Posted on 08/15/2011 9:41:42 AM PDT by fso301
A third or more of all the honey consumed in the U.S. is likely to have been smuggled in from China and may be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals. A Food Safety News investigation has documented that millions of pounds of honey banned as unsafe in dozens of countries are being imported and sold here in record quantities.
And the flow of Chinese honey continues despite assurances from the Food and Drug Administration and other federal officials that the hundreds of millions of pounds reaching store shelves were authentic and safe following the widespread arrests and convictions of major smugglers over the last two years.
Experts interviewed by Food Safety News say some of the largest and most long-established U.S. honey packers are knowingly buying mislabeled, transshipped or possibly altered honey so they can sell it cheaper than those companies who demand safety, quality and rigorously inspected honey.
(Excerpt) Read more at foodsafetynews.com ...
Is the honey harvested by a local, or are they buying it elsewhere and bringing it to the market?
Eating local honey that has not been overly filtered will help with seasonal allergies, as you will be ingesting the pollen and building a resistance. Some producers will filter the honey for clarity, which removes most of the beneficial pollen.
My one of my Wife’s Uncles runs a small apiary. We get our honey from his hives. Southern MN farm country with mostly corn and beans for cash crops.
I want my tricoder now !!! To be able to analyze all health risk products sold and soon to be sold in shops.
Radioactive Japanese tuna canned who knows where
Radioactive beef
Radioactive milk processed into milk powder and use in chocolate production as a raw material.
>>You sure about that? "Sue Bee" is a grower co-op and they've always been adamant that they only sell 100% US honey.
Thank you for looking that up. There are many unsubstantiated claims here (on the internet :)
“.....a large amount of their foods are grown in human waste..”
As opposed to cow, pork or sheep waste here.
excrement is excrement.
I know, I've been guilty of some myself. 96.342% of all internet statements are made up.
However, the USDA says U.S. beekeepers can only supply about a 48 percent of what's needed here. The remaining 52 percent comes from 41 other countries.
Varroa mites and diseases are taking their toll on US honey production. Meanwhile, American agricultural practices are destroying indigenous bee populations, often as directed by the USDA, citing various "food safety" regulations.
Yep, find a local source if you can. Some smaller groceries will carry more local stuff if you don’t know where to start.
Ah, well, if you're just going to round off the number that isn't very helpful ... [smile]
do we have any CONFIRMED names of companies doing this?
just one confirmation will cause the others to fall in line.
I also rely on (and more likely trust) local sources for honey. However in the interest of full disclosure, be advised of the following regarding the news source.
From the Food Safety News web site -
Marler Clark is the nation’s leading law firm with a practice dedicated to representing victims of foodborne illness. The firm presents Food Safety News as a daily Web-based newspaper dedicated to reporting on issues surrounding food safety.
Really, a little honey is all I need... How bad can a little irradiated honey bee?
I have a pound of a store brand honey labeled: “Honey From the USA, Canada or Argentina.”
No one in our government, or in most businesses dealing in imports, wants accurate country of origin labeling. Most in Congress are bought and paid for by business interests who want no accurate labeling.
And from this article, it looks like those at the FDA and elsewhere also have no interest in identifying adulterated honey and mislabeled country of origin honey. And we can bet honey is not the only imported food product or food supplement where that is the case.
Dr. David Janda on Sunday, July 10, 2011 had on as his Second Hour Guests:
Richard Adee, President Adee Honey Farms, discussing the problems with bee's in this country and worldwide. SCAREY....
http://www.davejanda.com/operation_freedom/
Listen, on line and be scared....
I buy local because it benefits a local business, and also because consuming the honey helps you to become more tolerant of the local allergans. Here in south central Texas that’s a big deal - the mountain cedar is a killer of an allergy.
what about honey used in food processing? no labels, just generic “honey”. How about those little plastic containers in restaurants like the little jellys?
When caught the offenders should be tried and taken out back to be shot in the head until dead.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/397445_honey26.html
Sue Bee Vice President Bill Huser said 315 different beekeepers supply 60 percent of the 40 million pounds of honey the Iowa-based company sells each year. The rest is imported.
To protect consumers, Huser said, the company does extensive and elaborate testing on the imported honey, finding shipments laced with chloramphenicol, an illegal antibiotic, about once a month.
When it's found, he said, it's sent back to the broker who imported it.
Won't report it to FDA
That doesn't sit well with some members of the cooperative. Several told the P-I that returning tainted honey to the marketplace is wrong. They said the issue has been raised in recent years, but the company has refused to change its policy.
Bill Allibone, Sue Bee's president, said the company has no intention of telling government regulators about the bad honey it finds.
"We deal with a core group of suppliers that have long, established ties in the import business, and we're assuming that when we reject a load of honey, they'll return it to the people they purchased it from."
Allibone said he has no idea whether the tainted honey is resold to other U.S. packers. Asked whether the company had an obligation to take action to protect the public health, the president repeated: "It's just not our honey."
"Truck drivers tell us about bringing full semi loads of foreign honey across the border to packers in our state and Oregon. That honey didn't come from Canadian bees, but it's sold with a label saying 'from U.S. and Canadian honey.' "
So 40% of Sue Bee honey is imported? Oh, yeah, this association is really helping the American BeeKeeper, aren't they.
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Seattle P_I Investigates Honey Laundering
“Two-thirds of the honey Americans consume is imported and almost half of that, regardless of what’s on the label, comes from China, the Seattle P-I reported last month.The newspaper’s five-month investigation into honey laundering — the intentional mislabeling of the country of origin — found that tons of Chinese honey coming into the U.S. is tainted with banned antibiotics.
But when the contamination is discovered by the industry through internal testing, insiders say, federal health or customs officials are almost never notified, and the honey ends up being dumped back on the market.”…Testimony from federal investigators and informants offer a glimpse into a typical deal: Wolff (a German import/export house) sold Chinese honey to a U.S. honey producer. The packer tested the shipment and found traces of antibiotics. Wolff took the honey back and resold it to another packer who didn’t test for contaminants.
If convicted, the Wolff executives face up to five years in prison for conspiring to falsify country of origin on the Chinese shipments.
In its series, the P-I reported that it had received shipping papers showing that Chinese honey, falsely labeled as a product of India, was sold to several U.S. honey packers, including one of the nation’s largest — Sue Bee Honey Association.”Excuse me – Sue Bee? We’re talking “Mom and Apple Pie” here – their ‘queen shaped’ jars are on every grocer’s shelves in America. Sue Bee is buying up Chinese honey – falsely labeled as to origin? Now, why would Chinese producers want people to think that their honey came from someplace else?
I have two jars in the pantry. One says Produce of USA and the other says Produce of Brazil. Think I can trust them?
ditto. I have my own hives too. In fact, my Fr nom de plume, “mieleman” means “honeyman” in Italian. The writer of this article is correct. Adulterated honey has long been a problem for American honey producers to contend with, not only economically but from a health standpoint.
Folks should try to buy honey from a local vendor and ensure the label says, “raw and unfiltered”. This also means, or it should, that the honey has not been pasteurized. Heating honey beyond 150 degrees for more than 8 minutes (some say 4 minutes)will destroy all of the beneficial enzymes, vitamins and minerals.
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