Did you know that honey is one of the most faked foods in the world? It’s true! According to the Food Fraud Database maintained by the compliance management company Decernis, it’s the third-most-faked food behind milk and olive oil.
As Business Insider reports, in February 2013, the biggest incident of food fraud in US history was all about honey, when the U.S. Justice Department charged two major honey importers in “Operation Honeygate.” The importers — Honey Solutions and Groeb Farms — shipped fake or adulterated Chinese honey through other countries in Asia and Europe before sending them to the US. The honey-laundering scheme, which helped the companies avoid $180 million in shipping duties, hid the honey’s true origin, leaving few to suspect that it wasn’t real. You’d think that would have put an end to the fake honey racket, but alas, here we are, ten years later, and a lot of the world’s honey is still fake.
But don’t we have governing bodies in this country to ensure the accuracy of food labeling? As Well + Good reports, technically the answer is yes, as the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) does have a honey grading system to inform consumers of the quality of product they’re purchasing. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that these systems are protecting consumers.
“When it comes down to it, there is relatively little regulatory enforcement directed at food produced in or imported to the U.S.—we have lots and lots of regulations and guidance about food, but very limited enforcement,” says Nicole Civita, a food systems educator, attorney, consultant. In fact, the Federal Register literally reads, “honey does not require official inspection in order to carry official USDA grade marks and…there are no existing programs that require the official inspection and certification of honey.”
Civita also adds, “The FDA has, for decades, been attuned to the practice of trading in fake honey, which began in the 1970s, as high fructose corn syrup grew in popularity and availability, so lots of labs and initiatives to test and assess the veracity of honey have been developed.”
The exact amount of fake honey in the world is up for debate. An analysis by the Honey Authenticity Project, an association of activists and industry members, places the number of fake or adulterated honey at 33%. A 2018 study of honey for sale in Australia found that 27% of the products tested were faked or had other ingredients mixed in. US-specific numbers are harder to come by, but one lawyer, who’s behind several class-action lawsuits accusing honey brands of fraud, puts the figure as high as 70%.
“Honey laundering” became widespread when Chinese laboratories began modifying high-fructose corn syrups to make them look like pure honey. The sugars in these syrups — known as C4 sugars — became popular for honey counterfeiters in the 1970s, with the invention of high-fructose corn syrup, according to Richard Anderson, director of Siratech, a private lab in Texas that detects fake and adulterated honey. But they were soon easily detected in tests, so honey counterfeiters modified their methods to use syrups developed from plants with C3 sugars, like rice, beets, or cassava. The adulterated syrups can be used to dilute a smaller batch of real honey. They can also be fed directly to bees, replacing flower nectar.
Beekeepers are among the hardest hit by the ramifications of fake honey. As you can imagine, these adulterated products drive the price of honey way down. Leonard Foster, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of British Columbia, explains, “Honey is an internationally traded commodity, so anything that drives down the price of honey in one place has a ripple effect across the world by dropping the price that beekeepers everywhere can get for their honey.” Foster continues, “The fact that we keep finding more and more fake honey also leads to lack of public confidence in honey as a food, which puts further downward pressure on the price.”
This creates an environment where it’s super difficult for beekeepers to make a living from honey production alone. In turn, they need to put more pressure on their bees to collect higher amounts of nectar to produce even more of the sticky stuff. This can increase the odds that their bees are exposed to the four P’s, especially as this predicament often requires some honey bees to travel outside of their usual range to collect the additional nectar. Overall, more honey beekeepers are needing to turn to outside sources of income as the profession becomes less and less financially sustainable. And with fewer ethical honey producers in the industry, the market potential for fake honey producers grows that much larger.
When it comes to fake honey’s effects on honey consumers, while it won’t harm us, adulterated honey does significantly impact the health benefits typically associated with the real stuff. Pure, raw honey can boost our health in so many ways due to its bioactive compound content that provides anti-inflammatory and antibacterial benefits. Plus, this coveted sweetener can help promote gut and respiratory health, while also alleviating sore throats and seasonal allergies.
However, when it comes to some of the additives found in fake honey, like refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup, those health benefits are effectively replaced by health concerns. “Fake honey typically contains synthetic and highly processed ingredients that some folks try to avoid or minimize, which is especially true for people who seek out real honey as a natural food with nutritional and health benefits,” shares Civita.
These processed ingredients like added sugar and high fructose corn syrup are pro-inflammatory agents, hindering the immune system’s ability to do its job. Plus, if the adulterated honey in question has been filtered or heat treated, many of the healthy compounds that may have been present in the honey have likely been either removed or killed off. No matter, fake honey is still safe to consume, it just won’t offer the health benefits we may be expecting.
So, what can you do to ensure the honey you buy is the real thing? According to Well + Good, the only sure-fire way to know if your honey is real or not is to either test the chemical composition or know its true origin. And while most of us don’t have fancy lab equipment lying around to conduct these tests, we do often have access to a local honey producer. “The best way to make sure that you’re getting real honey is to buy directly from a beekeeper,” says Foster.
If you don’t have access to local producers, however, there are also a few traceability certification organizations that you can turn to, one of which is True Source Honey. When you buy honey that has undergone third party verification like True Source products do, you’re supporting producers who invest in transparency—proving that their products are free from adulteration, while also working to elevate the industry as a whole. Additionally, you can look out for claims on honey packaging like MGO, UMF, and NPA—these labels are often found on more expensive and niche honeys, like Manuka honey, and are a fairly credible indication that the honey has been tested for quality assurance.
“If the price of honey on your store shelf seems too good to be true, it probably is! Honey is, and should be, a pretty premium product…and treated as such,” says Civita. Some great brands offering the real deal that are available online or in many grocery stores include Bjorn’s Colorado Honey, Y.S. Eco Bee Farms, and Local Hive Honey.
If you’re curious whether the honey you already have in the cupboard is real or not, there are also a few at-home tests that you can try—though, of course, these won’t be 100-percent indicative of whether your honey is the real deal or not. Some of these tests include tasting for the floral notes and lingering aftertaste of pure honey, doing a stickiness test between your fingers—real honey should actually feel more like a balm or cream as opposed to truly sticky, and looking for a cloudy appearance indicative of crystals, honeycomb particles, and pollen found in the real stuff.
While there are still many unknowns surrounding this issue, we do know at least a portion of the honey and honey based products in this country are not authentic. This puts bees and beekeepers at risk, while drastically altering the nutritional benefits of the beloved sweetener. Through seeking out third party verified brands and local honey producers, you can seek out reputable honey products that will not only nourish your body, but will also support the good guys within the industry.
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