Honey can be faked and adulterated in many different ways “to fraudulently control the market.” Common strategies include diluting the honey with sugars or syrups, or feeding corn syrup to the bees rather than allowing them to forage for pollen.
Story at a glance:
- Honey is the third most-faked food in the world. Tests have revealed 50% to 70% of all U.S. honey is fake or adulterated.
- True Source Honey, a honey certification group, was created by the businesses it certifies. According to a class action complaint, True Source Honey is being used by these businesses “to fraudulently control the market, sell fake honey at substantially lower prices than honest beekeepers, and divert sales, revenue, and profits to themselves.”
- Honey can be faked and adulterated in many different ways. Common strategies include diluting the honey with sugars or syrups, or feeding corn syrup to the bees rather than allowing them to forage for pollen.
- Inexpensive, low-grade honey can also be filtered and then dusted with high-grade pollen from another location to obscure its origin. Oftentimes, honey labeled as “local” is, in fact, cheap honey sourced overseas.
- To ensure authenticity, buy honey from a local beekeeper. You’ll typically find them at farmer’s markets. Also, use your senses. Many adulterated honeys will lack the floral notes found in pure honey. Adulterated honey may also have a lingering aftertaste, or will simply taste too sugary, and is far stickier and transparent than real honey.
Remarkable as it may seem, food fraud is a huge business and a rampant problem.
Award-winning journalist and best-selling author Larry Olmsted revealed many food fraud tricks in his 2016 book, “Real Food/Fake Food: Why You Don’t Know What You’re Eating and What You Can Do About It.”
For example, tests have revealed anywhere from 60% to 90% of the olive oils you find in grocery stores and restaurants are adulterated with cheap, linoleic acid-rich seed oils that are pernicious to health in several ways.
Most honey on the market is not real honey
Another food that is frequently adulterated is honey. Tests have revealed that 50% to 70% of all U.S. honey is fake or adulterated, and according to a comprehensive review of fake foods published in the Journal of Food Science, honey is the third most-faked food in the world.
As reported by Better Homes & Gardens, on Oct. 2:
“You probably weren’t aware that much of the honey found on grocery store shelves is actually fake — in some cases, it contains little to no actual honey. In fact, honey is one of the most faked foods found in our food supply today. …
“Honey can be adulterated in many ways — from treating it with heat to filtering it to diluting it with modified additives like sugar or syrup. It can be harvested too early as plant nectar, doctored up, and sold falsely as the end product, honey.
“It can even be labeled as local when it’s really sourced internationally. Other particularly savvy honey-making imposters go as far as to feed bees sugar and syrup to produce honey, rather than natural foraging — severely impacting the product’s nutritional benefits. …
“When we consume fake honey — made from refined sugar or high fructose corn syrup — we’re not only missing out on all of these therapeutic benefits, but we’re actually consuming a highly inflammatory food, essentially causing the opposite effect on our health.
“Also, if adulterated honey is treated with heat or filtered, many of the compounds that make honey so healthful can be lost.”
Beware of fake Manuka honey
When it comes to Manuka honey, prized for its superior health benefits, both topically and internally, only 1 in 7 products tested during a 2014 investigation turned out to be the real thing, that is less than 15%!
The nectar from manuka flowers contains dihydroxyacetone, a precursor to methylglyoxal (MGO), an antimicrobial compound not found in most other honey.
The presence of MGO is credited for much of manuka honey’s medicinal prowess, which includes the ability to combat complex antibiotic-resistant infections.
If you’re buying fake Manuka, you’re not only losing out on health benefits but could worsen your problem as highly processed sugar from high fructose corn syrup feeds bacteria that authentic Manuka would suppress.
You’re also burning a big hole in your pocketbook, as Manuka honey is among the most expensive honeys in the world.
The fraud runs deep
Class action lawsuits filed over the last five years reveal the “honey laundering” scheme runs deep — to True Source Honey, one of the largest honey certification groups that is supposed to confirm the source and guarantee the quality of honey.
