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Laser Intended For Mars Used To Detect "Honey Laundering"
A laser tool funded by the European Space Agency to measure carbon on Mars is now being used to help detect fake honey. By burning a few milligrams of honey the laser isotope ratio-meter can help determine its composition and origin. From the article: "According to a Food Safety News investigation, more than a third of honey consumed in the U.S. has been smuggled from China and may be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals. To make matters worse, some honey brokers create counterfeit honey using a small amount of real honey, bulked up with sugar, malt sweeteners, corn or rice syrup, jaggery (a type of unrefined sugar) and other additives—known as honey laundering. This honey is often mislabeled and sold on as legitimate, unadulterated honey in places such as Europe and the U.S."
Most places in the US have a small local honey industry. Support it.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
You should try to buy from your local Farmer's Market if there's one nearby, whenever possible. You will be supporting your local economy and you can be reasonably sure a local merchant isn't pumping poison into the product or the groundwater (or else someone will have noticed). Especially when it's their water too.
I stocked up on some excellent honey and combs (these are delicious!) past Summer from our local market and they hold one at least twice a week near the town square. It's a good way to meet people in your area the old fasioned way too as opposed to FB, Twitter et al.
If computers were people, I'd be a misanthrope.
We should stop importing products that may be unsafe and force those countries we trade with to clean up there acts.
China should not be allowed to get away with being unregulated. They should have to comply with the same health, environmental, and other codes american companies have to comply with. If they can't do it then we should stop trading with them and foster the development of our own industries again.
Ok, fake honey is bad. But even legitimate Chinese honey is crap. Honey is honey, right? Bees fly around, collect nectar, then spit out honey. (Yeah, yeah, the types of flowers affects the taste. I'm getting to that.) But a lot of Chinese honey doesn't involve flowers at all -- the bees drink sugar water. For all I know, that happens in the US, too. As mentioned above, go to a farmer's market and buy some local honey.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
illegal antibiotics and heavy metals
Now we know the real "ancient Chinese secret ingredients" in the "Chinese Miracle Honey" that promises that I'll "Never get another infection again."
At least that's what "Chromium Carl" and his predecessor, "Mercury Mike," keep saying on the infomericals.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
In addition to buying locally produced honey, which is available in most of the U.S., people really need to be reading the ingredient labels on other foods they buy. After reading the Food Safety News report linked to in the article, I'd bet that if a product lists honey as an ingredient and is made by a huge food conglomerate, odds are the honey, or whatever it really is, came from China. And we in the U.S. really need to put some teeth in the FDA's inspection process.
So... Taking some real honey and add HFCS is worse than having "illegal antibiotics" (whatever that means) and heavy metals ?
FFS when will they stop these articles full of "allegedly" "may contains" in between scary words, and stick to facts instead...
Seriously if we are going this route, it also "may" contain plutonium, or the cure to Cancer.
Sensationalism is what rules, feeling and not information.
When you buy local, it tends to have a greater economic impact on your local economy than if you buy from outside your local area.
This information is useful to people who give a greater or lesser "moral weight" to supporting their local economy vs. their regional economy vs. their domestic economy vs. the world economy. Those who more strongly favor firing the economic engines of 3rd world countries than they do their domestic, regional, or local economic engine will use this information and say "Sell me that 3rd world honey, please, even if I have to pay extra." Those who favor the opposite may be willing to pay a premium - perhaps even a 100% premium - for locally grown/locally produced goods.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
wait 'till you learn what they do to our Coke...
Like wine and some other food products, honey CAN taste different based on the flowers the bees feed from.
"National chain" honey is likely either from the same region year after year and/or it's a blend that's controlled to ensure a consistent product from year to year.
Heck, as a consumer, if I wasn't specifically looking for "pure" honey I would expect some added ingredients, including small amounts of flavoring and cheaper sweeteners, to allow the company to sell me something that "tasted like honey" at a lower price and with greater batch-to-batch and year-to-year consistency. Then again, I'm the kind of guy who usually buys name-brand relatively cheap fizzy drinks instead of small-label, all-natural-ingredients expensive ones. But when I do buy "carbonated grape juice" I expect it to be nothing but pure carbonated grape juice.
