been lobbying for years for an enforceable national standard to prevent foreign honey from flooding the market."
Who do you work for, Bobo–China?
"
This isn't honey, it's just a solid block of Cadmium! No no no, just very thick honey.
.. just the latest in high-energy Lithium-ion honey. Has Red Bull heard about this or Snapple, mmm, good stuff.
Just who the heck is Lana Del Ray. Never heard of him.
So the problem is that it is too pure?
My understanding is that honey naturally contains pollen (bees are covered in the stuff), and the pollen is distinctive to the area where it is produced. Therefore, the Chinese are filtering out all of the pollen so that nobody knows it was produced in China. Why would they do that? Well, China has such a lack of regulation that anything goes, so researchers have also found that their honey is often tainted with heavy metals and illegal animal antibiotics.
Take the fake honey off the shelves. All food should be clearly labeled as to where it came from. I am so sick and tired of the crap that gets sent here from other countries. We should have the choice to buy what we want/don't want by where it came from.
I agree that it would be nice to know the origin of food, although I don't like regulations in general, a necessary evil I suppose.
But how exactly is this "fake" honey?
@Nonimus
"How is this fake honey?"
Remember when pets were poisoned in the U.S. because Chinese producers of pet food ingredients were shipping a poisonous (but sweet-tasting, like anti-freeze) industrial chemical to U.S. pet food producers?
Ersatz honey is like "fruit drink"–there's probably some honey in it, but there is most likely a great deal of some other "sweetener" in the blend.
"Fake" honey. Well, for starters, it's not all honey. It's corn syrup and other sweeteners mixed with a little honey and flavorings. That makes it honey-like or a honey substitute. ( You know, like an apple drink instead of apple juice.) The only thing "Real" honey has in it, is "Honey".
Also, and this is really scary, it has poisons in it. Things that can hurt you, or might cause things like cancer and diseases. Things that can "Kill" you.
And, the industry itself is calling for regulations, not some outside do gooder type. These are the people who actually raise the bees that make the honey - the manufacturers, if you will.
I get my honey from bears, so I KNOW that sh1t is real.
Honey is bee vomit......
Yes, and that hot dog you love so much is pig rectum. People eat a lot of crap.
Sweet response.
Let's see how the gummint responds to this sticky situation. It should create some buzz in the industry. That's all I got.
Eating too much honey will also give you the hives.
mmm, bee vomit... goes great with dung coffee (civet coffee).
The choices consumers make today about most products, including honey, are extremely personal. In regards to honey, consumers may have varying opinions about their choice of honey type, flavor and origin. To enable a truly personal choice, there are many different kinds of honey available in the U.S. market. Some consumers prefer honey in the comb or liquid honey that is unprocessed or raw, while some prefer honey that is crystallized or cremed. Others will seek out honey that is organically produced and certified. However, the majority of honey sold at retail in the U.S. every year is the clear, golden liquid honey that has been strained or filtered.
There are a number of filtration processes that remove fine particles, including pollen, from honey – but the end result is still pure honey. Pollen particles may or may not be present in the honey an individual chooses, but the product is still honey.
Unfortunately, inaccuracies in a recent news story have fueled a considerable amount of confusion about the term “ultrafiltered honey.” Ultrafiltration is a specific process used in the food industry. When applied to honey, ultrafiltration results in a sweetener product that is not honey because of the significant changes it causes in the original honey. It is an expensive process that requires the addition of water to the honey, high pressure filtration at the molecular level, and then removal of the water. While it is known to have been used with honey overseas to create a sweetener product for beverages, ultrafiltration is not generally used in the U.S. Other filtration methods have been used for many years in the U.S. honey industry. These filtration methods are designed to remove fine particles such as bits of wax, bee parts, air bubbles and pollen that hasten crystallization of the honey and affect clarity. Recent articles have also incorrectly stated that the FDA does not consider honey without pollen to be honey – that is simply not true. For more information on honey filtration and USDA grading standards, click here. http://www.honey.com/nhb/about-honey/frequently-asked-questions/#honey-filtration
TRANSLATION: My employers make a lot of money importing cheap, untraceable foreign honey and wish to continue doing so without government interference or consumer awareness.
Bingo.
Thanks for making a sense of this debate. I have a question, I have been told that using honey helps build ones immunity against pollen related allergies and in my case, the bee sting. I guess I understand the reasons for filtering impurities but, would filtering pollen have an impact on building immunity?
That s rather not the point, whether what is sold under Honey label deserves the name- the point of this article is that due to the lack of clear standards and regulations, consumers are running high risk of buying smuggled Chinese stuff, which is dangerous due to its poisonous content. And there seems to be lots and lots of it on the shelves. Who is supposed to regulate and control that...? I, for one, will not buy any honey for the nearest couple of years until I m convinced the situation has changed.
Thank you NHB! Finally somebody steps forward to set the record straight. This is just another far reaching example of how Obama is destroying the nation with NEEDLESS REGULATION of an industry that has never had a problem. I don't see how people expect us to keep up with China with all of our NEEDLESS OBAMA REGULATIONS that China is happily unencumbered with. It's sad to see China practice a pure form of Capitalism while we're being held back by Obama and his czars. Government should build roads and bridges and keep America safe! THATS IT!
On November 7, 2011 "Food Safety News" quoted, "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." LORDBOBO, how is government subsidizing private industry "pure capitalism"?
There is no indication in this article that anyone in government, including Obama, is currently considering any regulation of the honey industry. All it says is that beekeepers are lobbying for regulation.
Perhaps we would all be better off if people like you stopped reading articles and immediately assumed everything in them that you personally disagree with is an evil plan personally created and implemented by Obama. Not everything is his fault, you know.
Turn off Fox News and go outside for some fresh air.
LordBobo wrote: "Government has never done ANYTHING for ANYBODY".
Yet you state Government should only build roads and bridges? Yet another right-wing Hipocrite!
No wonder my mead tastes like.... metal....
Lets not forget the Dept. of Education. That way people won't even be able read this article to be able to worry about it. Ignorance is bliss. Aaaaahhhhhhhh.
Hang on, DaveInSC. Sure, LordBobo is a nutcase (or at least pretending to be; I'm going with that one) but we were just fine before we had the DoEd. In fact, students' performance has slipped a lot in the years since Carter made Ed. a cabinet level department. Correlation does not prove causation, but on the other hand, a lot of crappy educational policy has been promulgated in the decades since then, with predictable results. I think we could indeed do well to abolish the DoEd. and return all of its power to the states. Local control = better control. That's true with your local farmer's market, it's true with food you grow for yourself, and it's true with your school, too.
I put my kids in a private school this year, and the class size is nearly 40, but they are learning far more than they learned in public school. Why? Local control. The school answers to we, the parents. We, the parents, control the purse strings because if we aren't happy and we walk, they close. Local control, my friend.
CHINA MUST BE LAUGHING AT US.......AGAIN......!!!!
Just the other day we were at trader joes and were going to buy honey. What they had on the shelf was imported from India.
You should have purchased it. Indian bees are smarter and more productive than American bees.
Actually, if you read the reference material from the source, Trader Joe honey meets the standard and is leagal for purchase.
Bah! Legal*
We don't need no government agencies like the FDA protecting our food. Bring on the heavy metals. Young people like heavy metal, right? hey, I'm just providing the tea bagger argument before the come up with it.
(O_o) ...
... That made absolutely no sense.
Did yours?
Anybody who wants to call me a teabagger to my face will be in for pain. Funny how no one has ever had the stones.
That said, what you stated is not the Tea Party position. It is the Libertarian position. Not entirely accurately so, but mostly. I'm Tea Party, but my only use for the Libertarians (if Ayn Rand wasn't dead, I'd hope someone would rectify that situation) is that they are useful fools in working to get government back under control.
Your corporate masters think you too are a useful tool.
Teabagger? You mean like your tendency to to take it clear and clean to the hair libtard?
Wait until Honey Badger hears about this. He is going to be pissed!
lmfao.
Honey badger will kick your aa zsz
sounds good but whats up with those duck lips?
The best real honey comes from the island of Crete in Greece. It is real, delicious, and healthy. A small amount of honey with some Greek Fage Yogurt and some fresh fruit is probably the best breakfast EVER! Also, the Cretans are known for their very healthy diet.
Geez. Next we'll find out the Big Mac isn't really a hamburger
Well...it kinda isn't...
Actually it really isn't...still tastes better then broccoli though
duh...he's kidding.
Thanks SBennet....you get it
Yep, there is no ham in the Big Mac hamburger.
You read the headline, not the article. The article doesn't say that the honey isn't really honey.
Bees are being exploited and need to unionize.
Help, I am a bee trapped in a honey farm, please send a union rep right away!
No Dan, consumers upon being informed of being robbed by corporations in attempt to maximize their profits must unionize and not buy their crappy products anymore.
This Country was founded on the idea that you pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.. Unions cause an entitlement attitude. If a worker doesn't like his employer, he or she is free to change his or her employer; or, have the courage to start their own business. Then the former worker can choose how he or she wants to run that company. Unions reduce efficiency, hinder a company's ability to compete and stifle worker creativity. Ask the Chinese, who are poised to kick our butts in the marketplace, if they would rather have a job or a union? They are all just happy to have a job, and the opportunity to compete.
We have one. It's called the Consumers Union. They publish Consumer's Report.
I thought the USA was a Union. Guess I read the preamble of the Constituation incorrectly.
Imagine that, the Chinese doing something else illegal. Nice moral compass they have going over there.
So if someone overseas produces something of poor quality, and an American importer chooses to import it and sell it to you, you exonerate the American importer and lay all blame at the overseas producer?
Is that because they're Chinese specifically, or just because they're furreners?
One word, NAFTA; we gave everything away, welcomed all imports to further global self sufficiency irregardless of countries political agendas. We see it with oil, food, pharmaeuticals, toys, clothing etc. Someone here said it best, buy local if you can, I suggest as well, BUY AMERICAN or do without.
I like your post but I think you mean "irregard" or "regardless."
Pulling the race card.. how original.
Moral compass in China? Where's the moral compass for the American companies buying the stuff? Why blame the Chinese. Point your finger at the buying agents for Krogers, CVS, Giant Eagle, Safeway et al. They know what they are buying or, even worse, don't ask the right questions. So would you pay more for pure honest-to-god honey? Or continue to buy the faux honey? How many other products suffer from similar issues? Ron Paul and RIck Perry (if he could only remember) would abolish the evil FDA. Then they could get big government out of the way so that our friends in agribusiness could get on with the job of making money not honey.
Just wait until they start making cars...that's when I stop driving....
Volvo is owned by Chinese companies and they're trying to buy Saab.
The headline at CNN's main page that links to this says: 'What You're Buying Isn't Really Honey'
I defy anyone to find anything in this article that says anything remotely resembling that.
You are 100% correct.
You're not a good troll. And while we're on the subject, your English teacher must be proud.
I'm sorry–did you have a line from the article that states or implies that the honey in American stores is not actually honey? I'm waiting for something from the article that says this. Post it.
hon·ey (hn)
n. pl. hon·eys
1.A sweet yellowish or brownish viscid fluid produced by various bees from the nectar of flowers and used as food.
All of the parts make up the whole. Without pollen, you do not have honey.
If you take out part of a definition, you are no longer defining a word. Therefore, it is not honey.
Stop being a troll, stop finding things wrong with every article. Go be a journalist and learn that finding ways to hook people in to reading your article is the most important thing you can do.
"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 report says. "Without pollen there is no way to determine whether THE HONEY came from legitimate and safe sources."
They're still using nectar, so it still meets the definiton you posted. But they are deliberately altering the process to obscure the origin of the nectar. If you can read English, you'll see the description in the article both meets your definition and unquestioningly uses the word 'honey' to describe the...poorly made...honey.
Odd, I don't see "pollen" in that definition you just posted.
To its credit, the article does link to the FSN article in its first sentence, which states:
"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."
...
"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."
By proxy, the article is saying that the honey being tested isn't actual honey by virtue of another article it cites. It means doing a bit of extra work (read: a single click) to find this information, but it's clearly there.
Stephanie does point out something important... doing a little bit of extra reading before you make an annoying accusation. Heaven forbid.
Fair enough, I didn't click past the article, but it's still misleading. Half the people who notice that headline think now think that this stuff is some sort of synthesized faux honey, which it isn't. It's crap honey, not fake honey.
Did you even read the article?? They tested these products and found NO POLLEN. How can you make "honey" with no pollen?!
Because you use nectar.
The article said that the pollen had been removed (or those samples that had no pollen). Clearly stated.
I agree. Assinine headline purposefully misleading just to get people's attention without regard to what's true and what's a lie.
Instead of testing it for pollen, why not test it for heavy metals and antibiotics? Why would American honey not contain antibiotics and heavy metals? Test all honey for what you are afraid it will contain. Common sense people!
American bees stopped using lead-based nectar years ago.
It's fast and easy to check for pollen...I think the point was if it's not even real to start with what do you expect.
But seriously, honey is actually just a by-product. The primary purpose of commercial bees is to pollenate fields of crops. Bee keepers make their real income providing this service to farms all over the country. They harvest and sell the honey just to make a little extra cash on the side. Anyway, since American farmers have more restrictions on what anitbiotics they can use on their crops, there will naturally be few antibiotics in honey made by the bees that pollenated American crops. I agree they should still test it anyway.
Really. How obvious is that? Why test for lack of pollen when the concern is that poisons such as heavy metals or drugs may be in the foreign honey? I'm gathering that the pollen is being removed so its origin can't be traced. I would assume the buyers for the grocery stores would know the source of what they're buying. The bottom line, as with all big business in this country, is to expend the least amount of money and make the biggest profit possible.
As for the person who blamed NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), I don't think that would apply to products coming from China. Massive qualities of imports were pouring into the US long before NAFTA as a result of deregulation put into affect by Reagan.
My personal opinion – if we can produce it here in the US, businesses should not be allowed to purchase it for resale from other countries – period. In addition, if a US company moves it's operations to another country in order to make a bigger profit from cheaper labor costs, they should not be allowed to import their products back into the US for sale – period.
I don't want Pollen in my honey. I don't want anything other than honey in my honey. Bravo food companies!
You know honesy is actually bee vomit right?
The point is pollen is one way to tell it's really honey...instead of a chinese science experiment.
You seem very persnickity about your bee barf!
"bee barf" LMAO!
WIN!!!
geez, you are dumb. Read the article, not just the headlines. Pollen is what makes honey, honey. The rest, as one responder said, could just be a Chinese science experiment.
No, nectar is what makes honey honey. By removing the pollen, you're still allowing the honey-making process to take place, but you're altering it.
Wow, you literally learn something new every day, huh? I had no idea "real" honey contained pollen. So how can we tell what's real and what isn't...go to Trader Joe's? What if you don't have a TJ's where you live?
yeah be careful of honey, you may get Chlamydia
Isn't that what Sandusky claimed?
I am glad that American honey has things like pollen and bee poop filtered out.
@Josh: Yeah, we wouldn't want pollen or poop contaminating our bee vomit.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1072/is-honey-really-bee-vomit
You just beat me to it. Some people are just so ignorant about what most food is...not only honey but the horror of bacterial dead bodies and excrement in fermented foods and beverages ! :)
You are close. The honey is regurgitated from the honey stomach and not the regular digestive stomach.
"Hey, I can't find nutin on the radio."
Honey is no healthier than sugar anyway.
Honey is way better than sugar. It has many properties that contribute to good health and has been used as such since ancient times. The pollen that is in real honey also helps you in some cases build up your immunities to allergies. I buy mine from the local Amish and it is the best tasting honey that can be found.
Unless it contains all those heavy metals and other peky additives.
This is what happens with no regulation.
No regulations and the pot boils over. Too much regulation and the steam kettle cracks. Common sense has been missing in Washington for a long time.
This is what happens when people get worked up over insignificant things. How much of the contaminated honey would you need to consume to cause ill effects? A gallon? I don't know the answer, but I would guess its more than most people eat. Just eat the damn honey (where ever it is from) and enjoy it.
So, not only is our manufacturing companies going to China but all our agriculture as well, so CORPORATIONS can make more money at the expense of lives, safety and peoples jobs????
THIS IS WHY COPORATIONS MUST BE STOPPED! They will lie,cheat,steal and even kill to make a dime.
Welcome to a capitalist county. EVERYTHING is about making money. All the agencies are there to charge violations.... to make money not to help with safety anyway. Charities less than as little as of donations make it to the intended recipients. In order to be able to label themselves non-profit, the other 70% goes to the salaries of its employees. DUIs are not in place to keep the strets safe, they are there to make the city money. Scottsdale for example, DUIs are a MAJOR source of revenue... at one time it was the citys number one source. People become doctors primarily for the paycheck, not the desire to help people, hence the horrible care even when your lucky enough to have insurance... this is capitalism.
oops... Charities as little as 30% of donations make it to the intended recipients.
I agree with tevii, Corporations must be stopped.
If corporations are stopped, where do you propose we find jobs?
If Inhumanity has the right to infringe on the rights of Humanity, then Humanity has the obligation to regulate and control Inhumanity to No End. (Corporations are Inhuman).
So, I guess you built your computer with your own hands. You hate corporations so much that you will use everything they make to protest their existence. Grow up. This is the real world. Yes, corporations run the world. They do so because the world would be in anarchy without them.
Just buy local honey. It helps the immune system fight allergies when the pollen is local anyway. Some of these comments about how American Honey sucks are just ignorant. The crap you buy in the big chain stores isn't American honey anyway. It's not even real honey if you bothered to read the article. Local honey, regardless of where you are, is going to bee superior.
Best comment all day. Just buy local, end of story.
I so agree with you. Some people just didn't READ ALL OF THE ARTICLE. Local honey is the best all around. Buy it at farmer's markets or natural/health food stores. It's cheaper, too!
