A HealthWise column by Laurine Brown, Ph.D., MPH
Laurine Brown holds a Ph.D. in nutrition from Tufts University and a Masters in Publ`ic Health from Boston University. For over 20 years, Dr. Brown has worked with community health and nutrition programs in the US and Asia. She is currently a visiting Associate Professor of Healthy and Environmental Studies at Illinois Wesleyan University, and has a private nutritional counseling practice. Contact her at
The Sticky Trail of Tainted Honey
Honey. If you're like me you keep a jar of this golden syrup in your cupboard to sweeten a cup of warm tea, ease the hiccups, or soothe the kids' winter colds. We think of it as the most natural of sweeteners, squeezed directly from honeycombs constructed by honeybees, the product they distill from the nectar of flowers. Its sweetness, simplicity, and purity allure us.
But most of us would be surprised to learn that these days commercial honey leaves a sticky and far from sweet trail. In the 1950s when the iconic bear-shaped honey bottle was first invented and stocked American grocery stores, most honey sold in America came from American honeybees. In contrast, even though honey is still produced in America, today a long supply chain often links beehives halfway around the world with honey jars stocking our supermarket shelves.
Furthermore, reports of “honey laundering” or “identity-switching” are buzzing. This refers to the way, allegedly, that millions of pounds of Chinese honey tainted with potent antibiotics, heavy metals, and other contaminants, have been making their way into the US, but are labeled from other countries. China is the world's largest honey provider. But several years ago, the US slapped tariffs on Chinese honey to prevent it from flooding the market at dirt-cheap prices which would devastate sales of honey from American beekeepers. To get around the tariffs, China reportedly laundered its honey through other countries, like Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, which were not known for commercial beekeeping. Terra Brockman, former beekeeper and president of The Land Connection, reports in a 2010 Zester Daily article “Fight Honey Laundering” that tens of thousands of pounds of honey entering the US each year come from countries that raise few bees and have no record of producing honey for export. About half of the honey Americans consume is imported, and according to an August 2011 Food Safety News report, one-third may have been smuggled in from China. Much of that ends up mislabeled or unlabeled on US store shelves.
Reports of toxic honey seizures make this story even stickier, especially given honey's historic reputation as medicinal and healing. For example, in 2010 US officials seized 64 drums of imported honey at a Philadelphia distribution center because tests revealed contamination with a potent antibiotic chloramphenicol, which can cause a fatal aplastic anemia in sensitive people. A 2011 Food Safety News investigation has documented that millions of pounds of honey which is banned as unsafe in dozens of countries is still imported and sold here in record quantities, despite widespread arrests and convictions of major smugglers over the last two years.
If that's not bad enough, most honey sold in US stores isn't, by safety standards, honey. Let me explain. Commercial honey is usually “filtered”. This is in part to remove “bee wings, wax and other hive debris.” But some of the filtering, especially if it is “ultra-filtered”, also removes pollen, which is a key ingredient in pure honey and thought to have medicinal and allergy-fighting properties. In fact the US FDA, says that for safety reasons, if pollen is not present in the product, it “isn't honey” since there is no way to determine whether the product came from legitimate and safe sources. Reportedly, the main reason to “ultra-filter” is to “hide the country of origin” so the pollen cannot be traced back to a place (like China). Unfortunately, the FDA isn't checking to see if honey sold in the US contains pollen. But scientists at Texas A&M University did their own testing, collecting 60 honey bottles from many types of stores across 10 states. Results? A whopping 76 to 100 percent of samples contained no pollen at all. Translation? Most commercial honey is not pure honey. Further complicating the sticky mess, according to Brockman, is that, since most states have no “pure honey standard”, producers can dilute honey with corn syrup or sugar water and still call it honey.
Good grief. Laundered, tainted, watered down and strained? How did honey, this historically sweet, simple, pure food get so complicated? And how can we restore its purity?
Sweetening the Honey Trail
“The only way to get honest to goodness unadulterated honey is to know the farmer and his/her hives,” advises Terra Brockman. Why not just look for “Product of USA” on jar labels? According to Brockman, unfortunately, labels are no help for several reasons. In the absence of a legal definition of “pure honey”, as noted earlier, products diluted with other sweeteners can still be called honey. Additionally, the US does not require honey labels to show a “country of origin”. It is perfectly legal to say “product of USA” if it was bottled in the US, but the honey was imported. For example, a commercial honey jar labeled “processed in Iowa” tells you nothing about where the honey really came from.