The one thing I do demand as a food customer is an accurate label that lists all flavor-, texture-, and medically-significant ingredients (e.g. allergens, anything with nutritional value, etc.), and all non-trace ingredients.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
They guy with all the bees is just the slave-driving middleman.
If you really want to buy from the actual producers, buy from the bees themselves. :)
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Once again, space industry technology is applicable to everyday life right here on earth. Pay attention, you stupid assholes in government!
Fake honey? Really? I wasn't even aware there was a fake honey underworld. I love honey and now I have to worry about whether some fuckwit has filled it with something else? Thanks alot you wankers.
But seriously, don't buy clear honey. Honey can be traced by the pollen, which has been removed in clear honey.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
A spectre is haunting Amazon: the spectre of $0 communism [amzn.to]
Don't worry, they'll make it up in volume.
Advertising volume, that is.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I've got honey that can detect "laser laundering."
You pour it on a laser, and if it doesn't turn red, then green, then brown, it's a real laser.
Works every time.
Wait until you find out how Slurm(TM) is made.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
You're eating bee vomit to begin with... You really care that it isn't "pure" puke? Fucktards...
This was about adulterating honey with other sweet materials or honey that is contaminated with antibiotics and heavy metals.
If a wanker is adulterating your honey, well, I think I'd rather die of heavy metal poisoning than think about what he's adulterating it with.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I had the "deadpan" setting a bit too high. Please accept my apologies.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Why would anyone buy a food product made in China? You can pretty much count on it containing something it shouldn't or not containing something it should. I don't even buy pans made in China, and that's a chore. Electronics ok, but anything to do with food, Chinese products are out.
appears on your doorstep and wants to have mindblowing sex with you, you can zap her with a powerful mars laser, call her out as a fraud slathered in high fructose corn syrup, and send her on her way.
And fair, as in both markets being accessible to the respective other party.
And fair, as in no gov't subsidized industry, no selling products at or below cost to destroy the other's industry, etc.
It never occurred to me it was a license to print my own honey!
appears on your doorstep and wants to have mindblowing sex with you, you can zap her with a powerful mars laser, call her out as a fraud slathered in high fructose corn syrup, and send her on her way.
I think I'd like to zap her with my laser, if you know what I'm saying... then lick the HFCS off her!
Actually that's backwards. I'd lick the HFCS off her, THEN zap her! Repeatedly, and as often as possible. I'm getting older and takes my laser a few minutes to recharge in between... discharges, but it's still good for a bunch in a day, with proper fueling and cooling.
Sorry, what were we talking about again?
I buy Crockett's Desert Honey since that's the local stuff here and man, so much tastier than generic clover honey. Whatever desert wildflowers the bees are snacking on, it gives it a very complex and tasty flavour. So worth the extra money.
I mean if you are using it in mass quantities, ok maybe the cost is a problem, but for normal household use a container of honey should last a reasonable amount of time (it is high calorie, you shouldn't slather it on stuff) so it really won't hit your budget that much.
You can usually find the smaller honey producers in good grocers. Crockett's is sold in Safeway in my region. Grocers often stock some local products. By the same token I can get really good local tortillas in Safeway here, since they are made here (in town in fact).
Do a bit of looking around, you probably can get local honey, you can probably get it at a convenient store, and it probably isn't too expensive.
Or go order Crockett's from their site. It really is my favourite honey I've ever had.
I was aware of problems with imported honey being adulterated. I know it is not an absolute guarantee but is this label a good idea for now?
There's a lot of domestic fake maple syrup, which is nothing but maple syrup-flavored corn syrup. So, don't get too nationalistic in criticizing the crap the Chinese are sending us.
BTW, I heard a year or so a go there was an effort to make a law banning selling anything not pure maple syrup as such.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
I sell my bees' honey in the neighborhoods of the hives. Some buyers can feel a positive difference immediately and can be very fussy about the honey. BY law, beekeepers can't mention possible benefits as it is considered to be 'practising medicine' w/o a license! While honey can last forever, volatile aromatics are expended and fresh honey IS different than the same honey at the end of the year. In the USA only 49% of the honey in a jar of '100% natural American honey' needs to be 100% US honey. Honey supplement is not honey at all, costs about $.14/# and is banned in the EU.. so we get it in the USA.