Agreed! Best comment of the day! I'll trade natural local honey for Zrytec anyday!
oops, let me clarify, I am pro local honey! a big DISLIKE for allergy meds!
I found some cheaper brands of so called honey has corn syrup in it as well, we only buy locally grown food. When I saw this site and saw how many food manufacturers use China to make our food for us, I stopped buying them: http://www.jiesworld.com/international_corporations_in_china.htm
Who buys the honey in the little plastic bear jars? People who absolutely know they're buying poor quality honey, but don't want to spend more. It's a choice. It's not like they don't know they're buying crap.
But I think the point of the article might be–it's fine to pay more for better quality. You shouldn't have to pay more for better safety standards.
People don't have a clue about the different quality of honey or what they think is 'real' honey. If they knew it was Chinese product coming into this country they would not buy it. Their food products are uninspected and continually found to be adulterated. It is a disgrace that this type of information is not widely disseminated to the shopper. Chinese food products should be be allowed into this country without inspection and testing of all shipments.
Solution.. buy honey that is from locally raised bees ( even if its the state.) You can find that in almost every community. I know in my area ( Long Island) my supermarkets sell the general brands but also have a local brand also which I buy. No reason not to.
The big question is how to locate these sources. Most people have no idea where to find local producers, especially in heavily urbanized areas.
Farmers market. If you don't know where one is, use google. No excuses.
try your local extension office – the place where 4-H originates. If not there, try the library, contact your state's nutritionist, community college outreach, local hospital or even the high school. I find it a "duh moment" that what we take for granted here in Iowa – agricultural education and closeness to our food source, people around the country struggle with Good luck with your search – it's worth it!
The little balls are separating sugar clumps from crystallization. It can be liquefied again by submerging the jar in warm water.
Most honey in the groceries has been pasteurized to prevent crystallization. For healthy purposes buy local honey labeled Raw honey to help with allergies. If you perfer the milder taste, avoid the darker honey harvested in the fall.
slomoven, you got it right. Though what I find fun is that when I put our raw honey on the retailer's shelf in it liquid state – made so to get it out of the tank and into the jar – the raw honey consumers don't buy it as fast because they think it is not truly raw even if the label states as such. They want to see the honey in the jar chrystalized. And when I try to sell raw chrystalized honey at the farmer's markets consumers don't buy it until I explain to them that it is not honey gone bad. Can't win for trying.
Running a qRT-PCR for bee, corn, and sugarcane DNA would identify doping of honey with non-bee sources such as high fructose corn syrup, as well as identify what continent it was produced on, if species-specific primers were chosen.
While possibly more labor intensive than the FDA is hoping for ... hell. I'll do it if they pay me. Just don't go complaining that it can't be done!
This is an excellent idea. Along with testing for the heavy metals and antibiotics they claim to be so concerned about.
I have a sinking feeling that a lot, if not most, honey on the shelves would flunk.
Your idea is just brilliant and brings in a 100% scientific perspective. Sure, you need to guide the person who did the research work of taking "60 bottles of honey" (being a Statistician myself, it is a very very small sample to test and to draw inference) for better scientific and un-biased analyses , both on the measurement standards and the research design.
t at least a third of all the honey consumed in the United States was likely smuggled from China and could be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals.
scary
honey should be the least of your worries...Chlorine Ammonia baths for chickens and GMO insecticides in baked goods get eaten a lot more.
honey is a huge concern as people are trying to eat holistically without over processed and white foods. Its a shame that the market demand for cheap food is so great that they would import crap vs domestic items. I dare you to find an affordable apple juice that is made 100% in the US.
Your quip about chicken is scary and true in a low rent grocery chain but not all commercially produced poultry are that way – Your GMO rhetoric is getting really old. Most GMO foods are NOT the chemical injected nightmare people are hysterical about, the GMO traits aren't even passed into the food stuffs...its all about the plant systems... but that's an argument for another day.
American honey is as much a joke as any otehr type of American "food". No wonder you people are so fat and lazy.
Fine, but why are you, as an individual regardless of nationality, so stupid?
Honey, you prove my point by namecalling. Americans are so lacking in cultural refinement and manners. You really do need to learn from Eurpoeans.
@Jeann: Seriously? You'll come out and "name call" fat and lazy and turn around and criticize for name calling on "stupidity"? I'm sure that everyone has something to learn from everyone else, European or otherwise. However, what I think most people can agree on is to avoid arrogant and self righteousness comments with "cultural refinement and manners". Get off your high European horse....honey.
Thanksgiving - the showcase of phenomenal American food. I'll eat pumpkin pie any day over a wussie croissant. And boy, do we Americans know how to stuff a bird. YUM. Stay in Europe, Jeann. We don't want you judging us. Oh wait, maybe you're working here making money in our country? You may not be stupid, but you sure as hell are annoying.
Nice generalization, I'm going to assume you're french and call you a stuck up, whiny and cowardly waste of life. Feels good don't it?
You talk about manners but call an entire country fat and lazy.
And oh, by the way "honey," YOU are the one who is lacking in cultural "refinement" by NAME CALLING Americans fat and lazy. You are one hypocrite, there, Jean.
dude, we just got troll'd and we fell for it. we should be ashamed at ourselves and learn from the jean, the master of cowardly combat.
Holy crap dude, you're probably right. I'm going to avoid being ashamed by clinging to the last reaming possibility that she is indeed a self righteous European.
Its already a crime to "mis-label" maple syrup, punishable by fine and jail time in Vermont. (not sure if that passed YET), We should put the fake honey producers in prison too.
Is it really fake honey just because it had the pollen and bee poop filtered out?
Does maple syrup need deed flies and bear poop in it, to be "Real Vermont" maple syrup?
Your lack of knowledge is clearly showing. Bee do not void their bowels in the hive. They perform "cleansing flights". They are by far the most hygenic creatures on the planet. How do I know this? I'm a beekeeper. Try learning about a subject before trying to discuss it
How is any of this news given most of the "organic" fruits and vegetables in the US come from China where restrictions on pesticides etc are much lower? People need to spend more time thinking about what they eat rather than just eating anything and everything put in front of them.
That is flat-out false.
I think it is the rich people that are the problem if we were all equal we could have the good honey and all would be right in the world we need an occupy the honey hive movement- if only we had some college kids to complain
You're right (accidentally). It IS the wealthy who is smuggling honey into the country. And they are making millions selling it to retailers so customers are duped into buying a product for consumption that could be harmful to them. And that is how it is in this country-as long a business people make money they could care less if we all live or die. Even the ignorant can be accidentally correct. Kind of like a stopped clock.
Nothing beats French honey. And I can see how grocery store honey is so different. Grocery store honey has a) a completely different consistency from organic or French honey (the latter imported from Provence). b) A completely different TASTE from organic or French honey.
I'm waiting for a European report stating that the "food" found in most fast food American chains all over the world isn't really food and may contain high amounts of calories, sodium and fat.
It's true. Unfortunately, most Western European nations are slowly picking up American habits when it comes to food. Also for those of you that don't know, American food has *SO* many preservatives in it that it is incredibly unhealthy. That is why we, as a nation, are overweight, and why Europeans can eat pastries, cheese, and BUTTER, and be thin. That and the walking that they do.
Most food sold in grocery stores isn't even real food. Its high fructose corn syrup. It is cheaper to chemically modify corn than to produce real food, look for it, they use it to make everything.
That's a good point. When you're buying your Thanksgiving turkey this year, consider the possibility that it's actually chemically modified corn, complete with the wings and drumsticks.
Exactly–and in the produce section, where they keep the fruits and vegetables if you walk over there, that cabbage and those tomatoes...they're actually synthesized from high fructose corn syrup.
If only there were some way to buy some food that isn't made of high fructose corn syrup. But there's just no way.
The only way you can be sure of what you are eating is to grow your own little garden
Nothing wrong with fructose. It's "fruit sugar" the same sugar found in apples, pears, berries, etc. etc. I don't understand why people seem to be villifying it nowadays, it's just fruit sugar.
Fructose is a simple sugar – correct. Corn syrup is a processed, highly-concentrated, complex sugar. Corn syrup is not as "natural" to our body as are simple sugars and corn syrup can be stored in our bodies as fat. Before ya'all jump all over me, what follows is list of foods most Americans ingest, not what I personally buy, eat, or recommend. Pepsi et al taste better with sugar vs corn syrup. Don't need corn syrup in my toothpaste, medications, deli meats (meat!), etc. Corn itself is the main feed for pigs/hogs – fattens them up real good.
Repackaged moldy applesauce and now this! Keep going & pretty soon we won't eat anything. Good for losing weight.
Since they are testing the honey for pollen, why don't they just make themselves useful and check for illegal antibiotics and heavy metals?
Very intelligent question! That said, we should have a standard for honey and then actually have folks to inspect it.
They did not say heavy metals were bad...just that they cannot tell if the honey is natural.
It's a silly point I admit...but I guess the point is if it's not even natural the rest shoudl nto matter.
u keepz da honey cuz i gotz all dat gooooold!
U got all dat stupid. U keep dat stupid.
Fo Shizzle be jealouz o my Pole Dizzle cuz i got all dat gold!
why are the Chinese always trying to kill us?
with 7 billion people in the world what's a few more dead lazy fat americans?
agreed, i get mine from a local source
Don't know where your from, don't care...your rude in any language, we Americans are not fat or lazy, your just jealous you don't live in a great country like ours....If you tried to move here, we'd just kick your silly ass out!
you forgot "Europeans"......
I heartily agree with everyone who says to buy their honey from local Farmer's Markets. However, I do find it comical that some people are saying, stay away from foreign honey. Persoanlly I'de favor foriegn honey over the mass market supper market honeys any day. Ever tried the New Zealand honey from Trader Joe's? wow, good stuff.
Oops. Just read my own post and it appears I have fatfingeritis today. Probably due to low blood honey!!!!!
blah blah blah blah blah blah i buzz like a bee blah blah blah blah blah blah bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz blah blah blah blah blah blah
Always buy your honey from your local Farmer's Market. I never trust store-bought honey anymore. Watching "Vanishing of the Bees." It's on Netflix now.
Who wrote this? Sounds like a protectionist lobyist. Is there a problem if the pollen has been removed – or is the perceived problem not knowing where it came from? It's still honey isn't it? What if its legally imported and the pollen has been removed – problem? Don't believe everything you read.
Did you even read the article??? All your dumb questions are answered above
Bryan....who do you believe. The show contains scientific facts. The problem with the "honey"....if you didn't read the articles is....that it could contain metals and antibiotics. You must enjoy being slowly poisened. You are an idiot.
Illiteracy – the biggest problem facing America right now.
How do we know that the guy selling the stuff at the local farmer's market didn't get his batch from china?
He is my uncle?
The guy I buy it from has his address on the label and also sells it out of his house right next to his hives.
Good point. Even the bees are giving up in disgust.
Does any of this come as a surprise in a country where so much food is processed, and volume and profit come before quality?
*shrug* can't just blame the companies here. People like having cheap access to a wide variety of food products. Farmer's markets tend to be a bit of a luxury thing and are often not easily accessible to much of the population.
That's very true, the problem is that people want cheap stuff and then are surprised when all of the jobs are moved over seas. I am certainly guilty of this too, but when we shop a big box stores we are voting with our wallet to get rid of US jobs.
I find that true about the farmer's market.
Well, I've joined the circus everybody. Be sure to come see me. Just look for a picture of a cow wearing tap shoes.
Someone is a twit alright....
u da twitz da bitz
"I l i k e t u r t l e s ...."
What is with the Eatocracy type at the top of this page? Did you get hungry mid-design and snack on the e, a and the y? Shameful.
I don't even like the processed honey that is almost like liquid.
I only buy RAW honey which is yellow and very sticky and has a texture as if it's made of very small balls stuck together. RAW honey tastes better and it has all the good stuff we know that honey should have.
There is no point to eat the processed liquidy honey, all of the good stuff is taken out of it.
You are right on. To process one of Nature's best productions is just stupid. It cannot be improved upon. Honey found in Egyptian tombs centuries later is still good. It's liquid gold and so very good for you.
No disrespect intended, but I think you need to check your source. Fresh, pure honey is completely liquid and shouldn't feel like it has little balls in it. I suspect that the honey you are buying may have been stored at too low a temperature and what you are detecting are tiny crystals that have formed.
The solution is clear. We need a Honey Czar and a large, multi-billion dollar/year federal bureaucracy dedicated solely to regulating honey.
We'd have to borrow the money from China first.
Naw naw naw, what we need is to remove all regulation and ignore the issue until the ‘honey’ you are eating is nothing more than tofu and plastic. We can call it ‘Freedom honey”.
Right on, Brother
Or, you could just eat the unregulated Chinese crap and die.
Too funny...
How do you "smuggle" 1/3 of all consumed honey into the country? Is honey illegal to import?
I know, right? I was like, wth, 1/3?
It is illegal when it contains heavy metals and other toxins. FDA turns a blind eye
I think the point is that it often isn't really honey. From another site, some of the honey coming from China is actually "a mix of sugar water, malt sweeteners, corn or rice syrup, jaggery [a type of unrefined sugar], barley malt sweetener or other additives with a bit of actual honey".
You seems running a very interesting sweet lab. The stuff you made definitely more expensive than honey. I wonder that is why people buy foreign stuff.
Fine,,, have the importers and MASS
Producers test the Honey,,, problem solved.
Bees are of the devil. All honey should be banned and burned, says the Lord.
Whaaat?! Troll
Epidi – Miss Lynn ain't no troll, she's a heathen. All God's chillen knows that the chosen people wuz taken to a land flowing with milk an hunny. She's gust afraid of honey which is bee barf when all is said and done!
No Lynn Ann – it is the Bee Gees who are the devil incarnate. Little bitty bees ain't no threat to us. It was disco what done us in...
LMAO!
No, no, no... Bees should be banned and burned.. said the Lord. You got it all wrong. Oh wait, no, People should be banned and burned. That's it! Whew! Now, onward to victory! ARRRAGHHGHHGHGH!!!
ChrisM – Did you just say "ARRRAGHHGHHGHGH!!!"?
You can't say that in a polite place like this. I should wash your mouth out with hunny to sweet you up, son!
Your an idiot....
UhYeaOk – Pumpkin. Did no one teach you nothin? It's "you're (you are)" not "your" an idiot. Gotta get that straight or you sound like an uneducated bumkin on your postings and we can't have that, can we????
You're an idiot. Dja get that new software yet? Sense of Humor 2.0? No? Please consider it.
When calling someone an idiot, please spell the words in the the comment correctly. Otherwise, you would be an idiot calling someone else an idiot. I believe that is the same thing as the pot calling the kettle black. In case you are (*you're) wondering, when calling someone an idiot, you say "You're an idiot."
Nuts! There are most likely meds that can help you.
I have only bought local honey. It tastes better, I got used to local honey when my grandma raised honey bees at her farm. She raised nearly everything she ate. I have lived all over the US and have never had a porblem finding somewhere that sells local honey. Different regions the honey might taste a little different but it has all been good. I prefer to buy farm grown food from whatever local area I happen to live in. It is better for your body and better for your local economy.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....
Henry, how did you do that??? Your zzz's went right off the page!
Change your screen resolution or scroll right.
mark is right – the rest of you need to do some research. A good place to start is to read Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemna". He details the history of the Federal government (at Big Food's behest) getting involved in everything from corn subsidies to regulations on poultry & animal husbandry, and why these regulations stifle local , organic food movements.
Almost eight months behind NPR on reporting of bad China honey, CNN. Might want to speed things up.
I think everyone pretty much it it on the head, if it wasn't for those pesky government regulations, who knows what you would be eating. Imagine how many more food recalls and virus outbreaks we would have as a country if there were no regulations. And the kicker, with no regulations, you would not be able to track the source of the outbreak.
If there were no regulations, there would be no recalls. Just people getting sick or dying and the companies saying, "not our problem".
Honey Badger Rocks!
They're worried about where the honey came from? In some countries, like Egypt, you can be quite certain you're not even getting pure honey, and that it has been heavily cut with corn syrup. Oh it'll say "pure honey" on the label, but I know corn syrup when I taste it, and of course this has been done for centuries in countries where there was no inspection or enforced regulation. So don't feel too bad that your honey has no pollen in it (from "deep within the flower"??? Uh no, it's right on the anthers on the bloom of the flower), I'd venture to say that most third world countries aren't even selling you pure honey, though they do often put a hunk of honeycomb inside to try to convince you of that - another rip-off because of course the honeycomb is not honey, and yet you've just paid for its volume in the jar as though it is honey.
Centuries? Really? Corn Syrup (HFCS) wasn't even developed until the 1950's and wasn't commercially available until the 1970's. Please go off and rant on another thread where you MIGHT have some relevance.
Wikipedia lists Karo corn syrup's origin to 1902, not the 1970's
Some people don't realize that corn syrup and HFCS are not the same thing. HFCS is a specific high sweetness sub-type. Although corn syrup's invention in 1902 makes it difficult fr the honey "cutting" to have been done for centuries.
Yea, but remember we don't need any of that pesky job defeating government regulation.
Beeeeeeee Healthy......eat your honey!
What we're getting often isn't pure honey either, which is what the article is hinting at.
The main concern is not WHERE it comes from, it's the pollen content. There are many health benefits that the pollen and honey provides (see also http://www.livestrong.com/article/194331-what-are-the-benefits-of-honey-bee-pollen/). The other concerns are named in the article "Why does it matter where your honey comes from? An earlier Food Safety News investigation found that at least a third of all the honey consumed in the United States was likely smuggled from China and could be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals."
