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Tests Show Most Store Honey Isn't Honey

I was more than a little disappointed in this article ... not the article itself but in the news. If you can't trust honey, what can you trust?? I usually buy raw honey from health food stores but I suppose there are no guarantees there either. How discouraging! Is there any food that is left untampered with?

Well, I never knew that!!!

Thanks Tabby, I must say that's an eye opener.

Even Winnie the Pooh honey, that's blasphemy!

Isn't honey bee poop to start with?

flopstock;1375583 wrote: Isn't honey bee poop to start with? I thought Honey was Bees spit... could be wrong.

oscar;1375587 wrote: I thought Honey was Bees spit... could be wrong.


Could well be... mine is just the tortured knowledge of a younger sibling..lol

flopstock;1375588 wrote: Could well be... mine is just the tortured knowledge of a younger sibling..lol


OMG... I just googled It and apparently Honey Is Bee vomit !!!

I didn't know this the bee has two stomachs. One is used for storing and regurgitating nectar, while the other is used for actual digestion.

Right that's put me right off for good now.

That doesn't bother me at all.

oscar;1375589 wrote: OMG... I just googled It and apparently Honey Is Bee vomit !!!

I didn't know this the bee has two stomachs. One is used for storing and regurgitating nectar, while the other is used for actual digestion.

Right that's put me right off for good now.


Whatever you do don't Google Hens eggs

Bruv;1375602 wrote: Whatever you do don't Google Hens eggs


Funny you should say that.... Parents need to think about what they tell their children. My Mother told me as a child that brown eggs came from dirty hens. I only buy white to this day.

Simple answer is to always buy off the producer - not only do you get better honey but you know for sure where it came from.

Regardless of how the bees produce it, at the end of the day it is the purest food there is.

The only natural product that doesn't go bad......indeed.....and has magical qualities apparently.

Bruv;1375606 wrote: The only natural product that doesn't go bad......indeed.....and has magical qualities apparently.


Eddie Izzard - Covered In Bees - YouTube

Is everybody hiding up in this thread, just to keep out of trouble ?

Fortunately I have seven pet bees weighing about two pounds each that scour the neighborhood in search of nectar to keep me supplied with that delicious sweetener.

Lon;1375611 wrote: Fortunately I have seven pet bees weighing about two pounds each that scour the neighborhood in search of nectar to keep me supplied with that delicious sweetener.


Welcome Lon at last the voice of reason

Lon;1375611 wrote: Fortunately I have seven pet bees weighing about two pounds each that scour the neighborhood in search of nectar to keep me supplied with that delicious sweetener.


Do they have a hive or do you keep them In a pillow case?

oscar;1375613 wrote: Do they have a hive or do you keep them In a pillow case?


I have a 6 by 8 ft. hive for them and the Queen (Sheila). Their names are Raymond, Bruce. Brian, Igor, Peter, Oswald, Hermes, Antonio and Chang.

Actually you might have a more serious problem with bees in the not too distant future.

now for the science bit » Are bees really dying out?

Fears for crops as shock figures from America show scale of bee catastrophe | Environment | The Observer

Or rather the lack of them.

The thread title has me slightly puzzled. From what I could glean in the article it's all honey, it's just that some of it could come from anywhere. There's an implication that if you can't prove its source then it's not honey. Maybe that's a legal truth but it sounds pretty illogical if it all comes from bees.

spot;1375635 wrote: The thread title has me slightly puzzled. From what I could glean in the article it's all honey, it's just that some of it could come from anywhere. There's an implication that if you can't prove its source then it's not honey. Maybe that's a legal truth but it sounds pretty illogical if it all comes from bees.


Methinks your semantic pedantry leads you to miss the main point, yes it is honey but not as it should be.

It is a spin-off 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.



Food Safety News decided to test honey sold in various outlets after its earlier investigation found U.S. groceries flooded with Indian honey banned in Europe as unsafe because of contamination with antibiotics, heavy metal and a total lack of pollen which prevented tracking its origin.






The irony of course is that there is a flood of foreign imports because domestic honey production is crashing pretending it is the sneaky chinese to blame avoids facing up to the real problem which is a systemic failure in american agriculture the consequences of which are still developing. There is actually a world wide shortage of honey and prices are rising making importing illegally attractive.



U.S. Beekeepers declare war against China - National Bees and Beekeeping | Examiner.com

Honey Shortage Could Spell Bigger Troubles | Food & Drink | Lifestyle | Mainstreet

Now we have honey thieves prowling the countryside

Bee rustlers cash in on honey shortage - Nature - Environment - The Independent

Honey is a luxury we can do without, the bees are not.

And the loss of bees is a potentially greater concern than the Banking crisis

Bryn Mawr;1375605 wrote: Simple answer is to always buy off the producer - not only do you get better honey but you know for sure where it came from.

Regardless of how the bees produce it, at the end of the day it is the purest food there is.