It is banned for the levels of antibiotics, pesticides, and other contaminants. Organic is nigh impossible to verify in the USA. Buying from a Beekeeper direct is the best bet.. A living wage would be about $35.00/#, Anything less than $6.00/# is suspicious.
BTW, NEVER warm honey in a microwave to liquify it which destroys beneficial amino acids, it will soften w/o killing amino acids in a hot water bath.
Here is the original self-promoting story from Food Safety News:
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/08/honey-laundering
However, from searching Google News (e.g. "china counterfeit honey"), the results are merely people's blogs that link to the same Food Safety News article. I'm sure FSN is providing a helpful service of raising awareness, but they are not an impartial group who we can expect to conduct a reliable investigation. Where are the confirming sources?
Their article references the FDA, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Agriculture -- but I can't find anything on those sites to support the article's opening claim that "A third or more of all the honey consumed in the U.S. is likely to have been smuggled in from China."
Can anybody provide a citation?
What better way to use NASA technology than to detect honey counterfeits. I can't think of a better way. Seriously.
This is just Gas Chromatography using a laser to turn the liquid honey specimen into vapor form to be analyzed with the chromatograph. Nothing seems new except for this specific and particular laser, which is only used as an energy and heat source to vaporize the liquid sample. Am I right?
shuttup you silly little shrieking girl.
Good local honey seems expensive in the states. I am currently living in Japan where the local honey is some of the best in the world, but at about $20 per pint, I don't get to eat a lot of it. Makes local US honey seem cheap.
I dunno about that... Not only is this an issue in Europe (where I live and buy the honey I eat), but they're also asking each other, "Eat any horseburgers lately?"
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Yeah, the EU is doing a great job at food monitoring. Fucking hilarious.
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
And the hysterical idiot has an account linked to Facebook. Everyone who's surprised by this, raise your hand.
Please go back to forwarding your blithering political conspiracy spam (of whatever wing you belong to) to your relatives and ``friends.''
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
One of Australias' "Big 2" SuperMarket chains (ie, Coles) places Chinese-sourced "Honey & Syrup" in the middle of the rectangle of shelf-space otherwise occupied by honeys.
As "Honey" is listed first, in the product's name, I - for one - was once fooled into thinking that the product would -surely- have at least 50% honey in each plastic bottle of "Honey & Syrup," so I tracked down the Australian distributor & asked for details about the product.
(I should have generalised from what we - long ago - discovered about so-called 95 gram cans of "designer tunas" ...which turned out to contain from about 40% tuna up to slightly over 70%, depending on each can's "designer flavor.")
(The Australian importer's phone number was answered by an auto-parts company(!). Checking the phone number, it was then listed, in the phone catalog, as a car parts company.)
Assuming that the company was perhaps a rural-based operation, happy to convert some extra storage space into profits, I focused on the product's make-up, since the label did not specify the prevalence of either of the two named ingredients.
Verbally, the person at the cart parts company, who answered as importer & distributor of this product, told me that the product was 60% -syrup- & only 40% honey. As the label did not show these percentages, I couldn't help replying: "Today, maybe, but I'd almost expect the Chinese supplier to further reduce the percentage of honey it may mix in, in future, ie, to cut its cost.
I bet that mcdonald honey is fake.
I'd rather just say "fuck the chinese" since they're busy ripping us off six ways from sunday and take care of our own damn economy.
Given enough demand I'm sure that our local farmers can be kept busy making honey for us.
...oh, fuck, you don't do you.
Seriously, if you're eating at a fast food restaurant then whether you are getting genuine honey is likely to be the least of your health worries.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
" told me that the product was 60% -syrup- & only 40% honey. As the label did not show these percentages"
On compliant (ie: legal) food labelling in Aus:
"Ingredients must be listed in descending order (by ingoing weight). This means that when the food was manufactured, the first ingredient listed contributed the largest amount and the last ingredient listed contributed the least. For example, if sugar is listed near the start of the list the product contains a greater proportion of this ingredient."