Commercially processed “honey” should not be labeled and sold as Honey. It may possibly be sold as a “natural sweetener with natural coloring”, but certainly not as Honey. Most everything else is removed by a very “efficient” filtering process, mainly concerned with generating clear honey, to entice the buyer. The other process which commercial honey undergoes is pasteurization, which heats and denatures everything in it that is susceptible to temperatures above 140°F. Chemicals obtained, in very small quantities from millions of flowers, from different plants, which bees visit in order to obtain nectar and pollen, and store in the colony as food. Naturally occurring beneficial chemicals found in very small quantities, but active in those very small quantities; therefore, their presence in honey is important, and we can only obtain them and receive the benefit, by consuming raw honey, or honey that is not heated above 110-120°F. The other reason to pasteurize “honey” is to retard the crystallization process that most honey undergoes, so that it remains in liquid form as long as possible so it does not crystallize on the store’s shelf. Mostly an aesthetic issue.
There are other aspects of concern from the “selling of honey”, one of increasing apprehension is the fact that purchasing honey from a “local source” becomes more and more important, but at the same time, more and more deceiving. As consumers we cannot rely and trust the agencies that are supposed to oversee the quality and safety of the food supply being brought into the USA and moved around for our eventual consumption. A lot of honey is being sold as local honey, when it is not! Significant quantities of bulk honey are being allowed into the US from other areas of the globe, packaged, labeled and sold as local honey, even when local may not be local, simply when out of state. On top of that, and an aspect that goes beyond the ethical issue, with increasing incidence, honey contains agro-chemicals and in some cases, others industrial chemicals, which should generate health concerns by consumers, as they are harmful to anyone ingests them, as well as to other elements and components of the ecosystem.
As consumers we need to “bee” on top of this subject, and on top of legislators and congress persons as they are more and more influenced by lobbying groups which benefit from the sale of honey, and other bee products, regardless of whether what is being said in the label is true or not, and on a more troubling note, whether it is safe to consume or not! And yes, it is very important that you procure and consume LOCAL RAW HONEY. Take the time and find out if this person or persons have bees and produce their own honey. Some may keep bees, but also purchase and re-sell honey – You find all sorts of people nowadays, it is our responsibility to watch out for our interests, the government is certainly not doing all it can (and should). As responsible consumers, we can help at many levels, by becoming more involved and better informed.
Why didn't "one of the nation's leading melissopalynologists" just analyze the honey for heavy metals and illegal antibiotics, since that was the primary concern in the first place?
Good point! I was wondering where they were going with the whole "pollen" thing.
not his area of expertise.. -_- Good point though.
Because there wasn't any in the samples
Then buy sample from China. Hahaha...
That was informative, why were we not made aware of this before now? What is the FDA doing that takes so long to notify us about potentially hazardous food products? Guess they are bought off by big business too like congress.
No offense but that why it sucks to live in cities. We get our honey from people who place the hives on our land throughout the summer. 2 huge boxes of it too! Keep loving on living the dream America... while I live mine.
This has nothing to do with living in the city. I keep bees in a big city.
Dear Hillbilly Redneck, don't make ignorant comments about the millions upon millions of people that love living in their respective cities. I can easily – and I do – drive right on down the local farmer's markets and buy organic honey, fruit, etc...
Your a smug one.
I have lived in big cities as well as extreme way out in the coutry middle of nowhere. I have never had an issue getting local honey. You just have to be willing to step out of the grocery store.
I live in a very rural area and it is difficult for us to get local grown anything. The farmer's markets in the neighboring large cities are far superior to anything my area has to offer.
Folks, it's easy, buy local products only.
Those damn Chinese! Now they're even messing with the birds and bees. Where will it stop!
It will stop at Uranus.
That's one weak-ass troll right there.
Turn in your crown, Grothnar.
Is that a moon or a hemroid?
yet another NAFTA milestone but what will come out of this?????? Nothing
Reports will be filed over and over again all conflicting and confusing results about what is Honey pollen content and how its processed. They will pass laws governing the amount of pollen required in Honey. Special interest groups and mass food production industry will use NAFTA as their battle cry and deem anyone who opposes NAFTA as raciest in the end they will buy off our elected leaders in order to change the verbiage of the law so they can import even more unregulated honey like substance from China.
Even if a new honey regulation bill is passed China will introduce another type of virus that will destroy even more US hives forceing the US to import even more from them
NAFTA = NORTH AMERICAN free trade agreement, what does that have to do with China? US does not have a FTA with China...
FACT: Honey is the only food on the planet that will NEVER go bad. Unless contaminated, it will keep for ever and ever!!
Interesting, have you personally tested it to it's full shelf-life? Everything breaks down at some point friend, even nuclear waste.
Others have tested this. Honey recovered from Egyptian tombs that is several thousand years old is edible and tasty, though heavily crystallized.
Grothnar, you motard. Honey removed from clay jars sealed in pyramids of Egypt, about 3000 years old, has been found to be completely edible.
IF China decides to stop trade with the USA....WalMart will go out of business...along with many other US companies...such as Loew's and Home Depot. 90% or more of WalMarts products are made outside the USA! We're almost totally dependent on products made out of the USA. Now that's frightening!
And IF China decides not to trade with the US, they'll go bankrupt. Who do you think is China's biggest importer?
And those countries are just as dependent - or more dependent - on us to buy their products. If international trade were to collapse, it's would be a lot easier for us to increase our manufacturing than for those countries to replace the lost markets.
Yeah. Those pesky regulations that keep food safe...and unnatural?
Nuke China
Dummy.
i agree....or they need a very bad natural disaster (how about an earthquake or an asteroid? maybe the aliens will start abducting them to do experiements)
Due to the unfortunate lack of education regulation, it appears you never learned reading and comprehension, when it would do you the most good.
Now that's a sensationalistic headline: "Most honey sold in U.S. grocery stores not worthy of its name"
So the article implies that much of the honey that's sold is "not worthy of its name" because it typically does not contain much pollen and therefore there's no way to know if the honey comes from, say, China, Inc., and therefore can be assumed to be tainted with unhealthful substances??? Oh brother.
there a recent discovery that china make cooking oil from industrial waste and using water from the sewer?
http://news.yahoo.com/china-detains-32-selling-cooking-oil-made-waste-055557391.html
They're worried about where the honey came from? In some countries, like Egypt, you can be quite certain you're not even getting pure honey, and that it has been heavily cut with corn syrup. Oh it'll say "pure honey" on the label, but I know corn syrup when I taste it, and of course this has been done for centuries in countries where there was no inspection or enforced regulation. So don't feel too bad that your honey has no pollen in it (from "deep within the flower"??? Uh no, it's right on the anthers on the bloom of the flower), I'd venture to say that most third world countries aren't even selling you pure honey, though they do often put a hunk of honeycomb inside to try to convince you of that - another rip-off because of course the honeycomb is not honey, and yet you've just paid for its volume in the jar as though it were honey.
How many times are you going to post this nonsense. See reply to your post at 8:50
It sounds like there's a lot of market opportunity in Egypt, if you can develop a trusted distribution chain for quality products. Of course, you have to be careful government "regulators" don't come in an enforce their "quality standards". What that'll amount to is politically connected businessmen will use the regulators to drive you out of business instead of beating you with better products/services/prices. Do you see how using the government to do your product selection for you is not all it's cracked up to be?
Pollen is the signature of all honey! In fact, if you eat honey made in your local region, and it has not been filtered so that the pollen is gone, most likely you will build immunity to the pollens in your area. Hence, you may have fewer pollen-related allergies. For centuries, before allergy drugs were created, honey was the “drug” of choice for solving spring and summer allergies. A spoonful a day was the way to keep allergies at bay. I still take a spoonful a day from honey made two blocks from my home. Honey is a perfect food and most healthy! (Yes, there are still perfect food items out there, like garlic.) Bacteria do not grow on honey which is why its shelf life is so long. By taking the pollen out of the honey, the honey is less safe, you can't tell where it comes from, and the more you tamper with it, the more unsafe it becomes. If you don't trust the stores, buy from local bee harvesters. They are all over the place, you just don’t know it. Better yet, become one. I hear it’s a great hobby and if you are a flower lover, it will help make your gardens beautiful too!
What? Walmart wasn't even mentioned in the Article!!!!
Neither was Apple!
Everything from Walmart already comes from China... I'm sure there honey is a part of that 1/3, duh!
I believe this article clearly makes the point that a lack of regulation causes this particular problem, reading comprehension FTW.
It doesn't make that point at all. The problem is that regulation is simply impossible due to filtering of honey, which removes pollen that would otherwise allow the origin of the honey to be identified. There is nothing illegal about this filtering – it is done because consumers prefer clear honey that doesn't crystallize. No amount of regulation can fix this particular problem simply because there's no evidence to base regulation upon.
this is why i buy local honey only
Local honey is the best. If you have allergies the pollen in local honey helps build up your immunity.
I lick flowers for my allergy/pollen building immunity.
I only buy local honey as well. In fact I buy raw honey. I doesn't have that pretty golden glow to it. But it is supposed to be better for you because the things that are good for you in honey are not filtered out at all.
Uhh....Ya kinda got that backwards, didn't ya???? Come on, Man........
YES!!!!
If anything ever happens to China we will have no clothes to wear, no food to eat or borrowed money to spend. Think about it!
We made due just fine before any Walmarts existed.
ok...true, but, put away your cell phone, throw out your tv, cook your own prepared food, use wood to heat your home...need I go on? and THEN make the suggestion that we did fine before wal-mart...
You had to make due? We used to just get due off the flowers.
You had flowers? We had to get due from the bees.
You had bees? We had to use wasps.
Um....dew?
White Anglo Saxon Protestants?
Wasps? We had to pollinate the flowers ourselves. Sometimes we had to plant the flowers first.
"Rick
If anything ever happens to China we will have no clothes to wear, no food to eat or borrowed money to spend. Think about it!"
Then we wouldn't have any debt, either!!
You want honey? Find a local beekeeper.
^This
I prefer "Swords into Plowshares" honey. Produced right here in New Haven.
Honey Gardens here in VT...yum!
"found that at least a third of all the honey consumed in the United States was likely smuggled from China and could be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals."
This is one of the scariest food statements I've read in a long time. Not just because such a thing is happening with honey, but also that it points to what might be frequent, if not common, common, if not standard, practices by the food industry.
I don't like constant crisis cries, but Americans should be very worried about this.
Exactly. And Rome continues to burn.
How many people have you heard of getting sick or having other negative effects from this supposedly bad honey? If there was even the slightest crisis they would have referenced the numbers in this article. The fact that they couldn't find any actual cases to throw in here suggests that it's not a problem at all.
Just wait a few years, makes one wonder about the 300% increase in things like autism and other developmentally disabled people. As for the heavy metals, again, cumulative, takes years to show up so by all means lets just ignore it and see what happens. Until then I'll just continue to get my honey from a local bee keeper, you, you do whatever you think is best.
Shockingly short-sighted, SomeEngineer. Of course nobody says, "I got sick from honey." Heavy metals take time to kill. We're talking about stuff like mercury, lead, aluminum and cadmium. We know that these heavy metals cause a wide array of disorders. Once these metals enter into the body, they cannot be expelled. We sit here and wonder why things like autism is on the rise. let's face it. China is poisoning us slowly over a long period of time. And the honey is just one delivery system.
Did Huntsman have anything to do with food imports when he was Ambassador to China?
Honey ain't nothing but bee sh-t.
you need a biology refresher.
try: "Honey ain't nothing but bee preserves and jams"
or: "Honey ain't nothing but bee pablum"
Actually it is bee puke... The worker bees eat the pollen, partially digest it, and then regurgitate it...
No, bees store nectar in their stomach & regurgitate it into the cells in the comb. Then bees fan their wings to evaporate a large portion of the water & cap it with wax when it is thick enough. It is concentrated flower nectar. Please...Read a book about these fascinating creatures.
It's bee spit moron
Hey! Lighten up. He/She was only off by a letter.
Just don't buy anything made in China. Then they will get a clue!
Manufactured in China, but often owned and run by US nationals or US corporations. You can't really blame the Chinese when US Corporations are exploiting labor and dodging health and safety regulations by building factories in China. While it is true that some of these corporations are actually owned and operated by Chinese, not all of them are.
I am not sure if your statement is correct. I do not think a foreign company can own a business in China. They can only sub-contract to them... And I believe that the Chinese government owns part of every company in China...
Not true hexdragon, they just have to follow Chinese regulations, and sometimes, China makes them change their name to make it look like a chinese company for propaganda purposes, like they did with some of the car companies.
China is huge and police are open to bribes. You can set up a factory, hire workers, manufacture and pack for a week or two, load trucks and escape with millions in goods without any government oversight at all. It's hard to find someone there, too: "He was about this high, black hair, and his name was Mr. Lee."
THE POINT is that consumers are being deceived into buying "honey" from China.
90% of everything is made in China my friend.
We have no choice.
Of course you have a choice, you are just too lazy to find stores that sell non-imported crap.
It is the same problem with cinnamon. The cinnamon available in most US supermarkets is a cousin of the real deal. It is called cassia and comes from China and Indonesia. Finding real cinnamon from Ceylon is almost impossible.
A melissopalynologist? Why didn't my high school guidance counselor ever mention that one as a possible career choice?
Look it up: it's an interesting field; as well as a mouthful to pronounce (which might explain a counselor's reluctance to mention it)...
Guys, the thing to take away here is that 'Melissa' means 'honeybee.' Good to know.
Our forefathers wanted small government. We need a smaller government now, less regulation,smaller taxes, less burden on big business. Vote republican for less service like the FDA food inspections. We are better off not knowing what we are eating or where it comes from, so we have more money to spend on stuff. If it's not regulated it's not smuggled. Thanks GOP!!
ooook. That makes no sense.
So youre ok with nobody double checking the quality of your food so you can save a few dollars? You can go stand over there with the other children and stay quiet.
I thought he was being sarcastic.
Uncle, don't you recognize sarcasm when you see it? Our first president was a funny man.
I believe this person was using sarcasm.
The problem with FDA is that the current administration transfered most of the FDA inspectors to Homeland Safety to inspect your underware when you board an airplane !!
He was being tongue-in-cheek. Vote GOP, and make sure you have plenty of guns and bullets. You will need them for the local vigilante group near where you live. No food inspections no problem! Eat some heavy metal, and die before you cost the tax payers any social security! Smaller government means less government intrusion into your private life; they simply sub-contract all the spying, police action and jails to private firms like Blackwater and these guys: http://www.cca.com/
When companies start governing instead of government we have this a fast track to fascism. It starts by creating fears for the people, whipping them to a frenzy and the blaming it on the liberals... Of course Rick Perry is the smartest man to lead us out of this mess. He knows all the government departments he wants to get rid of, if he can't remember which ones, the FDA will do.
Wow. Your lack of reason is astounding. If less regulation actually led to a reduction in undesirable behavior, why have laws at all? If we got rid of regulations (laws) that prohibit rape, murder, and theft, we can expect a reduction in rapes, murders, and robberies? Come on now. That is just moronic. We have laws and penalties because they deter undesirable behaviors. If we didn't believe that, then we'd get rid of them.
Oh brother (forehead smack), you guys have no sense of facetiousness.
Also due to small Govt, Bank sold Mortgage like hot dogs and see what damage it did.
Our local farmers' market offered cinnamon honey. It was a mouth or ga sm in a jar.
I remember a duty station in Florida, NASJAX. There was a little beekeeper who took us out to a spinning shed where she emptied the combs. She span the combs right then, opened the faucet & gave us a 5 pound jar of the best orange blossom honey I had ever tasted. Delicate & fruity. I got a smaller jar for the table, & made a batch of the best mead with that 5 pounder. Try blueberry in NJ & cranberry too, oh my! Honey is food for the soul.
First thing I thought of was the honey in all of my beer and cider that are fermenting now. I'm glad I usually get these things fresh at farmer's markets but I know a few pounds have come from the supermarket. Nothing like a Mercury aftertaste in that sweet apple cider :D
I only purchase local honey. The beekeeper is about 15 miles from my home. The product is super and it is raw honey. One thought is that using local honey can help people with allergies. You consume the pollen in the honey and therefore lessen the sensitivity to the pollens. I agree with the person who said we should eat locally produced foods. I am fortunate in that I live within a farming community. I get to purchase produce directly from the grower. I will always support the local businesses.
I completely agree. Buy local honey. I live south of Boston, MA and have at least 2 bee farms. There are numerous benefits to having a teaspoon of LOCAL honey a day. Most importantly, as you mentioned, is that it helps your body build up some immunity to pollens in your area.
Chain store bought stuff is cr@p.
Honey, this is NOT HONEY!?
Oh noes, no pollen in honey? Whatsoever shall we do?
If heavy metals or antibiotics are in it, those can be directly tested for. What the heck is the big deal?
Who's going to test it?
The same folks who allow an uninspected product to be smuggled and sold to U.S. consumers, I guess, Mr. president.
Talk about missing the point. The issue here is the scale of a whole industry misrepresenting its product, and numbnuts like you who don't know what the word "fraud" means. When Republicans are permissive on this garbage, it becomes a game to misrepresent more products more blatantly to keep costs down.
Personally, I buy honey. I don't buy pollen. I don't even buy honey with pollen. I don't really care that there's no pollen in it. What's the big deal. If you want to stop illegal imports of honey from China, how about taking a peek inside those shipping containers coming from China. If you're worried about heavy metals and illegal antibiotics, try testing the honey for those, instead of looking for pollen.
The writer of this article should be deaf from editorial laughter when this was submitted.
Removing pollen from honey does not make it "not honey" any more than filtering out the dead bee carcasses is. The supermarket shopper wants clear honey, so that is what they are given.
The issue is not whether the honey is honey or not but where it is sourced from. This is clearly the hippie agenda of some locavore wingnut who is upset that the honey might be imported rather than local. So long as the label does not say local, there is no fraud.
Heavy metals? Have you been licking your child's toys to have heavy metal on the brain? You would have to go out of your way to concentrate heavy metals in honey. Antibiotics? Many AMERICAN LOCAL honeygrowers medicate their hives. All american honeybees are exposed to a host of lovely chemicals on commercial crop fields (bees like to travel).
