In a disturbing development for honey lovers in the USA, tests done for the web site Food Safety News reveal that over 75% of honey sold in our grocery stores doesn’t qualify to be called “honey”.  Food Safety News tested more than 60 jars of honey from a variety of stores and producers in 10 states and the District of Columbia. Testing results show that the pollen, the key component of honey, is frequently filtered out of products labeled honey. The removal of these microscopic particles from deep within a flower make the nectar flunk the quality standards set by most of the world’s food safety agencies. The World Health Organization, the European Commission and dozens of other food safety organizations have ruled that without pollen there is no way to determine whether or not the honey came from legitimate and safe sources.

Over 75%  of samples bought at groceries like TOP Food, Safeway, Giant Eagle, QFC, Kroger, Metro Market, Harris Teeter, A&P, Stop & Shop and big box stores like Costco, Sam’s Club, Walmart, Target and H-E-B has had the pollen filtered out. An astounding 100% of the honey sampled from drugstores like Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS Pharmacy contained no pollen. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has set a standard and stated that any honey product that’s been ultra-filtered and no longer contains pollen isn’t honey. Ironically however, as with many such issues, the FDA isn’t actually providing testing and checking honey sold here to see if it contains pollen and thus meets those standards. Ultra filtering is a process by which honey is heated, frequently watered down and then forced at high pressure through tiny filters to remove pollen, which is the only foolproof signature identifying the source of the honey. It is a variation of a technique refined by the Chinese, who have illegally dumped tons of their honey – some containing illegal antibiotics – on the U.S. market for years.

The study found that all the samples Food Safety News purchased from farmers markets, co-ops and “natural” stores like PCC and Trader Joe’s contained the full, anticipated amount of pollen.

Many alternative health experts will tell you that locally grown, unpasteurized honey will provide the most potential health benefits. Unpasteurized honey can potentially reduce allergies, provide relief as an anti-inflammatory for arthritis suffers, treat digestive problems such as diarrhea and also be used as a topical antiseptic and anti-bacterial treatment.

Note: The tests for pollen content were conducted by Vaughn Bryant, a professor at Texas A&M University and one of the nation’s premier melissopalynologists, or investigators of pollen in honey.

Source: Food Safety News

Related: previously on alternativeConsumer – more food-related posts