As noted by the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy, the drawback that allowed for this is that True Source was founded by the very businesses it certifies.
According to a class action complaint filed in 2021, these honey businesses are “using True Source to fraudulently control the market, sell fake honey at substantially lower prices than honest beekeepers, and divert sales, revenue and profits to themselves.”
“True Source is not the watchdog of the honey industry it claims to be, but the mechanism that makes the conspiracy tick,” the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy writes.
It continues:
“The complaint alleges that True Source purposely fails to monitor its members for compliance with its own certification program and that the True Source Certified Standard is designed to allow True Source members to a proliferate cheap and adulterated honey throughout the United States.
“Until a recent surface-level revamp in this standard, True Source Certified companies only used outdated and ineffective testing methods that are incapable of detecting all methods of honey adulteration and fraud.
“True Source intentionally uses these outdated and ineffective testing methods to bypass fraud detection. When syrup is detected, True Source turns a blind eye.
“The complaint further alleges that although it purports to be a watchdog of the honey industry, True Source is fully aware that its Certification and Participation program is being used by importers and packers to misrepresent the authenticity of their honey products.”
How honey is faked
Honey can be faked and adulterated in a variety of different ways. Here’s a summary breakdown of some of the most common methods:
- More often than not, the honey is simply diluted with different sugars and/or syrup made from rice, beet or high fructose corn syrup, thereby forfeiting any health benefits. In rare cases, these additives can also cause the honey to ferment, creating alcohol levels that could be dangerous for children.
- Honey is sometimes heated to high temperatures to avoid crystallization and make it easier to manipulate, yet is still sold as “raw.” Heating above 100 degrees Fahrenheit destroys the beneficial enzymes, effectively eradicating expected health benefits.
- Some honey producers will extract the honey early when it’s a nectar product and not yet finished honey, and then machine dry it. As a result, it won’t have health benefits.
- Unscrupulous honey producers will feed high fructose corn syrup to the bees rather than allowing them to forage for pollen.
- Honey is often labeled as “local” when, in fact, it comes from overseas. So, if you’re using it to address seasonal allergy symptoms, it may not work.
- Honey can be filtered through aliphatic resin, a rinsing technology that removes contaminants. This method obscures the origin of the honey and removes antibiotics, pesticides and undesirable flavors present in the raw product.
This method is typically used on low-grade unpalatable honey like Indian Gum honey, which cannot be sold due to its disgusting taste and smell. Once dissolved in water and run through this process, you end up with an unscented light-colored amber honey that can be sold. However, the technology also eliminates the enzymes and chemicals responsible for honey’s health benefits. - Inexpensive, lower-grade honey can be filtered and then dusted with high-grade pollen from another location to obscure its origin. The end product also may not have the health benefits assumed.
Sweetwater Science specializes in honey testing
With fraud so rampant, how can you be sure you’re getting real, unadulterated, unfiltered honey?
The only way to be absolutely certain that honey hasn’t been adulterated would be to test its chemical composition, which is something Sweetwater Science Labs specializes in.
As reported by Vice:
“As an independent and ISO accredited lab, Sweetwater Science is up for hire by anyone who wants to test honey — beekeepers, consumers, packers, and lawyers … Even people off the street who want their honey tested can bring them their samples, which happens more than you might think.
“[Jim] Gawenis is a scientist — he doesn’t sell honey or import it. He doesn’t even certify the honey he tests as good or bad, either; he analyzes it with Bruker’s NMR food screener and provides the data to his clients. From there, they can do what they like with the information.”
Unfortunately, Sweetwater Science doesn’t publish results on their website, but the Vice article includes the results of several honeys brought for testing by the author, Shayla Love. Some of the results are surprising indeed.
A bear-shaped bottle of Great Value Clover Honey from Walmart tested pure, with no sign of adulteration of any kind, whereas a jar of Tennessee “raw, local sourwood honey” turned out to be sourced from Vietnam and contained added non-honey sugars and a bottle of Whole Foods 365 Organic honey had been adulterated through heating.