This is a non-story about a non-issue and akin to lamenting that milk is pasturized and saying that the government should step in and stop pasturization to make sure that any milk not grown next door will be dangerously old.
Take a bath, hippie.
Oak...your attitude is shocking and uninformed. Heavy metals take time to kill. We're talking about stuff like mercury, lead, aluminum and cadmium. We know that these heavy metals cause a wide array of disorders. Once these metals enter into the body, they cannot be expelled. So, tiny doses accumulate over time. This isn't something out of the hippy book, it is science fact. We sit here and wonder why things like autism is on the rise. Let's face it. China, and corporate interests in general, are poisoning us slowly over a long period of time. And the honey is just one delivery system out of thousands.
Darth Cheney – love the name!
I agree with "The issue here is the scale of a whole industry misrepresenting its product". The whole industry being the big guys right down to the little and LOCAL honey sellers! Not all of them, but most you will find if you do your homework on honey and what is really being sold, are about as bad as the big ones!
After selling direct for 4 years to consumers through many farmers markets and national retail chain store fronts, I have found about 98% of the consumers know nothing about honey – right down to even the very basic difference between raw and pasteurized. Because of this, the Whole Industry as taking full advantage of that ignorance.
If the Industry can get away with this, being that the Product has only ONE ingredient, or should have only one ingredient – honey, what are they getting away with on products that are made up of many ingredients?
And YANR you need to go take a nap!
Uh – honey is hyper-concentrated flower nectar (and a few other things, like bee spit). If there are high levels of heavy metals in the environment – which is a problem in China – they will appear in plants, including flowers, and will be heavily concentrated in honey made from those flowers. This isn't exactly rocket science.
I am a honey broker in Florida. I sell the worlds best honey and purchase by the barrel directly from the apiary. I know exactly where it comes from, who the bee keeper is and how they farm the honey. The point is if we purchased more of our food from our local American farmers we have a better chance of purchasing quality products for our family and in-turn supporting our own American farmers. Shop at a local farmers market if you want to know where your food comes from. Not only is the quality better and cheaper you will be supporting the guy who lives down the road NOT the person you don't know who lives faraway and doesn't care what our families consume.... cmayo ... greenplanamerica.com
I bought some brazilian pepper honey from a local market and it blew my frickin tastebuds! Mild, not cloyingly sweet like the clover honey can be, with a hint of pepperiness. Yum!
Try White Tupelo Honey... Its the best in the world... Its never processed (pasteurized), will not granulate and pollen counts run between 95 and 97 %.
I will buy local farmers honey from now on....I always thought if I bought unpasteurized I was okay, but i guess not. Thanks for the heads up. xo
Most honey you get in the grocery store is pasteurized and goes through a heating and filtering process. You need to look for RAW honey. That means is has not been pasteurized and filtered. I sell strictly raw honey. It makes a big difference in taste and doesn't loose the important vitamins and minerals that are naturally in honey.. !
If you're eating honey for the 'vitamins and minerals' you've got a lot more to worry about than pollen counts.
Why would you not be concerned about all attributes of of what you consume? We need essential vitamins and minerals to survive. I agree pollen count is a major concern, however they are degrading the entire product we are consuming.
Here is what RAW honey should consist of........ Average Carbohydrate composition – Dextrose 25.95%, Fructose (Levulose) 43.27%, Sucrose 1.21%, Maltose 7.97%, Higher sugars 1.1%. High in Levulose, low in Dextrose. Freedom from impurities.
Vitamins – thiamine, riboflavin, ascorbic acid, and nicotinic acid, all of which play vital roles in human nutrition.
Minerals – iron, copper, sodium, potassium, magnesium, manganese, calcium, and phosphorous. These elements are all essential to good nutrition.
Support American farmers instead? They are just as bad as the Chinese. If you don't believe that, then you've missed a lot of 'recalls'. It's all about the once mighty dollar.
@cmayo-Boss, what you're saying would make me all warm and fuzzy inside if it weren't for some good ole' boys peddling toxic eggs out of Minnesota, Washington state and Iowa, spoiled chicken out of Colorado and tainted beef out of Kansas. The truth of the matter is that the FDA needs to get off it's political-puppet duff concerning ALL aggie products. Otherwise, if I'm going to get sick off of what I eat anyway, I might as well buy it from where it doesn't cost me an arm and a leg.
The problem is we have no small farms anymore making it difficult to track contamination problems. When you purchase product: milk, grapes, cantaloup, meats, tomatoes, etc... You are purchasing it from a COOP of farms from all over. The processor puts their label on the product although they are not the grower or producer. We need to get back to our roots and support smaller local farms therefore cutting back on our tainted food supply. At least we could pinpoint problems quicker and prevent large outbreaks of contamination.....
Jorge, what a stupid fuking thing to say.
ROFL "stupid fuking??" What's "stupid fuking???" Something yo' momma with yo' daddy did back in the day to have a pride and joy like you? (I'm not offended, it's just that this cutting up is funny as hell).
Hahaha! Just messing with ya. I'm bored and just wanted to see if I could get you to respond.
Once again, the Republicans have lauded the outsourcing as beneficial to their fellow Americans. They openly and agressively posture to reduce regulations and regulators. The contention being industry can self regulate. This article is hardly news, these criminals have been actively destroying american businesses for 30 years or more. Why does no one go to jail?
And, once again, idiots like Watcher have to drag politics into a story that never mentions anything about government, politics, nor political beliefs. Watcher, go back under your bed and just stay hidden so the big bad germs won't find you.
Everything is political, even honey.
Because they pass the laws that are pretty much written by business lobbys. Business as usual while the planet goes to cr ap and the American middle class, what's left of it, continues to erode. If we are lucky, Perry will buy the presidency and we can all settle into 8.00/hour jobs with big box retailers.
Please check the NAFTA law and see which president signed it, you may be very surprised!
Everybody knows who signed it. That's old news and irrelevent. It is political and we need a president who can convince people that government needs "to do things that people can't do for themselves", which is what Clinton said, like food inspections and regulation of imported products. This president needs to show leadership by convincing us to spend money for these services. The GOP/teapartiers won't do it.
The current administration transferred FDA inspectors to HomeLand Security to inspect your underware when you board an airplane instead of inspecting agricultural related things.
It's made of ... People!!
Your thinking of "Soylent Green".
Noooooo. It's made BY beeple!
If I remember correctly Pollen is just the package that carries the plant’s sperm.
You are correct sir!
KFC no longer serves honey packets. It now says "honey sauce" and the main 1st ingredient is High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).
This actually makes KFC better than the products criticized here – at least they're not misrepresenting the product.
Don't be fooled by Trader Joes, about 5 years ago they were busted and taken to court for selling mis-graded maple syrup and mis-graded olive oil. They sell cheap because they buy low quality, cheap produce and pass it off as something "better" and that includes their Chinese honey.
Try again sir, NO FOOD products sold at Trader Joe's comes from China. Do your homework before posting next time.
@Gorfolio Gorf, how about you having done some homework and break this bad news to us instead of the media. If not, stop diluting the point.
Not anymore. After quality issue's they decided to stop selling Chinese crap. Only after complaints from costumers and bad publicity.
What, you expect the gov to pas legislation to protect the local little guys and keep out the big corporate imported garbage from China? Why would they start now?
Even less chance with all the Tea Party and Republicans calling for no regulations or self regulations
I have already told at previous threads like this; China is the biggest cancer in the world nowadays and its tentacles are spreading everywhere, especially in the US, its main goal for destruction. We have to face the situation. China will do anything to destabilize the foundations of the American economy. And we continue borrowing their money at the same proportion we breathe our air. Gradually, we are becoming their slaves. They flood our stores with their cheap and low quality products and sadly we blindly buy them, no matter if they are affecting our health and safety. Is the "Made in America" headed for extinction? I hope not. We are 100% responsible for our situation. Our greed reached levels never seen before and we will pay a price. Let's change our way of living while we can. Otherwise, it will bury us alive.
Where did you get your information that China has the highest cancer rate, from your friend who works in the shoe store? According to World Cancer Research Fund Internationald the highest is Denmark then Ireland, Australia, New Zealand Belgium, France, and the US.
People like you leave dumb comments on the internet then do not use the internet to verify their information.
Hey, if it is on the internets, it must be true, right?
He didn't say "highest cancer RATE in the world"
...he was calling China a cancer ITSELF.
Metaphors... typically covered in 9th grade English class.
Did you thoroughly read his comments? He didn't say China HAS the highest cancer rate, he said China IS a cancer spreading out. People like you post dumb retorts before fully comprehending what was said.
much like 711's stupidity is a cancer...
Try a little reading comprehension. The statement made was that China is the biggest cancer on the planet, not that they have the highest cancer rate. 2 totally different meanings.
Please read before posting. The comment is that China is a cancer, not has a high rate of cancer. China is doing to the world what the US did for years, screwing everyone else for a buck. I however dont' really want my government telling me what I can eat. Set regulations regarding labels so we can see the origins of our food, but let me make a choice if I want cheap Chinese honey, or more expensive local honey. I personally prefer local, but that is my choice.
711, you are so smart that the skill of reading must be below you. The listing to which you refer does not mention cancer rate, but rather that China is a Cancer. With which I must agree. But thanks anyway for the unrelated cancer rates.
LMAO Way to completely misread his China/cancer sentence. Idiot.
711, allow me to be clear with you. When I say that China is the biggest cancer in the world nowadays, I am referring metaphorically that the biggest cancer in the world today is called China. At no time I did mention anything about the incidence of cancer among the nations. Anyway, thanks for the information presented. One more thing, before making any wrong judgment, try to improve the interpretation of the information that you read.
I remember when the snake-oil salesmen and horse traders we had in public office and industry all over the country told us to duck and cover when we asked them why the hell we were embroiled in skullduggery and carnage aggression in South America and Southeast Asia during the '50s, '60s and early '70s. If you asked too hard you were called a subversive and an un-American dirty hippie. Socialist states in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America were considered the Devil's Lair, and Chairman Mao was considered the Devil Himself. Guess what? The inheritors of power from those "fine columns of society" have kowtowed to, struck deals behind our back with and sold us out lock, stock and barrel to the house of that very same "Devil" they so obdurately brainwashed us to revile. The term "duplicitous mendacity" comes to mind, perhaps we have obediently ducked and covered too much.
That sounds really familiar – about like what they're calling the Occupy Wall Street (and everywhere-else-street) – to hear many tell it, they are dirty, hippie, commie, socialist, un-American, traitorous malcontents. In reality, all they want is to get our government out of the pockets of the corporations and their lobbyists so things like un-honeylike honey won't be foisted off on the American consumer. Of course, everyone knows the FDA has absolutey no teeth – all it can really do is bark when something is not right in terms of food and/or drugs – what are those latest drugs showing up in class action suits? What we really need is a pit-bull loyal only to it's owner – and that's not the government, not the corporations – it's the American people.
I sell raw honey for a local Amish beekeeper at our local farmers markets and retail stores. I have had this honey tested by Michigan State University. The results showed that is some of the best produced in the USA and that it was 100 % from the area of the beekeeper. MSU's test even showed the breakdown % of the types of plants pollinated to produce it! I have also found from talking to our local beekeepers that due to the increase in demand for pure honey and the decrease of honey production due to the colony collapses that they can’t meet the demand so most of them are mixing their honey with other honeys and still labeling it “Pure Michigan Honey” and 100% their own!! This makes me sick. One of Michigan’s largest producers of honey told me that only 8% to 10% of the honey in his jar was actually his. The rest he brings in tankers from across the county. He said the honey in those tankers is only 10%-12% from the farm he buys from. The rest of the honey in the tankers is purchase from a farm from a state in the Midwest and only a small % of that honey is from that farm who in-turn buys from another farm. He said at that point he doesn’t know where the honey trail of this honey continues or where it even starts from. But… he still has it on the shelf labeled “100% Pure Michigan Honey”. I also know of many beekeepers at the farmers markets that tell their consumer that their honey is only their own than turn and snicker after purchase because the consumer feel for that fact and knew so little about honey. So, even if you are buying your honey from a local source twist their arm to make sure it is 100% produced by bees that they own from their area! Most think of their OWN honey as their OWN honey because they OWN IT, not because THEIR bees produced it! Also check to see if they are feeding their bees in the winter and what are they feeding them. Ask to if they are gravity filtering or spinning their honey out of the combs. These facts also make a difference in the quality of the honey. Once you start learning about honey and the processes of producing it for market it does become a saddening story. By the way, this same beekeeper that I spoke of above transports his bees to pollinate in California during the winter months (this by the way weakens the bee’s immune system) and still calls the honey they produce there “Michigan Honey”. His logic: “They are Michigan bees so they are making Michigan honey”. If you want to learn more about honey go to http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/. This site is accurate and gives more than enough info on honey. Also watch the bee dance on this site-it will blow your mind! Another myth, “Local honey”… it is not the distance from your residence that makes “local” honey beneficial to allergies, it is if the bees are pollinating plants that are local to your area that makes the difference. Let’s say you live in Michigan and the honey you are consuming is from Colorado, as long as the bee in Colorado pollinated from a plant that is also local to your area than you will get the same benefits as if the bee pollinated right from your back yard – as long as they honey is raw (approximately not heated above 118 degrees).
So much for keeping it brief.
Oh, honey! Can't read long sentences?
Fascinating reading, and many thanks!
Agreed!
Most Intelligent Comment I've Read So Far.
Paragraphs and chapters. Please.
It's still just fructose/dextrose/water with a bunch of contaminants in it. IT'S NOT MAGIC
fantastic! thanks for the info.
Something else to place a scare in your morning......what will they think of next?
Bad Bee, Bad Bee whatcha gonna do....whatcha gonna do when they come for you!
LOL!! Do they drive around in beetles catching stink bugs?
The pollen is removed because it can cause severe alergic reactions, not to hide the source. Stores are playing it safe. That's all. The fact that some gov nerd can't track it's source is not conspiracy theory. Who cares. Want pollen.. go get it. Kinda like orange juice with or without the pulp.
Actually, the pollen in honey can act to help your body build up immunity to pollens in the air. The medical benefits of honey can be traced back to the Egyptians as early as 2600 B.C.
That's iffy to say the least. It can maybe help some people to build tolerances, but then you'd probably want honey more likely to be local anyway.
Have you ever heard of food warning labels? How about homeopathic effect? It's what makes you buff after you work out hard, helps vaccines block you from bugs and made Roman big-shots immune from certain poisons in Caesar's day.
I dated a girl once who was a vegan and pro-choice only in America can people be so dumb and still survive.
Wow, what does it say about you that you dated someone you think is so dumb? Desperate?
That's the power of pussoi!
Sometimes, you can't really gauge someone's intelligence until you've known them for a while. It doesn't become a reflection on you until you have come to the conclusion that they lack intelligence, are foolish, etc., but stay with them anyway.
Huh?
What does this have to do with honey?
Likely a darn Koch brother troll trying to make some vague reactionary joke. Sad really to see the GOP, a one progressive force in America, lead by such men.
Being vegan is dumb?
So she thinks it's okay to kill babies of your own species, but you can't drink milk? yeah, crazy!
Fortunately, making inane, semi-literate posts is a universal phenomenon...
phenomenon? I would have said "epidemic" LOL!
I once read a post about a guy who dated a girl who thought she was too stupid to live, yet complained about her being pro-choice.
I once dated a girl that was a meat-eater and an abstinence freak, only in America can somebody be so useless...
I am so glad that they finally put out an article like this. I have been eating locally grown honey to keep me from getting symptoms of allergies for the last few years. Locally grown honey is the rea stuff, and it tastes different and better than regular commercial honey. Also, eating locally grown honey will prevent against eating foreign honey with questionable ingredients. I live near a Whole Foods store with a bunch of different honey choices that are clearly marked as locally grown. At the grocery store, I have to read where it was manufactured before determining that it is locally grown. The three grocery stores near me carry the same locally grown honey in a big jar. That one also tastes good and fights against my allergies, but it's just one in comparison to the many other commericial honies that they offer. In this life, even the honey we buy can't be trusted.
Wow, I never expected a story like this. This is honey, one of the most natural sources of food I thought we still had in this world. If you can't trust this, what can you trust? The food stocked on the shelves in this country is crap and garbage. I think the food at places like Trader Joe's is questionable to a degree. Eating paint chips is now probably safer and healthier than what you buy at the local supermarket.
So what is wrong with Trader Joes??? It's very high quality food from what I can tell and this article validates that.
Ew! I'm buying mine from the Farmer's Market from now on, the local one allows food stamps, I'll splurge if it means I'm supporting local.
In other news, the water you are drinking...
Oh bother!
You win
We can have the government measure the flow rates of Ketchup, but they cannot rate the quality of honey?
I buy a nationally popular brand of honey. I like it and it has never made me sick. The main point in this thread for me, however, is the questionable conduct of the FDA. Over and over they fail to act in the interests of the people, both in areas of safety and in policing the horrific overpricing of prescription drugs. The FDA needs to be the subject of a major investigation, and it is quite possible that some members of the agency belong in prison.
I have no concerns about my honey. I buy it a local farmers market and comes from one county over. They do not import from China or anywhere else. Perhaps I'll take a drive this weekend and say hello. It has always been my understanding that local honey is best especially if you have certain allergies. It works best with your immune system. Also, honey never goes bad, ever (at least not real honey). So if it takes me a couple years to get through a jar, it's all good.
Most of the "honey" sold in our local farmers market is the garbage from China. It is mostly high fructos corn syrup and doesn't have the taste of local honey as the lable implies. It's best to buy from the bee keeper personally....
I believe them to be honest, but I will take your warning :) The name and address is on the label, one county over. Little road trip would put my mind at ease for sure. I trust the result will be positive, but I'm also prepared for the negative. We have plenty of flowers & bees around here (just on their own), so....
Just another example of the FDAs failure to protect the American consumer.