Buying raw honey directly from a beekeeper is definitely the best way and the honey generally has a much richer taste than store bought honey. I don't usually buy the jars with the waxy comb but I know some people love to chew it.

spot;1375635 wrote: The thread title has me slightly puzzled. From what I could glean in the article it's all honey, it's just that some of it could come from anywhere. There's an implication that if you can't prove its source then it's not honey. Maybe that's a legal truth but it sounds pretty illogical if it all comes from bees.


It may be more accurate to state that pure raw honey is honey ... the over-processed stuff sold in grocery stores is more of a honey "product". I think that's what the article title was getting at with its wording. Most nutritive and medicinal qualities seem to have been processed right out of it although it does make for a good sweetener.

Have you ever tried agave nectar? It's delicious. Agave Nectar | The Republic of Tea

gmc;1375636 wrote:

The irony of course is that there is a flood of foreign imports because domestic honey production is crashing pretending it is the sneaky chinese to blame avoids facing up to the real problem which is a systemic failure in american agriculture the consequences of which are still developing. There is actually a world wide shortage of honey and prices are rising making importing illegally attractive.



U.S. Beekeepers declare war against China - National Bees and Beekeeping | Examiner.com

Honey Shortage Could Spell Bigger Troubles | Food & Drink | Lifestyle | Mainstreet

Now we have honey thieves prowling the countryside

Bee rustlers cash in on honey shortage - Nature - Environment - The Independent

Honey is a luxury we can do without, the bees are not.


I don't know enough about current agricultural practices to comment on them but I've read other theories about the "plight of the honey bee". Some scientists suggest the possibility that the proliferation of cell phone towers is somehow seriously interfering with their navigational skills. Another theory abounds that blames the overly aggressive Japanese Hornet that was accidentally introduced into the USA over 100 years ago. Who knows ... it may be any number of reasons but it's too bad and your last sentence is so true!

SnoozeAgain;1375677 wrote: Have you ever tried agave nectar? It's delicious. Agave Nectar | The Republic of Tea


Yes, you're right, SnoozeAgain, it's very good and I've bought it from Republic of Tea! I love how they enclose a free teabag with their catalogs!! :yh_star:yh_star

Bryn Mawr;1375605 wrote: Simple answer is to always buy off the producer - not only do you get better honey but you know for sure where it came from.

Regardless of how the bees produce it, at the end of the day it is the purest food there is.


Agreed.

I buy unpastuerised honey from a local beekeeper.It has a satisfying, complex , flowery flavour, not unlike a fine wine.Supermarket honey tastes like white sugar syrup by comparison.

My beekeeper married a Chilean woman, and they spend the North American winter months in Chile, where it is summertime. He once told me the Chilean beekeepers dust their bees with dog flea powder, to control mites. The powder invariably gets mixed in with the honey.As far as the Chinese are concerned, I shudder to think what might be in their honey, given their track record on other foodstuffs (melamine in milk, "soy sauce" made from human hair :yh_sick).

Most supermarket honey here consists of "domestic and imported" honey, and it's usually pastuerised.One supermarket does sell local, unpastuerised honey, but I like buying it directly from my Bee Man. He has a table at the farmers' market.

tabby;1375678 wrote: I don't know enough about current agricultural practices to comment on them but I've read other theories about the "plight of the honey bee". Some scientists suggest the possibility that the proliferation of cell phone towers is somehow seriously interfering with their navigational skills. Another theory abounds that blames the overly aggressive Japanese Hornet that was accidentally introduced into the USA over 100 years ago. Who knows ... it may be any number of reasons but it's too bad and your last sentence is so true!


Things like phone masts may be a factor but the dying out of bees pre-dates their proliferation and the UK is one of the most densely populated countries on the planet where if it was the masts we would be seeing the effects more so than in the US. The agribusinesses have a vested interest in stopping research and commentary on what they are up to and do use threats and intimidation to shut up critics. This started in the united States it's plausible there is something in farming practice causing the problem.

gmc;1375713 wrote:

The agribusinesses have a vested interest in stopping research and commentary on what they are up to and do use threats and intimidation to shut up critics. This started in the united States it's plausible there is something in farming practice causing the problem.


The agribusinesses have a vested interest in keeping themselves IN business.

Surely they would want a solution rather than not and sooner rather than later.

What scenario would they know the cause of the problem and not want to solve it ?

Or have I got what you are saying wrong ?

Bruv;1375722 wrote: The agribusinesses have a vested interest in keeping themselves IN business.

Surely they would want a solution rather than not and sooner rather than later.

What scenario would they know the cause of the problem and not want to solve it ?

Or have I got what you are saying wrong ?


They have a vested interest in attacking anything that could affect their business. You're assuming they think long term and care about the effect their practices have on farmers. Farmers used to be able to keep back seeds for themselves from their crops and use them the following year. Monsanto actively tries to prevent that practice that practice with it's GM seeds. From an accountants point of view having a captive market that HAS to but their product and all the herbicides, pesticides from their company makes a lot of sense, it's not good for the farming industry. Monopolies are never good for business but who is the major supplier of seeds etc in the US and why are their rivals being out out of business. Farmers will supply what their customers but of the main customer is a supermarket that doesn't care they have little choice in the matter.