Fortunately, in Illinois there is a strong Beekeepers Association, which has lobbied successfully for passage of a “honey bill” removing barriers for small scale producers to sell to local consumers. Locally produced honey is readily available. Shop at farmers markets, and stores that buy directly from beekeepers, like natural food stores or co-ops. Happily, the study reported earlier by Texas A&M scientists found honey from such places “all had the full anticipated amount of pollen.” Additionally find local beekeepers and purchase directly from them. See www.localharvest.org, put in “honey” and your zip code.
The choice for me is simple. The honey in my cupboard comes from a local beekeeper who sells through a local health food store. This simple act helps ensure I'm avoiding a laundered, tainted, watered down and a strained honey imposter. Plus I'm supporting local beekeeping. And that thought sweetens my day.
Sweet Facts about Honey and Bees
o In her lifetime, one bee collects nectar enough for only a half teaspoon of finished honey.
o She and her sisters may collectively fly more than 50,000 miles, visiting more than 2 million flowers to make one pound of honey.
o Honey has been valued as for its “sweetness” and as “medicine” by folk healers for conditions such as lack of vigor and skin healing.
o Recent research suggests honey contains a variety of flavonoids and phenolic acids which act as antioxidants, scavenging and eliminating free radicals.
o Honey is an effective antibacterial agent, and also may have anti-inflammatory, and anticancer activity.
o A daily spoon of local (raw, unpasteurized) honey may help prevent seasonal allergies and hayfever. Traces of pollen from seasonal local plants may “prime” the allergy-prone person's immune system, enabling it to build up resistance.
References:
Brockman, T. “Fight Honey Laundering.” Zester Daily. August 2010. Viewed December 13, 2011 @ http://www.zesterdaily.com/environment/624-chinese-honey-laundering.
Charles, D. “Funny Honey: Bringing Trust to a Sector Full of Suspicion.” The Salt: NPRs Food Blog. December 13, 2011. Viewed December 13, 2011 @ http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/12/13/142903171/funny-honey-bringing-trust-to-a-sweet-sector-fraught-with-suspicion .
Charles D. “Relax Folks, It's Honey After All.” The Salt: NPRs Food Blog. November 25, 2011. Viewed January 7, 2012 @
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/11/25/142659547/relax-folks-it-really-is-honey-after-all#more
Environmental Nutrition. “Discovering a Honey of a Sweetener.” Research News, Environmental Nutrition Newsletter. December 2011.
Leunsman C. “Determining the Feasibility of Implementing a Beekeeping Cooperative in the Bloomington-Normal, Illinois Area.” Final Research Report for ENST 480: Environmental Studies Senior Seminar, Illinois Wesleyan University. November 27, 2011.
Mencimer, S. “That Honey in Your Bear Might Not Be Honey.” Mother Jones. Nov 7, 2011. Viewed January 7, 2012 @ http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/11/honey-your-bear-might-not-be-honey
Ogren T. “Local Honey and Allergies, Revisited.” Viewed January 8, 2012 @ http://www.pioneerthinking.com/to_honey2009.html
Philpott T. “Honey Laundering.” Mother Jones. Nov 7, 2011. Viewed January 8, 2012 @
http://motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2011/11/supermarkets-sell-fake-honey
Schneider, A. Asian Honey, Banned in Europe, Is Flooding U.S. Grocery Shelves. Food Safety News. Aug 15, 2011. Viewed January 8, 2012 @ http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/08/honey-laundering/.
Schneider, A. Tests Show Most Store Honey Isn't Honey: Ultra-filtering Removes Pollen, Hides Honey Origins. Food Safety News. November 7, 2011. Viewed January 8, 2012 @
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/11/tests-show-most-store-honey-isnt-honey/
US Food and Drug Administration. “FDA Seizes More Than $32,000 Worth of Bulk Honey from Philadelphia Distribution Center.” Press Release by the US Food and Drug Administration, June 10, 2011. Viewed January 8, 2012 @ http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm215193.htm.