Buyer Beware: We have previously published reports indicating honey may be contaminated with pesticides like RoundUp Weedkiller (Glyphosate). But now there is news of another type of issue concerning honey: If you choose to throw that low-cost honey into your cart beware that it may have been intentionally adulterated (diluted with sugar) by food fraudsters.
Low-cost “Chinese honey dominates the global market but is controversial because beekeepers in other countries say laboratory tests suggest some of the global supply is targeted by fraudsters who dilute it with cheaper sugar syrup.
In China, the authorities have been warned of the threat. The Institute of Apicultural Research in Beijing stated in a research paper in March last year: “In order to seek higher profits, high-quality honey is subjected to sugar adulteration through the addition of cheaper sweeteners.”
Factories in China advertise sugar syrup for sale to be mixed with honey, which it is claimed in marketing material can beat the most common tests used by food safety watchdogs. There has been legal action in the United States over claims that imports of cheap adulterated honey are pushing U.S. beekeepers to financial collapse.
Last year, Mitchell Weinberg, a New York-based food fraud investigator, commissioned QSI, a leading German laboratory, to test nine jars of UK supermarket own-brand honey. Eight of the nine samples tested indicated adulteration, but the Food Standards Agency (FSA) says more work is required to ensure that such tests can be relied on.” source
Chemical Free Life 