According to the Food Safety News, three quarters of all honey sold in the United States isn’t something natural that bees produce.
The results show that the pollen frequently has been filtered out of products labeled “honey.”
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 food safety divisions of the World Health Organization, the European Commission and dozens of others also have ruled that without pollen there is no way to determine whether the honey came from legitimate and safe sources.
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.
There could be a business opportunity here for someone. Three ideas immediately come to mind.
- Guaranteed Real Honey
- Some Kind of Inexpensive Home “Real Honey Test”
- An association of companies committed to selling real honey
BTW, that’s me in the bee suit holding the frame of honeycomb.