One of the original reasons the FDA was formed and some of its initial legislation was to regulate the sale of only "pure" honey. If they can't do that then you have to wonder if anything is safe.
Bob: I just did a brief run at the Wikipedia history of the FDA, and didn't see any specific mention of honey. Do you have any links I might follow to elaborate upon your mention of the FDA-honey rationale?
If it isn't honey what is it?????????????????
Sugar goop made up of industrial waste. :o)
It probably is honey sort of. Bees make honey from pollen. They fly miles from their hive to gather the stuff and it is the pollen (which is a healthy food in its own right) which makes the honey healthy and delicious.
Bees can also make honey from sugar or corn syrup. It will look like honey and it will smell and taste similar to honey but it lacks the pollen. I suppose you could lock bees in a warehouse and just feed them corn syrup. You would probably have to medicate them as well to keep them alive. I am not sure if they would live as long or if the honey would have to be processed some other way to look and taste the same but that would be my guess as to how they do it.
Boiled Sugar!!!!!!!!!!!
Trusting the FDA is like whipping your butt with wet toilet paper?. The leadership of the FDA comes from GMO industry.
ok just stop with the conspiracy theories. Between you and the OWS people and the Tea Party I'm getting sick of the crazies
That's what you get from whipping instead of wiping...
A year ago we were hauling 25K loads of drums, a receiver at the dock said they were reselling to Walmart, relabel/package. The initial drums were Indonesia origin. Someone from our company contacted customs, a drum was supposed to be confinscated in Chicago to be tested. Because of embargos on honey from China it is shipped to another country then brought over. They then test the honey and can tell exactly where it's from by the particles. The FDA and State health departments don't get involved. Ever since finding that out, and even before I have bought
honey from local apiaries. We of course never found out anything, except we were no longer bringing in trk loads of honey.
Just buy the honey from a local country shop....mmmmm honey...so....good.
some of us actually live in cities
I keep bees in the city. So do others and cities like Chicago are keeping them on public building roofs.
Love your glass work!
We got some in Asheville NC from a place called Tupelo Honey (a restaurant). Great stuff and it doesn't crystalize.
Expert honey tasters actually look for crystallized honey, they prefer that form. Crystallized honey has an interesting texture and it doesn't lose any of its taste or nutritious value.
Now in days it's not just honey that's fake it's pretty much everything, tablet salt, sugar, juices and a bunch of other things. Buying food has become the same way as buying clothes, it all depends where you buy it at. Whole foods and trader joes are pricey but even then their stores are packed with people buying cause they know they're buying the real deal.
What are they selling in place of table salt? Salt is one of the most common and cheapest substances on the planet.
Maybe it's iodized sea salt from the coast of Japan, near the radioactivity....... (radioactive Iodine)
Trader Joe's is owned and operated by ALDI. Just try to find one item that isn't hyper processed in that joint and then go back and take a closer look at TJ's. Veneer.
If I don't buy directly from a local producer(5 miles) I buy at the local chain store which carries a local producers honey(25 miles).
And that is why I get my honey from my brother-in-law, who has his own hives and makes his own honey. It tastes soooo much better than anything I ever bought in the store.
"makes his own honey"....your brother-in-law is a bee?
Yes. And you should see the size of his stinger.
So often, the key to the true import of a story is easily visible, but so often ignored.
Why the emphasis on pollen free honey? Why the significance applied to lack of pollen in honey? Pollen free honey means that it might have some from other than "legitimate and safe sources" and might have "illegal antibiotics and heavy metals"? Companies can put antibiotics in honey with pollen! They can put heavy metals in honey with pollen! Why the emphasis on whether the honey has pollen? Why didn't the "leading melissopalynologist", whose name was suspiciously never mentioned, test for the presence of "illegal antibiotics" and "heavy metals" directly? Why the dance around the honey not having pollen?
Not that the issue of pollen missing from honey isn't significant. But it's not for the reason that the unnamed "expert" we are supposed to trust claims.
In fact, contrary to what many insist, mild exposure to various allergens at an early stage don't trigger reactions, but can actually build up resistance to them. The lack of pollen in various honeys can be the reason so abnormally many these days are complaining of allergic reactions to things that were never such problems before, like peanuts and milk. Yes, honey without pollen can be a serious issue, but it should be considered why.
Why is it when there is a mention of corrupt trade we always read that China is involved? And why do our politicians apparently favor China's interests over our own? Oh yeah...they're following the money!
Pretty simple reason really, American consumers as a whole are to lazy and couldn't be bothered. Big business knows and takes absolute advantage of this fact. Look around and you will see!
American Union honeybees demand $65/hr with full medical and early retirements. They just aren't competitive anymore.
All you honey snobs probably complain about HFCS but the saccharide distribution is almost identical. So the next time you put a spoonful of that in your coffee remember it's full of bee whiz, fermentation byproducts such as acetaldehyde and other chemicals. It SUGAR WATER plain and simple, not magic.
bee puke..mmmmmmmmmmm
Obviously you've never really tasted the real deal. I had an uncle who had many hives, handled his hives without any shielding or suit - only smoke. The honey was out of this world - one of my fondest childhood memories was working with him around the hives and harvesting the honey.
As a former amateur bee keeper and chemist for the darker things I can tell you honey is not just sugar water. No bee whiz BTW. Bees only crap outside the hive. But it does pick up various enzymes from the bee. Evidence is that they are good for you. Also... the bees are bringing back various substances from inside the many flowers they visit. Don't know the relevance but I remember seeing Bureau of Labor statistics many years ago listing the average lifespan of various occupations. Bee Keepers and orchestra conductors were at the top of the list. You figure.
Correlation is not causation.
My point chemist is that no body can prove the health effects they claim. In fact, there are strong recommendations not to feed honey to infants or very young children because of some of the side reaction chemicals in it. While the water evaporates from the "nectar" is has a low enough osmotic pressure to for microbial action. The microbes die due to the high osmotic pressure from the dextrose and fructose in the high concentration finished honey but the microbes by products are still in there. If seen the GC's and HPLC's showing them. As a chemist, I assume you know what a GC and a HPLC are.
Remember when you could buy honey with the honeycomb still in it....the real deal!
Yep, just like 55% HFCS only it's full of junk whereas HFCS is 99.9999% sugars and water.
Mr. Dextrose, are you in fact stating that there is Nothing that is Good for the human body in REAL Honey. Nothing whatsoever?
Mrdextrose is right. high fructose corn syrup is "purer" - Real honey is not pure sugar, because it includes about a dozen vitamins and minerals, like B1, B2, C, potassium, and calcium; it also has scientifically proven antibacterial properties. On the other hand, high fructose corn syrup is pure enough to cause diabetes faster. Corn syrup is also environmentally destructive, because it requires tens of thousands of gallons in fertilizers and pesticides - honey is produced better without agricultural chemicals, because those chemicals can kill bees.
But they ARE both mostly made of sugar. Consume honey in moderation.
Try beepurehoney on the web they still make it
I remembered, and since i got bees i offer it to others who remember. Takes a little more time and bee involvement since i dont use machine made foundation...there's usually one beekeeper in every county bee club who produces them.
The U.S. Food and Drug controls the standards for honey in the U.S. State Health Department regulations conrol the standards for honey packaged in each state. This article is more about those controls (or lack of them ) than about the companies that produce honey , which seem to be very many that didn't pass the polen test. This of course is assuming those tests are accurate and in accordance with FDA standards.
The US Government has allowed honey to be imported from China. My freinds we have been deceived by Washington DC one more time. Our Government should be abolished since it is so corrupt in everything of our lives. It is time for a revoluiton.
The best source of honey is from local farmers markets.
If you want real honey, buy from a beekeeper or from a grocer who you know is selling local or quality regional honey. It is a fact that honey sold in supermarkets is not accurately labeled as to country of origin, because despite efforts to change the rules, no such labeling is required in the US - check it out, no labeling. So, you have no idea where honey comes from unless you're sure and trust the beekeepers or local grocer. There's also "honey blend" products, which contain a mixture of honey (maybe) and high fructose corn syrup (mostly). Sadly, beekeepers in the US have known about this and argued against it for many years. But beekeepers aren't taken seriously because our industry relatively small from an overall monetary standpoint (compared, for example, to the beef industry).
Remember just a few months ago when the FDA got complete powers over the USDA and how nearly every politician said that this would stop food poisoning?
Now the FDA has power to stop you, or force you do pay a licensing fee for your own personal Garden yet, food continues to be tainted. The UNITED SUCKERS OF AMERICA.
You do realize that you are insane, don't you?
@coffeenerd " what I realize is that you had nothing logical to say, so you just yelped out some mindless insult because you're to stupid to to say anything logical. Only a truly brainwashed idiot would call the truth insanity.
FDA Raids Amish Famer for selling milk OMG the HUMANITY!
http://thebovine.wordpress.com/2011/06/14/fda-takes-heat-over-controversial-raid-on-amish-raw-milk-farmer-dan-allgyer/
"The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into law by President Obama on January 4th, 2011. It aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus of federal regulators from responding to contamination to preventing it" There it is now get your head out of your arse and wake up.
http://www.fda.gov/food/foodsafety/fsma/default.htm
@coffeenerd – he isn't all that off base. I've recently read up on what he is alluding to and it is scary. Maybe not so bad to begin with, but give them an inch and they do take a mile. Big brother all the way. Wish I could remember what it was called to point you in the right direction so you could see for yourself.
I completely agree! We have a store nearby called The Market that features "Really Local" produce, meat, dairy, and even honey and molasses! "Really Local" means within a 35 mile radius of the store. How's that for sustainable? Yes, it's more expensive. But frankly, a teaspoon of real honey has the flavor of 2 tablespoons of the teddy bear brand!
I grew up in the honey trade – my father's a beekeeper. A note abotu the High fructose Corn Syrup: it doesn't have to be injected commercially; it can be injected naturally! All you have to do is park an 18 wheeler trailer next to your bee yard and the bees will take the cornsyrup and put it right into the hives for you as honey. Looks, tastes, feels like honey; mostly corn syrup.
All this means that it's missing the pollen content of good natural honey, and it is the pollen which gives it that kick not found in honey alone. Look up the beneifts of Bee Pollen, you may be in for a ride. I know that for myself, I occasionally experience bouts of allergies. A single tablespoon of beepollen – preferabbly local and under 4-5 years old – is all I need for the rest of the year, quite literally. I have felt the effect in under a minute – one last lugie and my sinuses clear... But take caution if you've never tried it, you may have an adverse reaction. al the same, it's a lot better for you than a concoction of pharmaceuticals...
I had -real- honey from Yemen once. I haven't bought mass produced honey since. There's simply no comparison.
I wonder what's that like – surely awesome. The last real honey I had was twenty years ago as a child. Now most of my honey consumption falls into the plastic bear category.
The honey inside might suck, but those empty bear bottles sure make a great bong! And after a few hits who gives a crap about honey anymore!
try it on your cheetos when you get the munchies
In our country, PH, I am hesitant to buy honey nowadays because of what happened in the past.
I bought a bottle of "pure" honey from a store. Then after tasting it, I realized that it tastes more of a melted sugar than honey. Seems like a scam to me.
Stupid me thinking I was buying real honey. Using it instead of sugar and now I find out its nothing but fructose. Nothing like sleek honey corporations. And, now the conspirators aim at China. Who do think owns Congress, FDA, FCC, FAA?
China owns the US, we been bought out. China doesn't have to go to war with us, they just need to foreclose. Just remember when you complain about congress, you elected them year after year. The political leadership of this country does nothing and is a mirror of those who elected them!
I recently purchased a jar of honey from a local high-end market. The honey was advertised as locally produced (in the neighboring state of Wisconsin). When I opened it , I found a bee floating on the top of the honey, so I am pretty sure this honey was not filtered! I removed the bee and used the honey, it was delicious.
Are you sure it was bee floating and doing the backstroke?
Maybe it was a bee from China and it died from all the heavy metals discussed in the article :p I like you're hypothesis better though.
The chinese put one bee in every jar of honey. didn't you know that?
Yeah, sorta like the worm in the bottle of mescal.
Kinda like pork and beans..99.9% beans , .1% pork.
Our city is really strict about the farmers market and the quality of the honey is phenomenal. I'm like pooh bear with it. Many Americans unfortunately don't have farmers markets, whole foods or trader joes near their homes. Those of us who do are spoiled. They are stuck with the cheap grocers. Think about how often they see free range eggs, milk without antibiotics, organic fruit and veggies let alone real honey. It's sad.
Also I normally don't plug businesses BUT anyone who goes to the farmers markets around LA, try out Bill's Bees Honey and Soledad Goat cheese. They run a goat rescue and make cheese that will knock your sock off.
Most people can't afford the cost of shopping at places like that.
And just that point – cost – brings us back full circle to why so many products have been out-sourced...
Trader Joes is no Whole Foods – it's an ALDI subsidiary.
Barium – Strontium – Aluminum! Oh my! Those heavy metals are nasty to the body! Stop buying from China!! First the drywall, then dog food and kid's apple drinks – and now honey. Chinese are gonna kill us all!
Don't forget about the infant formula that sickened or killed many chinese babies.
That's the plan...consumed to death.
Actually it is not China that is killing us, it's US big business selling to fools.
You mean "illicit" in the last sentence.
We are small time beekeepers and in a good year we have honey to share....we process it by hand and give it away to our friends. Of course WE think it is the best tasting honey there is, but EVEYONE we give it to tells us it's the best honey they have ever had. I think now I know why.
I went to Scotland two years ago. They use "real" honey in a lot of foods and have it available at breakfast. Let me tell you, it looked and tasted MUCH different from the stuff we see in grocerie store chains here, now I know why. I would go for ths stuff at Trader Joe's.
So what's the name of the real stuff?
Dennis, you're always better off purchasing honey from local bee keepers or apiaries. You can look them up. If there's nothing local nearby you can purchase organic natural honey from PCC, Wholefoods, Trader Joe's or from the organics section of your grocery store. Look for raw unprocessed honey and read the labels carefully.
Yeah, nothing like another trip in the car to get 1 bottle of Honey ... just dont eat honey anymore.
Honey.
Chinese "white honey" isn't even honey. It's lactose and corn syrup. That's the "honey" thats put in many baked goods, even some sold by US companies, and who knows how much ends up getting bottled and sold as "honey".
This is an example of exactly why we need government regulations, sometimes. I don't want to be eating a honey glaze pastry thinking its high quality honey – and its actually some lactose derived Chinese byproduct. That's what is going on today.
Gawd that is so gross. The gall of some of these jerks at the FDA just makes me seethe.
Why would we need more regulations? If we would enforce the laws that were established long ago then we wouldn't need anymore laws. Marketing a product under a different name is FRAUD we need to enforce contracts, property rights, and protect from fraud not much more. Doing so solves many of the problems that you say calls for more regulation. Who comes in and writes these regulations? People who don't give a sh** about the little guy, in this case the beekeepers will get the crap end of the stick.
But there are no regulations or laws regarding pollen in honey. If you read the article, you would know that without pollen you can't determine where the honey comes from. Ergo, the need for regulations regarding pollen in honey.
It's sort of on-topic, but I went to WalMart (not my fav grocery store) for some maple syrup. They didn't have real. All the fake stuff. A huge, super-store and no real syrup. So yeah, I can see 'white honey'....just give it a name and people will buy it, no matter what it's made of.
another fine example of unregulated capitalism at work
who says the free market will govern itself? You are naive and stupid if you think the free market cares about the well-being of its consumers.
So tragically true.
Example of why many regulations achieve the opposite effect: Let's say a city has huge increase in murder rate. The bureaucrats decide to make every household fill out a form on a weekly basis stating that there are no murderers in the household. Sound stupid? But that is how many regulations work. Money spent processing paperwork instead hiring people to ENFORCE the regulations in place. It's easier for the politicians to declare they did something.
Currently I've seen this one guy on TV selling a book promising that in it are the secrets to curing cancer, diabetes, weight gain and hair loss! Why is this possible? There are regulations. No enforcement.
Regulations AND enforcement. Two separate things, as you stated. Everyone is up in arms about the phantom of regulation.. but not saying one dang thing about the -enforcement- side of it. If the penalties and enforcements were stronger, then the regulations would work properly. Weak penalties and lax enforcement breed violations, and encourage violations as 'part of doing business'.
Anyone who thinks corporations can be left to govern/police/regulate themselves is an absolute idiot. Corporations go out of their way to save 0.001% profit in any way imaginable.
Buy two 8oz containers of honey a year and I dont care if it dripped outta Mao Say Tougues nostrils.
It is truly criminal that this is allowed in this country... Why cant we, the people who love to slather ourselves with REAL Honey before we don our fully enclosed latex body suits for a night of fun be able to enjoy ourselves without running the risk of extreme chaffing due to a substandard product..... Back to Motor Oil Lubricants for me.....
seriously. why can't they just test for antibiotics and heavy metals instead? that's easy enough, no?
they don't and instead sputter on about pollen because it's just trade protectionism. let the chinese export to the US but test for contaminants and label it "product of china" so people can choose local if they want to.
Easy enough to take it a step further and analyze glucose, fructose, lactose, glycerin.
With that mentality, why not buy the best, highest quality stuff you can get your hands on. I have more honey than I know what to do with because I buy it at a lot of road sides bee keepers and it all tastes different. I haven' had a "Plastic Bear" honey in years.
i've had all sorts of honey, including roated honeycomb in laos. and some of it is good and different, but really none of it tastes so different that i'd go out of my way to pay premium for local "artisan" stuff.
i like real maple (though again, straight from the farm in vermont/new york really isn't better than the stuff at target/walmart) so i won't buy the imitation pancake syrup, but honey, the plastic bear will do as will any other bulk stuff.
humm, my local bee keepers use the plastic bears (glass too of course). I don't buy the stores, I try to only buy local as I have allergies and local honey is supposed to help desensitize to help with seasonal allergies.
