U.S. Still a Dumping Ground for Crappy Honey, Study Finds

By Samantha Bonar Mon., Nov. 14 2011 at 1:00 PM

They're calling it "honey laundering." More than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores is filtered to the point where it contains no pollen -- which would make it flunk the quality standards set by most of the world's food safety agencies, according to testing done by Food Safety News.

The Food and Drug Administration says that any product that's been so ultra-filtered that it no longer contains pollen isn't honey. However, the FDA does not check honey sold here to see if it contains pollen. The food safety divisions of the World Health Organization, the European Commission and dozens of others have ruled that without pollen there is no way to determine whether honey came from legitimate and safe sources.

Ultra filtering is a process where honey is heated, sometimes watered down and then forced at high pressure through extremely small filters to remove pollen, which is the only foolproof sign identifying the source of the honey.

Food Safety News bought more than 60 jars, jugs and plastic bears of honey sold in various outlets in 10 states and the District of Columbia. The contents were analyzed for pollen by Vaughn Bryant, a professor at Texas A&M University and one of the nation's premier melissopalynologists, or investigators of pollen in honey.

Bryant, who is director of the Palynology Research Laboratory, found that among the containers of honey:

• 76 percent bought at groceries had all of the pollen removed. Stores included TOP Food, Safeway, Giant Eagle, QFC, Kroger, Metro Market, Harris Teeter, A&P, Stop & Shop and King Soopers.

• 100 percent of the honey from drugstores like Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS Pharmacy had no pollen.

• 77 percent of the honey from big box stores like Costco, Sam's Club, Walmart and Target had the pollen filtered out.

• 100 percent of the honey in the small packets from Smucker, McDonald's and KFC had the pollen removed.

On the plus side, Bryant found that every one of the samples from farmers markets, co-ops and "natural" stores like PCC and Trader Joe's had the full, anticipated, amount of pollen.

If you have to buy at major grocery chains, the analysis found that your odds are better of getting honey that wasn't ultra-filtered if you buy brands labeled as organic. Out of seven samples tested, five (71 percent) were full of pollen.

This is an issue because most of this filtered honey probably originally comes from China, where it is tainted by illegal animal antibiotics and heavy metals--but without the pollen, it is impossible to trace its origin. Also, some nutritionists say pollen imparts health benefits.

The FDA actually cracked down about 10 years ago on crappy Chinese honey imports, so China just started "laundering" their honey through other Asian countries like India and Vietnam. Of the 208 million pounds of honey the U.S. imported over the last 18 months, almost 60 percent came from Asian countries, according to FSN.

"FDA does not consider 'ultra-filtered' honey to be honey," agency press officer Tamara Ward told Food Safety News, but added: "We have not halted any importation of honey because we have yet to detect 'ultra-filtered' honey." But many in the honey industry and some in the FDA's import office told FSN that they doubt the FDA checks more than 5 percent of all foreign honey shipments. FSN says the FDA has ignored repeated pleas from Congress, beekeepers and the honey industry to develop a U.S. standard for identification for honey.

And therein lies the sting.

Follow Samantha Bonar at @samanthabonar.

Tags:

China, FDA, Food Safety News, Honey, Pollen, Samantha Bonar

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DingusMcCollidge

1 Like

Typical FDA. I'm not surprised that nobody cares about what these chumps have to say. When all of the labels on the packaging of supplements say: "these statements have not been evaluated by the FDA," but we believe their claimed benefits anyway, and consume them without hesitation, it only goes to show that the FDA is an impotent, broken-down sham of an organization. We never hear reasons, we never hear facts. Only a vague warning that plainly states that they aren't doing anything about it. We, as Americans, cannot rely on the FDA. The FDA does not care about us, clearly. Will they EVER evaluate anything they've warned us against? My money's on NO! Lazy, unethical good for nothings. Layabout suits who're too busy pocketing lobbying money from the American corn and milk industries to DO THEIR F%$KING JOBS!! They'd feed us human remains- as long is wont kill us fast enough to cause suspicion, they'll stamp it "approved" and put it on our plates. They don't bat an eyelash at the fact that the U.S.A. is a diabetes wonderland. Nope. EAT MORE CORN SYRUP- IT'S JUST FINE. Hell, in a few years they'll probably be telling us "corn sugar" can make us fart rainbows and live longer, depending on how much money the corn freaks throw at them. Gut the FDA and start over over! Get rid of it- fire all of them! If our government wants to sit idly by as we gorge ourselves on pseudo-food, and won't so much as whisper a warning to us for fear of havnig to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT or LOSING THEIR BRIBE MONEY, then let's just eat dirt. It's probably safer than whatever is in our fridges right now- but don't expect the FDA to determine that honestly.

Ashok Kumar Goswami

The removal of pollen from honey to hide the location of origin,where honey produced by honeybees. In my observation this is only purpose to sale lower quality of honey. Honey is food and medicine in original way as produced by honey bees. Honey only simple filteration i.e. bee-hive debris and other foreign particles just propolis,dust etc. is good quality honey. Without pollen honey is only sugar contents. Colour,taste and aroma of honey depends on pollen. Pollen has its medicinal properties. Without pollen, what is the difference of honey and bio-sugar. Pollen is the footprint of honey.