How to ensure you’re getting real honey
Most people probably aren’t willing to go quite as far as lab testing their honey. In this case, the commonsense strategy is to buy honey from a local beekeeper. You’ll typically find them at farmer’s markets.
Also, use your senses when selecting honey. Many adulterated honeys will lack the floral notes found in pure honey. Adulterated honey may also have a lingering aftertaste, or will simply taste too sugary.
Real honey also isn’t very sticky. Rather, it tends to have a balm- or cream-like consistency when rubbed between your fingers. If it’s excessively sticky, chances are refined sugars or syrups have been added.
Real, raw, unfiltered honey also tends to have a cloudy appearance and may have remnant honeycomb particles or flecks of pollen in it.
Over time, it may also begin to crystallize. If it never crystallizes, it might not be pure. If you’re buying Manuka honey, you’ll want to verify the MGO, non-peroxide activity (NPA) and the unique manuka factor (UMF) content.
- MGO is a measurement of the main ingredient, which has a direct correlation to its antibacterial properties. The higher the MGO, the higher the potency in terms of healing ability. All genuine Manuka honey produced in New Zealand is tested for MGO.
- NPA refers to its antibacterial activity and is equivalent to the UMF rating. For example, an MGO of 550 equates to an NPA of 15, and many companies will list both on the label.
- UMF is a trademark registered and controlled by the UMF Honey Association, which provides some assurance of both quality and genuineness. The UMF correlates to the MGO but also includes other quality and authenticity checks.
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My mom picked up as hobby last few years, crazy how much honey you can get from a few hives.
…. and there’s always been a lot of local honey around, everywhere I’ve lived. I live at the exurb/suburb boundary for a good sized city, and I’ve seen a huge growth in backyard beehives and chicken coops. People are also planting a fair number of fruit trees and berries. This results in a lot of reciprocal gift-giving. I have too many apples and my neighbor has extra honey, so we give each other a bit. The only down side is that it *is* a little work. The honey you see at the farmer’s market *is* a lot better than the watered down stuff at the local chain grocery. Plus, you can choose flavors. A local pick-it-yourself blueberry farm also has a bunch of hives, and the honey they make is strongly blueberry flavored. Another local beekeeper I know bought a 20 acre place and planted the whole thing in flowers specifically for his bees. It’s a little more pricey if you buy it, but one jar of honey lasts a fair amount of time for most folk.
While I don’t doubt a lot of honey is counterfeit, I also don’t trust middle-man certification bodies either. I’ve had to deal with too many of them. They lie – a lot – to push requirements that every manufacturer must pay them a cut of their sales to get their “certification” mark. They are huge scams.
Along the same line, I’m very suspicious of everything being labeled as “organic” now. Seems like something like that designation is ripe for abuse.
No one tells the bees where to gather nectar.
Next we’ll find out that White Castle serves fake cat meat.
yeah, the olive oil business is notorious for this too. Even well known brands.
-btw are they still using their ‘meat glue’ to fake better cuts of meat unbeknownst to customers? (until they prepare and try to eat it).
I misread the title as “70% of Money is fake” and thought “Hmm, what an oddly low estimate.”
Yep.
As things crash, food adulteration goes through the roof.
Expect sawdust in sausage again.
Oh wait? They call it cellulose now so it’s ok.
_______
Here’s some fun..
In the early 20th century, Americans were inundated with ineffective and dangerous drugs, and adulterated and deceptively packaged foods. Compounding the problem, consumers had no way of knowing what was actually in the products they bought. The passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act marked a monumental shift in the use of government powers to enhance consumer protection by requiring that foods and drugs bear truthful labeling statements and meet certain standards for purity and strength. While the 1906 law laid the cornerstone for the modern FDA, as time went on it became clear that it had major shortcomings, which limited the agency’s ability to protect consumers. The law offered no way to remove inherently dangerous drugs from the market and set such a high burden of proof for misbranding, i.e., intent to defraud, that the agency was rarely able to take action against a company for fraudulent products. In addition, the law provided no authority over cosmetics, medical devices, or advertising, and imposed no standards for foods.