Amanda, you are the most desired of big business, to incontinent to care. The same reason you see so many people including young children with asses two axe handles wide!
You think the honey problem is bad? Have you all read what's in the bottles of what you think is "maple syrup"? Thanks, but I'll pay the premium for the real stuff on both products.
Can't stand the taste of maple-flavored corn syrup that people put on pancakes. Real thing, please. Same with honey. Store honey is so flat and flavorless compared to locally bought jars.
Yeah, it says 100% Maple Syrup. Reading labels is cool!
Pollen in honey can identify potentially harmful flowers: a few with a short flowering season, such as rhodedendron, are poisonous, and make poisonous honey. It won't kill the bees, but it is harmful to humans, and if the pollen is filtered out, nobody knows. Bee keepers take honey from those dangerous seasons and only use it to feed the bees in winter, not to feed humans. Heavy metals and antibiotics are serious concerns; cancer is no joke, and is more costly than war.
reading the title I thought they were going to tell something like the honey sold in super market is all corn syrup..typical CNN titling for capturing reader's attention.
You have apparently misread the article. The implication is that the reason the pollen is filtered out is NOT to purify the honey but to hide it's origin. As we have seen, many products from China have been adulterated and filtering the honey would make it impossible to determine it's origin.
Also, I agree that people will buy any crap that's cheaper but companies still have a responsibility to provide an unadulterated safe product. I only but honey from local producers.
Local honey has also been found to protect against allergies. It should be a treat; don't use much, but enjoy the good stuff.
We need laws that require labeling on products that show where they were produced and shipped from... so consumers can make choices.
Actually, that is the law. Buy almost anything made outside the USA and it must state so on teh label. Every piece of clothing must be so labeled, as one example. Same applies to food, though there is some leeway. For example, a bottle of olive oil can be made of olives from multiple countries, but it still must be labeled as such, like "Product of Italy, Spain, Greece, and/or Israel."
Deregulate the honey!
...Oops.
"elicit honey"
The word is illicit, not elicit. Unbelievable.
The previous sentence is almost as bad: "The lack of regulation is what enables potentially unsafe honey is able to make its way into the country . . . " Huh?
Ta all ya gramma checka's...illicit this...please find something better to do with your lives than spend time looking for grammatical errors in news reports and then comment.... to some how show that you might possibly know something / more than others....freaking losers
luh mao!
It's people like you that allow the dumbing down of this once great country to continue unchecked, bob. How horrible of us to expect these online articles to be edited for proper spelling and grammar. Not to mention government forms, books, magazines, etc. It's an epidemic of laziness and zero accountability and the reason it flourishes is because most people feel as you do. Truly sad.
Educated people don't "look for" grammar mistakes. We just notice them when they hinder our efforts at reading what is written. Communication is important and proper grammar contributes to the readability of a passage.
bob – go change the oil in my car and keep off the internets.
I'm with you, Bob, if you're talking about punctuation going inside or outside the quotation marks. But "illicit" vs "elicit" is in a whole different league. They are different words with different meanings. When you wordsmith (or editing writers' stories) for a living you had better not be making that error very often.
Oh, please!
I'm a grown, educated adult. I'm embarrassed FOR other (presumably educated) adults who write like fifth-graders.
Especially if they're getting PAID for it.
No freaking excuses. No ENABLING.
Thanks bob for making that comment. I get so tired of all of those darn spell checkers. Isn't the poor honey article scary enough? We do not care as long as they get their point across. Its rude to be so overt with commenting on their spelling,ect. Mine too. BACK OFF!! LOL Anyway, I love going to the farmer's market and buying local honey from them.So good!! Yum!!
The problem is not spelling in the 21st century, it's proofreading and the dependence on technology. Both words are properly spelled so a spellchecker won't catch the grammatical error.
The word is elicit! Look it up!!
Yes, elicit is a word. No, it's not THE word that the author wanted to use in this context.
Elicit means to "draw forth, or bring out", as in "She tried to elicit a laugh from her mom"
Illicit means "forbidden by law or rules", as in "She hoped her mom wouldn't catch her with her illicit contraband".
Now... YOU look it up ;)
No, the word is "illicit." Look it up yourself. "elicit is a word, but it's not the right word for that sentence.
Good job on being able to look up the word "elicit," V. Stine, and yes elicit is a word, but perhaps you should have gone one step further and read the definition. Only then would you have discovered that the word here should have been "illicit."
Egg Zachary. This wasn't a spelling error. This was the common (but no less dumb) mistake of not knowing the difference between two words that sound alike–but have different spellings and *wildly* different meanings :)
Look how many people manage to screw up the usage of "to" and "too" once they pick up a writing instrument or sit down at a keyboard.
That it's so common is truly sad, and by NO MEANS makes it excusable. We're talking EIGHTH GRADE here, people.
"Apprise" vs. "Appraise," anyone? "Parameter" vs. "Perimeter?" Let's not even GO there. :)
I am so thankful to live in an area where I can drive by the fields that our food comes from, I can buy meat from local farmers whose cattle are not medicated or stressed and the honey is awesome. I wish everyone could eat like rural people do. There is no comparison to supermarket food.
You don't think being slaughtered (for human consumption) is stressful? Wow.
In a slaughterhouse, yes. On the farm, no.
Yes, yes, I am SURE those cattle dwell on it ALL day, every day while grazing. I'm amazed they manage to look so serene outstanding in their fields.
Good grief.
Scott... I burst out laughing at that one.. Bravo on the imagery. Now the song 'cows with guns' is stuck in my head, too.
Man, shut up.
What you said.
:)
I live in a city that is next to a rural area; we get some very good food here, but there is also some stuff that I wouldn't put into my family's mouths. National brands are usually the worst culprits, but often bad food is not labeled. Genetically engineered food does not have to be labeled. Corn syrup is not found in nature; it's like making sugar out of wood, and it isn't just another form of fructose. Milk that tastes like detergent; juice that tastes like plastic; many things are just not handled with care. Meat with antibiotics in it will have super-bacteria that often isn't killed even when cooked. And I've been to "farmer's markets" that sell products that have several bad ingredients in them.
OK, Liz, I am by training a microbiologist, and while I 'believe' that many farm fresh products are better than those from factories, I seriously doubt your statement of "Meat with antibiotics in it will have super-bacteria that often isn't killed even when cooked." Please provide some evidence of this. HAve never run into a bug like you describe.
well, do you cook any of your foods? the minute you apply heat to food, it changes its chemical makeup and becomes an item "not found in nature." all sorts of things come from factories that are fine for you and even good for you. the use of preservatives has been found to have lowered heart disease among the populace due to the use of salicylates. go figure.
it would appear that man wasn't made in a sterile vacuum and evolved to take advantage of and benefit from transforming what nature gives.
If Americans can't educate themselves about what they're buying then they'll readily eat anything, as is evident by the size of 60% of Americans. From China you get milk with toxic chemicals, dry wall with toxic chemicals, toys with toxic paint, pet food with toxins, tires that blow out as you drive, and the list goes on and on and on. Stupid Americans, as usual. You want cheap – you got cheap.
you mean in the end it is not really cheap!
Penny-wise, pound foolish. Like one chemo treatment costing $30,000; organic just doesn't cost anything in comparison to that.
@Indyman. I agree with most of what you say, but why attack Americans? I live in Moscow and you think these people don't have lead in their paint and cheap manufactured goods? Other countries where I have lived are the same, IKEA anyone, not an American company? Why don't we say "stupid humans, you want cheap, you got cheap!"
You couldn't have summed it up better.
Engineers and "techie" types (programmers, especially) have a similar saying:
"Ya got three choices. Faster, cheaper, better. Pick any two."
What a sweet story!
derp
This story was a complete ripp off. If my read is right, the "issue" isn't that the honey in our stores isn't honey. The only "problem" is that there isn't pollen in it. It's too clean. Is that right? Is this actually news?
Too clean? If maple syrup was processed to the point where all that was left was the sugars and water, would it still be maple syrup? Food is supposed to contain complex organic matter.
Your reading comprehension needs a tune up. If there's no pollen in the honey there's no way to identify it's origins and honey is far healthier with the pollen in it than without it. You're another of the mindless sheep who thinks that what your fed is good for you.
And you're a sheep that didn't learn the difference between you're and your :)
Pollen is not dirt, it is the only way to make sure that the honey is from America. Otherwise, the honey could be from a place where dirty metals or antibiotics come from. But this article also doesn't mention that honey often comes from other places in the world: Iran, Yemen, etc. Honey pays for war against... you guessed it. You.
If you don't understand something ask a question, don't make a statement.
None of us can blame the FDA or Corporate America, we buy this slop because it is 5 cents cheaper per ounce. We have tons of people who complain and complain about lack of choice in food, but very few of them put their money where their mouths are. How many healthy options have you seen show up and go away because no one is buying them? Mcdonald's and other fast food companies LOSE money on healthy options such as salads or grilled chicken products because they are more expensive than the 1.29 cheeseburger. But we fatties keep bellying up to the counter to buy the cheap, tasty items instead of the healthier ones that do not taste as well.
We have no one to blame but ourselves.
We are to blame for corporate bait and switch? I assume when a product says Honey, that that is what it is. How are we to blame? Or do you mean by electing people from either party that allow corporate America to use us all like gunea pigs... then I am with you.
I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that the cheap food is government subsidized.
Well stated. There should be some things that people will NOT skimp on or go the cheap route. this is one very good example. I had no idea that honey was being brought in from foreign countries without proper labeling. I get mine locally so it is not an issue. My grocer has an in state supplier. I also buy grape seed oil from a company in WI. I pay almost double for the large glass bottle compared to foreign similar products bottled in plastic. I figure if the bottle lasts three months it is a small price to pay to support a local business. It only amounts to about an extra $2 per month so if I can't afford that something is very wrong. When I read of the horror stories of antifreeze and other poisons in food and tires that explode causing accidents all products from china it makes me cringe. I refuse to buy any items made in china because they cannot be trusted.
People are going to have to put the pressure on by refusing to buy it. When the dollars stop flowing, jobs will come back.
Government subsidy starts with a system where the most rural states (low population) still have 2 Senators each, and the Senate is weighted to favor any profit from these few agribusiness states. It doesn't benefit your local farmers, just the giant subsidized ones. Those same states get at least 3 votes in the Electoral College, even though some do not have the population for one Elector. Think of those places that receive the most government grants but hate the government the most, and think of which politicians come from Alaska and Wyoming.
politicians are bought and paid for don't blame AK and WY
I buy always buy honey that is collected by local beekeepers - always. It is unprocessed/raw honey and it is beautifully yum! I would never ever want to consume anything that originated in China - ever. In fact, I wouldn't even buy treats or toys for my dog that originated in China.
Agreed, agreed, and agreed. People need to pay attention to what they're eating and stop assuming the FDA is looking out for our health and safety. They're not.
If you want to watch a real horror movie about the FDA, watch "Kurzynski." It's about how a cancer doctor researched a very good chemo drug, but because he wasn't part of the big chemo business, he was put on trial again and again by the FDA, while the FDA was systematically duplicating and stealing his patents. All because big pharma makes about as much money as the national debt, and pays a fee (bribe) to the FDA for the privilege. They couldn't put Dr. Kurzynski in jail because of his success rate compared with other forms of chemo, but they have continuously tried. And meanwhile, the FDA participated in the murder of many people by watering down some of those medicines they stole.
So all you good folks who would like to eviscerate the federal government – here's another good example of what that's a colossally bad idea. The FDA needs expanded powers (and funding) to protect us from Chinese "food" products like this stuff they're foisting off on us as honey. Or perhaps all you teabaggers prefer your honey with cadmium, lead, and toxic insecticides and antibiotics in it?
Don't forget the melamine. MmmMmmmm!! Nummers.
Ya, melamine. Did you know that to this day they are still finding melamine in dairy products? China isn't sure if its copycats or people illegally using old milk products from before the recall, but to this day, the milk supply in China isn't safe.
Make sure you do not buy any "Made in China" candy for Christmas, as it could fry your kidneys.
The poor FDA makes zillions of dollars (O.K., in a real sense, billions), on drug patent "fees" from big pharma. The FDA doesn't need more money, it needs to be disbanded. I AM NOT involved in the Tea Party; I am a progressive Democrat, but I do not believe that the FDA has my health or yours in mind when it steals patents and prevents people from getting needed medicines. The FDA had nothing to do with protecting us from Chinese honey: OR didn't you read the article?
Took a closer look at my Wal-Mart clover honey. It says 'Product of the US. US grade A"
That means exactly nothing. If it's put in the container you bought at Mal-Wart, it can be labeled as Product of USA. The FDA doesn't have standards for honey, so "Grade A" means zilch.
Well thats part of the problem. The removal of pollen like this makes that label claim uncheckable after the fact. Often times it is filtered in this way so that other sugars can be added to the mix like high fructose corn syrup or other syrups that have a similar amber hue. That bit was omitted from the article for some reason but has been a feature of other articles on bbcnews.com and msnbc.com
And nobody is bothering to mention that corn syrup does not appear in nature: they have to cook it at a temperature to melt metal to make corn syrup, and the little electrons spin differently than natural fructose. It is most probably a carcinogen, but the FDA, receiving billions in "fees" from big pharma companies, is not about to do that research. I know of three (3) cancer patients who vomit if they get anything with corn syrup in it.
Who labeled it "Grade A" if there is no grading standard in America? "Product of USA" means nothing more than it was labeled and distributed in America. Nothing more. Also, "natural" doesn't mean "organic." If Americans can't educate themselves about what they're buying then they'll readily eat anything, as is evident by the size of 60% of Americans. From China you get milk with toxic chemicals, dry wall with toxic chemicals, toys with toxic paint, pet food with toxins, tires that blow out as you drive, and the list goes on and on and on. Stupid Americans, as usual. You want cheap – you got cheap.
The sign said "Local Honey for Sale" so I ask to see her... :-)
Eat locally and die knowing where it came from...cantaloupe any one?
That "local" canteloupe was shipped all over the country from a large farm.
There is a problem with botulism, a very slight problem, in honey, but no other bacteria will live in honey. That is why they say not to give honey to a child under 2. However, heavy metals and antibiotics have no place in honey, and if these are found in Chinese honey, then it is high time that we have some standards in the U.S.
Bee vomit for me!!
I suppose but try to think of it more as the essence of local flowers
We don't need more regulation!! What we need is more education!! Show people the benefits of local honey. But one thing I find is that local honey, that has not been processed and has not been shipped around the world is much more expensive than the standard grocery store honey.
It's more expensive bee-cause it's real honey. Real food costs more and more all the time. The processed garbage the food industry pushes that has had everything that counts boiled, crushed and separated out of it and then flavored and colored with toxic chemicals is always going to be cheaper than real food. Also, local products are not produced by the slave labor in countries such as China that we now buy everything from. You know...those dirt cheap third world non-wages where all our wonderful "job creators" have shipped the "jobs" they create so they can make a huge amount of money on people with no rights or unions. You not only support your local producers when you buy local but you also stop this new slavery being practiced by the global corporate elite.
Yes you pay a little more, and you get a far better product and the maker gets a fair wage.
So I'll send you my husband's bills for his chemo therapy if you think that honey with heavy metal in it is O.K. to eat. I bet that you are against universal health care, or any kind of health care for anybody but yourself. Well, maybe not even yourself. Just be warned: cancer really really really hurts; and people like you also make sure to limit pain medicines. My husband has cancer because of people like you.
A lot of people are pushing for consumers to buy local, a sentiment which I fully support and practice myself, but I'm also well aware of the fact that not everyone has the opportunity to buy local. We need to work on fixing that.
Great comments added to this article. I just had a look at the two containers of honey that we have in the house. One is from Walgreens and says, "US Grade A Pure". Wonder if this means that it comes from an American source. The second is a St Dalfour product. The label says, “from the finest beehives in Europe…sourced in Spain”. I was almost ready to toss the Dalfour honey because it isn't clear and smooth like the Walgreens' honey. I thought that it was a sign that the product was bad. Learned something from the folks here. Thanks! Oh, both jars say to not feed honey to children under the age of 12 months. I wonder why.
Because of clostridium botlinum spores, release botulism toxin, which a baby does not contain the IgA to bind up and remove
It's because of the danger of botulism in babies under one year old. They should never have honey.
thats correct and it applies to all raw fruits and vegetables as well though there isnt real clear evidence of this it is one of those prudent things to do as babies may not have the digestive enzymes needed to properly digest it.
Unfortunately "US Grade A Pure" means nothing more than the moisture content is low enough to qualify as honey, it has nothing to do with origin. Look closely the origin should be imprinted on the container somewhere usually in pretty small print .
Botulism? Whoa! Wonder if most of our Grandparents knew about the dangers of giving honey to babies. When I think about the stuff with which we grew up… Lard, hot toddy made with Seagram's Seven, red dye # (something), long car rides with both parents smoking with the windows rolled up etc, I wonder how we made it through! Anyway, I again looked at the label on the Walgreens "Nice!" brand of honey and nowhere does it give the source. If it was US harvested, I think that they would advertise the fact. My suspicion/ guess is that the honey comes from China and the “US Grade A Pure” is used as a smokescreen. Thanks for the feedback. I absolutely will consider local honey when I buy again.
Real honey will also re-crystallize at times and start to look cloudy. Just set the jar in a pan of warm water and it will turn amber-clear again.
If you can, try to find a local beekeeper or local source for honey, because local honey helps to prevent allergies. I will buy honey made locally, or within a couple of states away, and that is all. I always buy raw, unfiltered honey. Babies can't deal with honey because of botulism spores; even a few, but honey prevents bacteria.
Just buy "Made in Vermont" honey. We go crazy when Canadian maple syrup gets a Vermont label on it, imagine the consequences of Chinese honey!!!
Why would we buy Made in Vermont if we do not live in Vermont? Honey is made in every state.
If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, eat your honey every night.
