In a November 7, 2011 article in Food Safety News, a daily Web-based newspaper dedicated to reporting on issues surrounding food safety, Andrew Schneider reports that “Tests Show Most Store Honey Isn’t Honey”.
Ultra-filtering Removes Pollen, Hides Honey Origins
More than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores isn’t exactly what the bees produce, according to testing done exclusively for Food Safety News.
The results show tht 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 Commisssion and dozens of others also have ruled that without pollen there is no way to determine whether the honey came from leitimate 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.
The following day, November 08, 2011, AgInfo.net, a communications network focused on producing pro-agricultural messages, published a rebuttal article titled “Honey Filtering Myths” with quotes from Bruce Boynton, CEO for the National Honey Board, who says that the article published in Food Safety News is very misleading.
Honey Filtering Myths
by Greg Martin | Nov 08, 11
A new article out yesterday in the Food Safety News may have some people scratching their heads and wondering if they have been duped. The article by Andrew Schneider states that most store bought honey is…not honey. And his conclusion is that when ultra-filtering is used that removes the pollen and therefore it is no long honey. Bruce Boynton is the CEO for the National Honey Board and he says that is very misleading.
BOYNTON: He’s using the term ultra-filtering incorrectly. He’s loosely using the term and throwing it around throughout the article. It’s used incorrectly so it’s misleading. Ultra-filtration is a specific kind of filtration that is used in the food industry but it’s not generally used by the honey industry.
When ultra-filtration is used on honey it truly does become something other than honey. Many foreign companies use it as a clear sweetener for soft drinks and it is not marketed as honey.
BOYNTON: Generally in the United States ultra-filtration is not used. The packers in this country don’t use ultra-filtration, it’s too expensive and they don’t need to do it. They do filter honey through different methods. Certain types of filtration does remove pollen but that’s not a bad thing or illegal thing or wrong thing. In fact in the USDA grading standards for extracted honey, it talks about the removal of pollen grains and other particulates in honey as part of the filtration process
Read both articles and decide for yourself. Or purchase local unprocessed honey and avoid the issue altogether!