[And.. The fear porn campaign to sell the FDA to the public]
To help make the public aware of the 1906 law’s limitations, the FDA’s Chief Education Officer, Ruth deForest Lamb, and Chief Inspector, George Larrick, created an influential traveling exhibit in 1933 to highlight about 100 dangerous, deceptive, or worthless products that the FDA lacked authority to remove from the market. The exhibition was so shocking it was dubbed the “American Chamber of Horrors” by a reporter who accompanied First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to view the exhibit. The name stuck. Lamb also adapted the exhibit into a 1936 book in which she explained that “All of these tragedies … have happened, not because Government officials are incompetent or callous, but because they have no real power to prevent them.”
https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-history-exhibits/80-years-federal-food-drug-and-cosmetic-act
Buy honey from local growers. That is all you have to do.
As a side note: non-GMO honey and “organic honey” are scams. Those little girl bees gather flowers where and when they want to and they do not care if the flowers are GMO or if the field has been sprayed.
The bees of Babylon
Adulterated honey.
Ok.
Thanks for the headsup!
Am I safe in assuming the comb in honey has been adulterated as well? Because that would really sell the lie I would think.
There are no adults allowed in the honey comb hideout.
I know that in the past, Kirkland brand (Costco) Extra Virgin Olive Oil was found to be 100% of everything they claimed. We buy a Georgia honey from them and now I wonder about it too.
Honey laced with adulterants like corn syrup won’t crystallize. If your honey does crystallize then it’s the real thing…
Winnie: “Wait, what?”
This has been known for a long time, at least since 2007. The only disagreement I would have is about HFCS. Lots of beekeepers use that to feed their hives in fall going into winter. Chemically it is very similar to honey and can keep hives from starving since there is nothing to gather from November until March in many areas. Otherwise they get fed sugar and when they are left with after harvest season. Sugar is ~60 cents/lb to buy and honey is ~$12/lb to sell. Bulk HFCS is even cheaper to buy for the big guys.
Bees really are easy to keep. I just walked by my hives. After a few cold days it is sunny and 50. They are all out for ‘cleansing flights’. Bees won’t poop in their hive unless they are sick. They also don’t pee. So, they hold it until a nice day when they can get out to take care of business.
We just used the last of our 2022 honey last week. I didn’t harvest any this year. It was a bad year with drought then rain. Plus, I’m planning to sell them and move next spring. They will be healthier for whoever buys them after a winter on honey and local pollen.
“Would you like to try some adultery honey?”
Good ways to get slapped or punched #1368
Winnie does not approve. 🐻
“It’s always them, Tigger.”
Better yet don’t eat any of that sugary shit
All beekeepers have to feed their bees at some point in a yearly cycle and most of them feed a 2 parts sugar to 1 part water mixture in the fall. The bees turn that into pure honey and as far as non GMO or Organic honey goes the bees gather nectar from wherever they can find it and convert that into pure honey. The faking of the honey goes on after the honey is harvested, not by feeding the bees high fructose corn syrup.
If you’re lucky you have your hives next to an area that has a lot of wild flowers which imparts lots of floral flavors into the honey.
I planted a lot of black locust trees to help out my apiary but that only helps in June and makes for a very clear and sweet honey without a lot of floral flavors. My bees get the majority of their nectar from trees and various bushes in my neck of the woods. Honey also varies from year to year as the weather, ie, moisture, controls what the bees have to work with.
Thankyou for sharing.
Interesting info!
I second that emotion! After I clear cut my front yard of red oaks I let the yard fill in naturally (lots of white clover). I left it that way for a neighbor 4 doors down who was operating an apiary. I doubt he’ll ever know the act of kindness I extended him.