You are gross,nasty, and quite the idiot.
Aww c'mon. That was funny.
I feel sorry for your wife/girlfriend, assuming you even have one with that attitude.
Aw mannnnn!
Now see what's happened?
You didn't HAVE to click on the "Post" button, you fool!
Now, the WHOLE WORLD KNOWS that you're a dick.
every night?????urp!!
Cute. Primitively witty. But un-called-for.
Called for and funny, geez you people need to get the stick out.
I don't use honey but if I did I would only buy it from a local beekeeper/farmer.
AND...
"it's easy to smuggle elicit honey into the country"
I'm sure you mean "illicit". Fire your proofreader.
What proofreader?
Proofreading has been contracted out to a Chinese company.
I buy my honey from a local farm. The taste is amazing compared to the store bought stuff. They also have a great selection of different honeys with completely different flavors. Try it and you will never go back to the crap they call honey.
Whole Foods has some amazing honeys. Some are freakin' expensive, but some of the cheaper ones are great.
Another plus to buying from local beekeepers is a good source of beeswax. The local guy almost always is way less expensive than buying from craft stores.
When it comes to food, my motto is to either get the real stuff, however expensive it is, or don't get it at all. Instead of buying 1 pound of the fake/processed/cheap stuff, be it cheese, honey, oil, fruits or veggies, get 1/4 pound of the real stuff. Three things happen: 1) With small, frequent shopping, you throw away less, if at all, and it's important because real food spoils, unlike that barely edible crap stuffed full of preservatives 2) You eat less and don't end up obese 3) You don't slowly (and sometimes not so slowly) get poisoned.
If you are buying food from China, you are playing Russian roulette with your life. People think that Chinese poisoning food for a quick buck is something new, when in fact, it has been going on non-stop since the first Chinese sold the first batch of tea to a european merchant, lacing it with ferrocyanide and gypsum.
Sure right. Next they'll be telling us McDonalds cheeseburgers aren't worthy of being called cheeseburgers. Liberal media at it again.
Is cheeseburger sold in MacDonald the real cheeseburger? Sometimes it only cost 99 cents!
Are you kidding? Um... liberal media? What does that have anything to do with this article?
The article is talking about how illegally smuggled honey from china that contains seriously hazardous materials is being sold in American stores. The article also tells us that this smuggling is destroying American jobs.
What article were you reading, and what on Earth possessed you to make that comment?
Since when did protecting the American people, their jobs, and health become a liberal only agenda? I'd like to think that **all** Americans hold these to be top priorities.
But it's American shopkeepers gleefully selling it to you and taking your money. Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty conservative, not liberal. But that means I watch out for myself and my loved ones and only get products from trusted sources, not the grocery stores. And the comments about McDonald's cheeseburgers are hilarious; everyone knows Mcfood isn't actually food.
You know how people are nowadays. Blame the media.... it's easy. I do find it interesting that a comment like that makes it onto a board for CNN however.... the king of all things controversial in media.... what exactly is hoursemouth doing here?
surely you can't be serious?
I am serious and don't call me surely.
McDonald's and Burger King both use ammoniated slaughterhouse floor sweepings, known as 'pink slime' to knock their costs down $.02 per patty. Google pink slime.
You can google almost anything, true or not. Actually even though I am not their biggest fan, McDonalds meat safety and testing standards are the highest in the world and WAY exceed government testing. The reason is simple. Even a whiff of a e-coli or other scare could cost them billions very quickly. It is MUCH cheaper for them to spend millions on rigorous testing.
I don't know what "hoursesmouth" means, but I suspect it has something to do with the end opposite the mouth.
My daughter used to eat McDonald's cheeseburgers during Lent, because they contain no meat or cheese. I'm not sure that's true, but it sure doesn't taste like it, and that was probably what she was thinking.
Scarier still is that there are presidential candidates that want to do away with all government regulation. Really? Maybe they like their honey with antibiotics and heavy metals...
They don't know where the food cupboard is, because they are still trying to count how many houses they own.
Why is it that walmart was not mentioned in the stores that was sampled ???? or should I ask?
All Wal-Mart honey is 100% Chinese.
Honey real and raw has a very long shelf life ....it is better to use the honey that still has pollen, propolis, honeycomb and live enzymes this is the stuff our grannies fed us ... and never feed it to infants...another honey that is really super good but alas is very expensive is Manuka honey.....still works wonders!
That's nice to know. They charge an arm & a leg for what isn't even honey in the truest sense. It's downright expensive for a small 8 ounce bottle of nothing. It's time to start monitoring the contents and adjusting the price for the fake garbage that's out there big time. Honey in the raw sense is good for you and has a multitude of different uses. It's typical of the times. Cut a few corners to make a quick buck by lowering the standards of a product..
Buy American. Honey and everything else. China sells the world garbage. Buy American...
100% agreed. Everything that comes out of that country is low-quality dog crap.
Yet another propaganda semi-journalistic trash from CNN. It's election year coming so the mainstream media keep riling up the general public for sensationalism. It's always the COLDWAR mentality, now there are no more Russian Unions (former CCCP), so "let's pick on the Chinese". Do you really think just because it grows in America, and it's going to be wholesome and 100% pure? Have you ever check the ingredients in MacRibs? chicken nuggets? Do you seriously think the MacNuggets you feed to your children are from real chicken meat? Taco Bell anyone? Real beef?? I live in Florida and yet most of the orange juice I buy here are "mixed with Oranges imported from South America" . I just went to Publix grocery stores and Walgreens here and every bottle of Honey says "Product of U.S.A." Grade A. So you are saying that they some how find a way to secretly "smuggled" honey all the way from China and put in a bottle that says "Product of USA"? Wow let start a class action law suit against Walgreens and all those grocery stores!! Better yet, let all stop shopping at all these American owned grocery and drug stores and grow your own farm!! Let's see how many more American jobs we can afford to loose. The Chinese did not come and take our jobs. It's the American greedy Corp CEOs and shareholders decide to fatten the "margins" and their pockets. In fact Apple's Steve Jobs was looking for an American factory to assemble Iphones and IPADs in the U.S.of A but he found out the cost of having the factory here Stateside will make each Iphone cost more than $1000 each. The Bee Farm 30 miles from my house, hire Mexicans (don't know if they are legal or not) because the owner told me no Americans would work under hot sun for less than $10 an hour. If he had to pay $12 an hour for some American workers that he would have to price each 20 oz jar of raw unpasteurised honey at about $40. We live in a consumer price driven society, if you don't want stuff from China, then it's going to be from countries like Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. They even have less regulation and health standards. India is one of the country in the World which still have black plague, my friends. And do yo really want to support terrrorists from Pakistan?
"black plague?" Um, I think you're confused. There's BUBONIC plague (characterized by dark areas called "buboes" appearing on the skin of the afflicted) and there's PNEUMONIC plague which probably affects the lungs, like PNEUMONia. Maybe there are other varieties of "plague" (I'm no biologist or epidemiologist), and only those two affect humans, so perhaps they are all we hear of when it comes to "plague." A tragic epidemic of BUBONIC plague (spread by Yersinia Pestis microbes, I believe) struck Europe in the mid-14th c., and was commonly know as the BLACK DEATH. Maybe *that's* what you're thinking of. As far as I know, there's nothing in the scientific literature know as BLACK PLAGUE. Funny. After that one little revealing slip-up, I was no longer inclined to believe ANYTHING ELSE you wrote.
Other than that, have a nice day.
:)
The hyper-sensitive 99 percenter isn't really, of course. Honey I buy is harvested by friends, and no, it isn't $40 per bottle. What you are trying to protect is giant agri-business. If you would like to come over to my house, I'll sit you down on one of my (Chinese made) dining room chairs that fall apart when people sit on them. Or how about eating those (Chinese or Indonesian) shrimp that are much more polluted than anything out of the Gulf? America has regulations to try to handle problems: and yes, we have bubonic plague here in America in the southwest, and dengue fever in the south, and West Nile virus in the north. And we can do much better in regulating our food business, but overall, locally grown American-made honey is much better than mis-labeled unknown honey.
So Elizabeth isn't smart enough to buy chairs that will support her (no doubt ample) ass, and WE are the ones who need to be protected from shady businessmen?
O, god, china honey? can you say lead free??? ya
I have been in the honey industry for 40 years and this is the deal folks. #1 The absence of pollen dosent mean its not honey, it only means that it has been filtered for a buying public that likes clean, clear, ungranulated honey, its still honey folks. #2 And this is important: About 2/3 of the honey consumed in this country is imported most of it from safe sources but our FDA does not do an adequate job of testing the honey that comes into this country. The pollen is quite often filtered out so that it cant be traced back to China because of import restrictions. Tell your congressional reps that they should demand that all honey be throughly tested for unsafe levels of anibiotics and heavy metals. Buying local honey from beekeepers you know is right on the mark and great advice.
got that right Jim, local farmers the way to go....
Ya, the absense of pollen says nothing about the presence of bad stuff like pesticides or heavy metals, just as the presense of pollen doesn't mean there isn't any bad stuff in it. Since it is unlikely that honey, imported or otherwise, is likely to undergo any meaningful testing regimine any time soon, the best thing is to insist on knowing exactly who and where your honey is coming from.
How do you filter out small particles that can only be seen under the microscope? How expensive it is to filter out those particles from the sticky honey? Can beekeeper be afforded to do so?
I am not sure your statement on this is authentic, Jim.
Since you are not either a professional or amateur beekeeper, you wouldn't know that the "filtered" honey is heated to a more liquid state, and then it is easy to filter. But it doesn't make the honey better; it destroys enzymes and most of the nutritional value of the honey. Best to buy unfiltered, raw honey.
And since you're not an actual nutritionist or scientist, your claims about health benefits are nothing more than food-cultist wishful thinking.
You've got it. People seem confused by the "absence of pollen" issue and (as always) the "Made in USA" issue. Filtering out the pollen ISN'T THE POINT. The point is that IF the pollen has been filtered out, the honey's ORIGIN can be difficult (or expensive, or im-freaking-possible) to determine ERGO, it COULD be trying to conceal something–such as not-so-good "extras." THAT's the issue, isn't it?
I was wondering why my honey wasn't working like I know it should when I have a cold. I tell you...China is going to kill us one way or another if we don't put a break on them.
You are right! BUT that's brake, not break
It's all insect puke.
Tasty tasty insect puke.
Edible insect puke.
yummy bee barf!
Everything we eat comes from other living things. We don't eat rocks or sunlight. Is the body of a plant any less cellular in origin than meat? Is the there any food less disgusting than bee saliva?
How about bird's nest soup. Made from the dried saliva of cliff-dwelling sparrows. Also Chinese.
OK. I've got EVERYONE beat.
How about coffee beans that went through an Indonesian feline and came out its pooper? No, really. People actually go on to make coffee from the beans. It's some real expensive s**t, so to speak. Never tried it, but some people love it.
The only reason to filter the honey so minutely that it removes the pollen ... is ...
to hide the origin of the honey.
No. Only in the import stage. Domestically honey is filtered for appearance and shelf life.
Jim honey doesn't EVER go bad. As long as it's real pure honey and it's kept clean and sanitary (free from a mold or bacteria source) it will never go bad. As you stated that you've been in the honey business for 40+ years i'd think you'd know that. I run my own meadery (fermented honey wine producer) and I recently bought a clay jar of honey about 300 years old to make a VERY limited special reserve type of mead. Your argument about shelf life is busted.
I had my first experience with honey mead in Maine about 3 weeks ago at Oktoberfest on Mt. Desert Island. It was AWESOME. But I have to say... that stuff will knock your socks off if you're not careful.
I agree with Mr. Salerno. …thus eliminating all accountability of whomever is packaging the honey. Maybe the package says “Made in USA”, but the honey is really from China where the standards of production aren’t as high as they are in the US. It’s a loophole that you can be sure the FDA knows about. Why is this allowed to happen? That’s my question. Are we supposed to be so naive to believe that honey is the only product that’s possibly unsafe? I think not.
I am saying that it is often filtered so that it can pass port inspection where the pollen can show the origin of the honey because Chinese honey is often transhipped through a 3rd party to hide its origin. Domestically, though, most major packers do the same thing so that it has a crystal clear appearance and dosent quickly granulate on the shelf. This honey may also contains no pollen but it is most definitely pure honey. But the FDA is not testing for contaminants.
It happens because we don't execute bureaucrats that take bribes to endanger public health. The Chinese shoot bureaucrats for this. We may have something to learn from them on this.. The ones who allowed the melamine in the baby formula are all dead now and their families have been billed for the bullets.
Clark Nova: The Chinese made melamine in food a capital offense, but they still find it in milk products.
I can think of several capital offenses that the FDA has participated in; such as the stealing of patents for chemo drugs and then watering down the chemo. But, FDA is a Cabinet position, and to approve the Cabinet takes 60 Senate votes, and the Senate is packed with all those low-population agri-business states. So the FDA gets to do anything it wants, take all the bribes it wants, steal patents, hound good people out of business. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the FDA keeps its jobs no matter who appears to be in power in the White House, from whichever political Party.
No, no you misunderstand. Honey keeps forever its just that most consumers will refuse to buy honey that has granulated on the shelf because THEY assume its bad so grocers pull it because it dosent move.
chinese honey. that' scary. maybe the lead is what makes it taste so sweet...
Lactose and corn syrup are the principle ingredients. They do ship it in metal 55 gallon barrels, so you could be right about lead.
Most people have problems with either lactose or corn syrup. It is more scary than you think. The metal barrels would certainly leach out in the honey.
OK, Mr. Metallurgist. Where does the "lead" in these 55-gallon STEEL (iron alloyed with carbon) drums coming from? Are you thinking of TIN CANS that were sealed with lead solder A HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS AGO maybe? "Metal drums" does NOT equal "lead."
I had some Dole Peaches, threw them away after I saw the were from China. I would be leery about any food imported from China, their track record is pathetic. How many pets all over the world died from contaminated food from China? HOW MANY BABIES DIED from contaminated formula from....China? China's health and safety regulations,....oh wait,..what regulations? Toxic rivers, watering...toxic crops? Yummy.
I agree.
And, some people in the USA want less regulation so we are more competitive like...CHINA. c'mon people be smart
And yet, people in America keep voting in the politicians who want less regulation...
This clearly sounds like a case for the honey badger. Look at him go. He just doesn't give a s*#t!
Much easier when you actually know a honey producer in person and can watch your jar being filled with product squeezed from the honeycombs. A good test of true honey is let is sit in a cool place; because of the pollen nuclei, it will crystallize and become solid. Which is GREAT for spreading on toast, btw.
Nice. My wife buys me honey (the kind in the bear shaped bottle) and it crystalizes in the cabinet. I have to either microwave it or put it in hot water just to use it. so now I know that it's the good stuff.
Yes! Absolutely!
I hope that bottle is glass, not plastic. In the microwave, plastic can release petrol byproducts into the food. The warm water is the safest way to reconstitute honey. It has natural antibiotic chemicals in it to protect it from spoilage. That is one reason it soothes a sore throat.
Buy local!!
Happy to get all of my honey locally at the farmer's market from a charming elderly couple who know the beekeeper. Less expensive and better tasting than anything in a plastic bear! I've heard the pollen content in honey may also help people build a resistance to pollen allergies – another reason why it's better to go local.
My friend's a beekeeper and says that, too. Her advice is to eat a teaspoon of local honey (local to where you live) that does contain pollen for one year to reduce allergies. That makes sense; it's the same way that allergy shots work, but much yummier.
This is just another blatant reminder China DOES NOT CARE ABOUT AMERICAN CITIZENS. And the corporations permitting this are in bed with the Chinese – That's akin to treason. The Chinese corporate agenda needs a serious wake up call that Americans are not going to tolerate being fed s#$^. They treat Americans like factory farm animals. Reform will never begin anywhere but within your own home. STOP BUYING CHINESE "Goods" (AKA CRAP)
They don't care about their own people. Why do you expect them to care about Americans? Do you think Americans are more valuable than Chinese people? It didn't bother you that the Chinese people are eating this stuff – all you care about is Americans. Shame on you.
Nope – That's THEIR problem . . Ours is protecting AMERICAN consumers . .
DERP: Agree – and our government lets us down time after time...
I don’t think that we should ever expect China to care about our safety. It’s our government who should be protecting us. The honey example shown here illustrates perfectly the problem with our system. The company that imports the cheap honey can slip a few bucks into the pocket of our elected officials in the form of “campaign contributions”, and suddenly the FDA looks the other way, and nobody knows what’s in the honey jar that’s sold at your local grocery. Undocumented Honey is just the topic of the day. This is a very large national problem that’s influencing the entire food industry.
why should another country care about America?
And get this (listen real good, now): so-called "American" corporations don't give a rat's a** about American citizens NEITHER!!!!
Not about what they sell you, nor whether you even have a job (and can be a consumer of their products). All they care about is their profits, their "bottom-line" (which includes minimizing costs–whatever the outcome), and their shareholders' stock value and dividends.
Why am I'm seeing a SHOCKED look on your face?
:(
Every 5 to 10 years we asians have a problem with China food products. Either they:
1. Have heavy metals in their meat canned goods.
2. Used questionable preservatives in fish/marine products.
3. Laced their food with cheap man-made chemicals to appear superior e.g. milk.
They are supposed to be communists but they are acting as businessmen. If they have to be businessmen, then they should do their job well with the welfare of the consumer in mind.
The short-sighted goals of profit are not sustainable for the long run, more for long ruin.
Ching Change Qidao Masou Neha :)
Thanks for the article. I won't buy honey unless it's from a local source. Slowly, I'm ridding myself of all of the Chinese sub-standards goods and I will NEVER knowingly buy something made in China.
I am not going to put in my mouth anything that's made in China. But it's hard to control when ingredients in certain products come from China and the manufacturers, of course, don't put that fact on their label.
its only communism 4 a few i guess oh wait that sounds like democracy a few filthy rich and the rest needy
China has capitalism for the rich and socialism for the poor. We have exactly the opposite.