Having scientists write reports about the link between pesticides and cancers is bad publicity the first instinct is to shut off any threats to the profits using litigation not remove the cause. You have food libel laws in the states meaning any scientist, however accurate the research may be is in a position where they have to worry about being sued by a large corporation and losing his research grants. There is a lot to be said for government funding of pure research, it's a myth that our technological advances are entirely due to corporations the reality is very different.

You don't have to take my word for it there are are plenty of articles on it - also look up why some american meat products are banned by the EU then cross reference to articles about the effect of hormones used in cattle getting in to the food chain.

Beef hormone controversy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

International trade of genetically modified foods - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It gets portrayed as simple anti-american trade practices but there is more to it. In Europe food labels have to show contents and whether it is genetically modified or not - something monsanto lobbied against - there was a massive boycott throughout europe to the extent supermarkets ended up removing the stuff from the shelves, the fastest growing sector is organic foods, after the mad cow disease scare and a few other things people are a bit more wary about what they are eating and want to know what is in it. Now you get free range eggs alongside those from caged birds, the former are more expensive but still sell well, the qualitative difference is really noticeable. Same with meat, fruit and vegetables - apples are a good example, the supermarkets started only selling apples that generally all looked the same and you only get that from intensive farming and mainly imported apples at that all year round. our own growers were going out of business and no one was buying the crapoy acidic but nice looking ones in the supermarkets , so one or two start pushing home grown apples - sales take off now they are all selling them the demand was always there it's just supermarkets went for their bottom line and confused that with what their customers wanted.

Agribusinesses do the same - they confuse what they think is good for them and their bottom line with what is good for their long term survival. It isn't imo.

Cor blimey !!! OK I see what you are saying.

So the poor bee gets forgotten ?

Bruv;1375855 wrote: Cor blimey !!! OK I see what you are saying.

So the poor bee gets forgotten ?


No it's all connected. Each pesticide or herbicide in isolation isn't harmful but little research is being done on the cumulative effect and the the effect in combination. The components parts of of a nuclear bomb are relatively harmless it's the way they go together that matters.

Bees dying out will have an immediate effect on your food supply it might make people sit up and take notice. No one notices all the birds have gone.

EPA > Bird Conservation > Basics of Bird Conservation in the U.S.

or a more recent report

Many bird populations in trouble, report says - CNN

Course anyone raising the issue is a left wing tree hugging nutter that wants to wreck the economy, in fact I'm sure I read somewhere homeland security has environmental groups on the list of would be terrorists they need to watch.

Good grief only took five seconds

Pennsylvania’s Homeland Security Department Investigating Environmental Groups for Terrorism - Campus Progress

Maybe next time you buy a jar of honey you will wonder where it came from. I'm away to make myself a fair trade coffee and have an organic banana sandwich on wholemeal bread. There's a thing look up monoculture if you want even more reasons to be worried.

oscar;1375604 wrote: Funny you should say that.... Parents need to think about what they tell their children. My Mother told me as a child that brown eggs came from dirty hens. I only buy white to this day.


Sounds like Eggs Bigoted to me..

Thanks but I don't need any more reasons to be worried.

I had independently noticed the decline of the sparrow in London before I was aware of any problems.

I don't think there are any single reason or simple solutions.

The complexity of the natural world is biting our bum, and we though we were clever.

Bruv;1375606 wrote: The only natural product that doesn't go bad......indeed.....and has magical qualities apparently.


lol you guys need to get out more . yes chickens poo eggs and yes honey is the most wonderfully tasting vomit in the world . it also has healing properties. I have canola crops all around me and there are bees everywhere even had a hive in an old tyre. and it's beautiful to eat. and the honey comb is to die for. We also have laws here that protect consumers with thepackaging details ofwhere it has come from and indeed which type of wood the bees made their hive from ....me? I just go the the yellow boxs (gum trees) at the end of the drive. Now there's some nice honey. honey tastes different depending on what wood the honey comes from. I can't think of the name of the tree a the moment but it is the one with the most healing properties in it.

has anyone eaten a honey ant? they are fun . you hold it's head and squeeze it's bum and you suck the honey out of it.....................(oscar? use a bucket to throw up in)

We can't all live in the outback...................it wouldn't be the outback would it ?

I don't live in the outback ...yet. Just a rural area like any other around the world.

http://www.jintaart.com.au/iconography/anticon.htm

So basically you're sucking the contents of an ants rectum. YUMMY!!!!

Some places are more rural than others though.

hhhmmmm I'm going to take that as an insult ...there was definately something beneath that statement.

I had no intention to insult, don't you get all sensitive on me, or have I touched an Ozzie soft spot ?

Good news for Minnesota bees! It sounds like a step in the right direction. I'd be curious to know how this will fly in neighborhoods that are ruled by homeowner associations which are known to be sticklers for lawn appearance. If it came down to it, who would have the greater authority ... the state or the homeowners association?

https://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-f ... ki6oP5FnC0