American culture holds that all individuals are equally important, whereas Chinese culture holds that all individuals are equally unimportant.
Thus, while the Chinese have the only culture more capitalist than Americans – and they are very similar in that respect – they are nonetheless at two opposite extremes of a different spectrum. It's evident in every macro aspect of their society. Very maladaptive and will eventually be their undoing (again).
I want to believe that America holds the individual as important. Really I do. But then why do so many people in America hate the idea of universal health care that will care for all sick people equally? (That's not the plan we got.) Too little protection and regulation is done as is, and there are people trying to take away what little we have. I'm scared for my father, who worked, saved, is a WWII vet, but his money was used up in nursing care for him, and he depends on Medicaid, which could go away. Too many jobs are going to the communist countries and countries that pay people a dollar a day. I want representative government here, representing people, not big corporations.
Honey, where's my honey? Hahahahahahhah
On a side note- anyone heard about olive oil sold in U.S. not being the real thing? http://mamanatural.com/virgin-olive-oil-scam-fraud/. Makes you wonder what is real food these days.
thats why i only hunt my meat and eat fresh veggies. The way to go!
buffalo rocks its making a huge comeback leaner more protien lots of benefits
Most of the buffalo in stores is fake or at best hybrid 'cattalo'.
It's pretty easy to buy local honey. My grocery store has Kroger brand which is a nationally distributed brand. That means who know where it came from and what they did to it to standardize it. Non local honey won't do you any good anyway since it does not have local elements in it. Just look at the label and where the company is located. There are many local options.
No mention of Wal-Mart's brand. But out it goes just in case.
Does Wal-Mart sell anything that ISN'T from China?
That's made by processing girl-babies!!
Crikey! The number of errors in syntax, misspelled words and wrong words in this article is discouraging and points to the failures of public education and the teachers who teach in it.
Homeschooling is the only answer I suppose, it's obvious the public school teachers don't give a rats rear end about the end result.
Excuse me; but, your posting includes a number of various grammatical/spelling/typographical errors, as well.
You mean a rat's rear end, I suppose. Apostrophes are needed to show possession.
You have no idea what you're talking about.
My God, you missed the nuts and bolts of the story, but you took the time to rant about home schooling. It's two words, by the way. The story was about honey,honey and pollen,honey and the FDA, honey and China, honey labled incorrectly,honey,honey,honey.There are some erors in this rebuttal, but my observation is on the money because the story is all
about honey.
Nice touch ending one of your sentences with a preposition....your school must be proud.
This ain't Latin. All my life I've been besieged by grammarians but most finally admit that ending a sentence with a preposition isn't worthy of the death penalty, even here in Texas. As Winston Churchill supposedly said "Ending a sentence with a preposition is something with which I shall not put!"
Rats! I mistyped it!
"Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I shall not put!"
The "teachers who teach" ??? Crickey yerself.
Run on sentences too.
Excuse me, the topic is "honey", not the public education or homeschooling. Actually, homeschooling is practically no schooling. Were you non-schooled yourself?
You know, this article is about honey, not spelling or grammar, or whatever. Plus, teachers do their jobs. It is up to the student and PARENTS to make sure that the students know the stuff. Teachers give the tests and if the student doesn't know the material, it's not the teachers fault. So get back to the article at hand.
its a matter of personal laziness
HOW COULD YOU FORGET YOUR OXFORD COMMA?!?! And you criticize the articles lack of copy editing!
I thought that Oxford is getting rid of the comma; maybe they have nothing to list.
Been eating too much of that chinese honey greystoker ?
If ever a grammar cop I meet,
That meeting shall be so sweet.
I swear with a grin,
When I kick in the shin
My pleasure shall be complete.
Two of the worst authors I've read in my life were by home-schooled people. I had to squint to prevent myself from seeing too many errors.
Only problem with that is in the homeschool environment, the teacher could be a dolt, and will in no way see the child as failing. Ever. The underlying standard is (often) BELIEF and ACCEPTANCE, not knowledge and learning skills.
Try to buy locally grown foodstuffs when you can. It keep local farmers in business, and keeps your money in the community.
Agree, plus an additional benefit that the exposure to pollen helps you deal better with allergy during pollen season.
No, no, no!!! That's not according to The Plan!
You're gonna be a troublemaker, aren't you?
We're building camps for people like you.
I get my honey direct from the beekeeper at the farmers market in my neighborhood. Not only no risk of it coming from China, but it's cheaper because there's no middle man jacking up the price.
Honey=Bee Puke! Everyone please don't eat honey, it's food for baby bees, not for humans! Please GO VEGAN for the animals, for your health, and for the Earth!
Sorry, M, but any diet where I have to take supplements in order to have proper functioning of my organs is NOT a healthy diet. Vegan fits this bill.
My god you vegans are absolutely crazy.
Yes. Vegans are crazy. I visited a Vegan family for dinner. The host, who served Vegan fare, served no alcohol, had no A/C (and apparently had no vacuum to get rid of the cat hair carpet) was as proud to show me his environmentally friendly cat box. He used a cat box that was hooked up to the washer's waterline and showed me how he used 5-gallons of water to flush each 2 ounce cat turd. Cat litter = bad. Wasting 20-gallons of water per day = good?
i could not exist without meat a world without meat would be boring indeed
And the Vegans must be going around biting people on the neck, cuz I'm seeing more and more crazy people every day.
Is honey vegan? Again, it depends on one's definition of vegan. Insects are animals, and so insect products, such as honey and silk, are not traditionally considered vegan. Many vegans, however, are not opposed to using insect products, because they do not believe insects are conscious of pain. Moreover, even if insects were conscious of pain, it's not clear that the production of honey involves any more pain for insects than the production of most vegetables, since the harvesting and transportation of all vegetables involves many 'collateral' insect deaths.
The question remains a matter of scientific debate and personal choice.
http://www.vegan.org/FAQs/index.html#7
While bees (insects make honey) they also pollenate our food (veggies, fruits) so is it wrong to eat of the labor of bees? oh boy.. they veggies and fruits are not vegan??!! sorry explain that to me.
Most often in stores.. you will see stuff labeled as honey sweetener.. (fructose syrup flavored like honey)
The flavor of honey comes from the flowers the bees visit..
Know your honey, honey – http://dailyknowhow.wordpress.com/category/fake-honey/
*sometimes people use Agave Nectar and think it is honey.. yes it is sweet, but doesn't have honey flavor.
personal you could have said all that with 2 words
personal choice you could have said all that with 2 words
bees make honey on their own, it is not forcibly extracted and no bees are hurt in the making of it. It would take an extreme and illogical vegan to be upset about eating honey.
re: the vegan thing. My take on it is, we evolved as omnivores; 99.99% (or more) of my ancestors were omnivores, too much of any kind of meat is bad for you. I love my veggies but I will continue to have a piece of cow, pig, chicken, fish ect., even (gasp) an egg. All things in moderation. But to each their own.....
No bees were injured in the creation of this post.
If they were, they would've had adequate health insurance
and their buzzing little butts were paid union-scale.
Please shut up. Its all here for us to eat or not. Don't eat it and shut up while you're not eating it.
Eating honey does not harm any of those three. Beekeepers leave their bees with plenty of honey to get through the winter, so the bees are not harmed. Honey is far better from a health perspective than sugar. And eating honey certainly doesn't hurt the Earth. Aside from that, unpasteurized honey is one of the best wound dressings available, as it is a potent bactericide – it even kills MRSA when antibiotics fail. There may be many good reasons to go vegan, but the ones you gave are not it.
Can you tell me more about the MRSA aspect?
I thought vegans didn't eat ANIMALS. So now you vegans don't eat anything produced by animals. So what about plants, and produce fertilzed with manure? guess you can't eat that then because it has animal waste in it. Vegans are just crazy people. Now days nothing is healthy for you, even homegrown because you don't know what's in the soil.
The vegan lifestyle is so pathetic to me. I can see someone not eating meat, but eggs and cheese? You'd lose your teeth if you told me to stop eating those two. C'mon, milking a cow doesn't really harm it in any way. And eggs? Get out of here. If they are free-range chickens, I'm sure they're just fine.
Ironically, your Mom said that very thing to me last night. Then she ate my salami.
Kill yourself.
For the Earth and the bees.
I recommend an organic hemp rope. It's recyclable too!
Yet another reason to keep going to Trader Joe's.
Agree, but even better are the local grocers and markets where you can buy local honey (if possible) because the benefits for fighting allergies.
Whole Foods sells local honey.
So let me get this straight. This group is complaining because the honey sold in this country is filtered too well?
FAIL for reading comprehension skills.
LOFL!!! Epic fail.
It’s funny to me that TAK totally missed the point of the article, but was able to easily understand the requirements needed to post a comment. …makes me think that the comment instructions need to be more complicated. Ha!
@subfuzion: That was just WRONG, on so many levels!!!!
People "miss the boat" on here ALL DAY LONG.
That's why some of us love reading these comments on CNN stories. They're hilarious, sometimes, like those Wal-Mart Shoppers photos you see on the Net.
:)
Yes, that is correct. They over filtered the honey and there no pollen left
When you filter out the 'good stuff', that is generally considered bad.
The part you didn't notice is that besides being filtered, the honey is blended with ammonia and other tasty chemicals.
I want my Bee Barf! Can't we just give them bulimia or something?
No matter where you live, there is local honey available. Do yourself a favor and get it, go to a farmers market or roadside stand to get the honey, it's worth the extra cost.
The gullibility of people like you is amazing.
And not in a good way.
Yes, you "can't trust" a grocery store-with deep pockets that juries love to plunder-but some random drifter with a handlettered sign reading "Hunny for Sale" earns your trust.
Please, don't breed.
If you have bred, well... You probably refused to immunize your kids to "protect them from autism" so we can all hope for a childhood disease to take care of the risk to the gene pool.
And out goes the bottle of honey in my kitchen. Thanks, but I'm not eating sketchy food with a 1-in-3 shot of being smuggled in from China.
Sooo, if certain honey "could" be tainted with heavy metals and other substances, why not test for those...?
This article just seems like another fear-mongering piece with the intent of scaring people and instilling xenophobia.
Mr Bo – it's not fear mongering – it's education. There is a difference. They are simply saying that because the pollen is being filtered out, the product is difficult to trace. Even if they did track for the heavy metals or whatever, they couldn't identify the source, potentially taking ALL honey off the shelves – and THAT would create fear in the food system.
It's fearmongering.
Spread by ignorant arrogantly stupid people like you.
This has nothing to do with identifying and actually DOING anything about contaminated honey-not a shred of evidence was provided to show that any such threat even exists.
This is all about creating yet another level of bureaucracy to interfere in our lives and shove its grasping hands in our pockets.
You want "local honey"? Buy local honey.
But that's not good enough for busybodies like yourself. You want to make sure that EVERYONE has to put up with your stupid paranoid fantasies.
Eating locally produced honey, with all that local pollen builds up your immune system and prevents allergies.
The food companies have infiltrated the FDA. Top level former food company execs run the FDA. This has to stop. I don't want it if its not real honey!! Watch FOOD INC.
I believe that you're correct. The documentary titled "The Future of Food" provides similar information about the infiltration of the FDA by the companies that it's supposed to be regulating.
So I looked up a definition of "honey" and could find no mention of pollen content. If honey has dangerous elements in it, they should be identified and monitored. But to suggest that pollen removal automatically makes it not honey seems a stretch to me. Are we really going to do genetic testing of the pollen to figure out if the clover grew in China or the U.S.? Even then, so what?
Removal of the pollen only eliminates the ability to trace the origin of the honey …thus eliminating all accountability of whomever is packaging the honey. Maybe the package says, “Made in USA”, but the honey is really from China where the standards of production aren’t as high as they are in the US. It’s a loophole that you can be sure the FDA knows about. Why is this allowed to happen? That’s my question. Are we supposed to be so naive to believe that honey is the only product that’s possibly unsafe? I think not.
Yes, because filtering honey could ONLY be for nefarious purposes like hiding tainted Chinese honey.
Couldn't have anything to do with responsible standards for cleanliness in the food industry.
With removing insect parts, bacteria and mold spores that could present health risks to some people, pollen that could cause problems for some people.
Next week you'll be bleating about the "low sanitation standards" that the FDA "allows to appease Big Honey"...
All the more reason to go to your local farmers market for honey. Tastes better, is cheaper, you know where it came from, and you're supporting your local community! I use local honey to help build up my immunity to pollens from my area, it's the non-needle form of allergy shots :)
This is true for us. My husband and I both suffered seasonal allergies every year until we began eating local honey on our toast and in our tea/coffee. It's been three years since we started eating it and three years since we had ANY allergy symptoms. We get ours from a farmer who keeps bees less than five miles away. Go local!
Wow, scary and disgusting.... Honey 'smuggled from China and could be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals'????
Thank you again Corporate America for cutting every corner possible. And a special thank you to the Federal Government for allowing this crap to come in...
I may never eat that do-do again...
That's the "free market" that everyone seems to want government to stay out of.
Exactly....
If the majority of Americans actually cared about what they ate, the "free market" you're so quick to chide, would actually work. Maybe a couple of people need to die first...then they'll start paying attention.
JR – you live in dreamland. Free market is a con man's heaven.
I've always said that some regulation, within reason is a good thing. Don't over do it and don't outsmart your common sense but think about it – a food product from your own back yard, or at least your own region, versus food from 6000 miles (and 6 weeks on a boat) away. What do YOU think makes more sense?
The sooner you stop eating anything at all, the better.
Every time I read about products being imported from China it seems that they are tainted with heavy metals or illegal knock offs. In the mean time US food products being sold to China are of the highest quality. Selling food products abroad is probably one of the reasons for the high cost to American consumers. Isn't it nice that taxpayers subsidize farmers so that they can sell their products abroad at cheaper prices than we buy them in the US. American consumers get screwed twice, once paying taxes for subsidization and secondly paying more at the grocery store.
I don't know... I don't have to pay taxes for food at my grocery store...
Forgive my previous post. I re-read your comment.
American consumers get screwed twice? Correction Dave, American Consumers get screwed everyday, around every corner. From the grocery store to the bank, the local government , the state government, the federal government, every "too big too fail" individual (I.E. corporations, since they are now "people"). Government, on every level, that fails to enforce laws equally, rampant corruption in politics/business with no consequences. Various government agencies meant to "serve the peoples interests" yet the only interests that seem to be served are those of the Richest, most influential "individuals". So yes Dave, the consumer certainly gets screwed but it is much more than twice...........
Occupy Eatocracy!!!!
Let them eat sub-standard imported goods, mmmmmyes...........CHOP!
There was an interesting news item last summer out of China. It seemed that field workers were being injured by exploding water melons. The farms had been dosing the plants with synthetic growth hormones to boost yields, and the melons grew so quickly they literally burst apart in the fields.
How much produce that has been "helped" in this way winds up in the US? Some of the garlic I've seen lately – which is inexplicably imported from another continent rather than locally grown – has odd, mutated forms, with misshapen heads, way too many very small cloves and contorted growth patterns. These are signs that the plants have been treated with artificial hormones, although there could be other causes, none of which are pleasant to put in your mouth.
phoque china and made in israel crap!
How am I suppose to know what is safe for me to rub on my body, so others can lick it off. I do not want to put anyone in danger.
Nice ad for Trader Joe's
good excuse to raise prices..
So – how does the consumer perform the 'pollen' test, with honey at home? Guess I'll stop buying/using it – especially for fear of ingesting heavy metals . . . again? from China? will this never stop? Urgh . . . and I pay top dollar for the product that Walmart sells!
give some to a friend who has pollen allergies you will know if it has pollen.
Buy local as often as possible. Local farmers...local jelly, eggs, honey. Safer, tastes better, good for the country
Being a diabetic, I'm not sure why I read this! I still haven't noticed the prices peanuts doubling either.
that because the penuts are from last year. wait till next year!
Wait another month. The stuff on the shelf was bought a long time before the change in pricing this years crops.
That is what Perry wants: less regulation.
For some reason I don't trust most businessmen.
I do like Trader Joe's.
At least report if they were or were not tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals.
Wah, so the American farmers are crying because we're not buying their overpriced honey? I know of a shipment of Klenex coming in from China tomorrow.
no.. they're crying because we are eating honey that uses child labor, pesticides and other chemicals which are illegal in the US.
I'm crying too! Who in China has made in usa stuff? nobody.
Child labor along with their families (from south of the border) picks our fruit and veggies in the US!
I cheerfully pay more for real honey that's healthy and produced on farms that use legal laborers. That's good for the country and my family.
We need to check every one of those bees and make sure they are in this country legally. Get 'em little teeny green cards and little teeny license plates. No illegal honey-makers!
illicit, not elicit.
elicit—v. evoke or draw out; draw forth.
illicit—adj. forbidden by laws, rules, or customs.
To the bee it's 'elicit'...
Check your grammar on that last sentence...should be "illicit" honey.
Taint grammar, its SPELLING!
Incorrect. Spelling would be if they spelled the word incorrectly. Using the incorrect word is a grammar error. Therefore, this is a grammar error.
how about telling us the names of the brands???
that would be a good start, but it seems not journalism 101 here.
What are the brands? You hit that one on the head. It is typical this friggin' government continues to lie to us.
Brand names? No they probably wouldn't give those out. Too afraid of lawsuits.
More junk from China!?! I only buy my honey from local farmer's markets.
I read about a scam in Ohio where "local farmer's market honey" was actually stuff from China being sold as local honey. :( I
yes, unfortunately, you always have to do some research now.
Dang! I stopped buying honey from grocery chains years ago and only from local Farmer's Markets. Now I can't even trust them?!? When can I ever feel secure about the products that are being sold to me???? So frustrating and disappointing.
Me too– it's much tastier and has a rich, dark color. I use nothing else.