This means that syrup should have been listed first. If this wasn't the case, false labelling of food is currently handled by the sates, please see: http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/foodstandards/foodenforcementcontacts/
Most of the honey you find that is cheap, is NOT honey but HFCS that is blended with honey. They had a big thing about that in consumer reports a couple of years ago and warned everyone away from honey that has a origin labeling that stated China or Pakastan. but it is easy to spot if you know what to look for. Blended honey is very light in color and far too clear compared to real 100% honey.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The cut stuff is simply sugar water being added. Not as bad for you. Just not what you paid for.
The real problem is that Chinese food is LOADED with heavy metals (esp. mercury) due to their pollution. It is bad enough that we are getting food using ingrediants from there, but the pure chinese honey is pretty bad. I hope that we are prosecuting those that we have found to be importing Chinese honey. As in jail time.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Keep in mind that we have an issue with coloney collapse. That is still not solved. However, I think that if we can kill off the Chinese honey (which is being dumped on the west illegally), then their will be strong incentives to get local honey right.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
China can make something cheaper and crappier than us and we eat it right up. So much so that people think real honey is a ripoff.
Wait...isn't this just a variation on the olive oil story?
It is shocking that a food product can avoid immediate scrutiny by various government agencies and that people who trade in adulterated honey are not locked down and severely punished. Imagine what a dedicated terrorist could pull off when we have no detection system in place. If some slow acting disease were inserted into a honey product millions of people could suffer loss of life or health from one attack. Maybe it is time to either bear the burden of intense scrutiny of imported food items or simply ban all imported food items.
Fake honey is real honey in the US anyway. The USDA allots for a 33/66% corn syrup honey mixture to be marketed as "Real Honey"
This discussion has been incredible. A virtual education in honey production & types plus the scammers.
It is a key reason Slashdot is in my bookmarks. I wish more news sources stuck to this mode.
Do this to everything they produce. Your beef, your soy, you oil, your sugar, everything.
Grow your own shit or buy it from people you trust and the problem is solved.
I assume your post is in jest, but supposedly there is a product that allows you to do just that.
I'd imagine that there are some maintenance, etc concerns though.
The problem isn't antibiotics and heavy metals per se, it's
* Having them in amounts that are above legal limits
* Having them in amounts that are generally known to be unsafe, even absent legal regulations
* Having them in biologically significant amounts without notifying the consumer
The first is a legal problem but all are moral problems and the last two are likely health and/or environmental problems.
Trace amounts of antibiotics and heavy metals that are well below legal thresholds, below any levels known or strongly suspected to cause a safety issue, and which are either clearly labeled or which are below any levels known to be biologically significant either for the consumer or the environment (i.e. what goes down the toilet or what's left in our body when it rots away) can remain unlabeled without being a problem.
Note that "levels known to be biologically significant" may be "any measurable amount" for certain heavy metals, certain allergens, and certain chemicals that easily pass into the unborn offspring of a pregnant woman or to her child through lactation.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
You know how it is. If you eat everything on your plate then children won't starve in Africa. If most people are overweight, then everyone should eat less because it would be politically incorrect to tell only the fat people to eat less.
There was a great episode of Bullshit which focussed on the organic food vs non-organic food topic. It turns out that most of the (superior) taste difference that people claim for organic food is psychological. For a single banana cut into half, if one piece is labelled "organic" and the other is not, people would report a better taste for the "organic" half. Now granted that Penn & Teller weren't producing a scientifically peer reviewed experiment, it still is an interesting data point. For my part, I don't see any difference whatsoever between organic and non-organic, other than that the organic stuff seems to spoil faster.
There is no such thing as luck. Luck is nothing but an absence of bad luck.
Buy specific types of honey. Pollen particles can be seen in honey and can be identified. Therefore clover honey must contain a certain amount of clover pollen and it must be the predominant pollen. Likewise for orange blossom and so on. Generic honey can be super-filtered which removes the pollen making it unidentifiable as to source, composition, adulteration, etc.
Thats not free trade.
Now if the US would stop buying the stuff....
But apparently there is a big demand for Chinese honey. Now *THAT* is free trade.
Clean up your own dodgy people, don't foist your rules on the Chinese. You don't have to buy their stuff in the first place.
Doesn't matter. If any of it is fake (or full of pesticides and heavy metals) it is very good reason to pay twice as much for home-town honey, which may have other benefits (local allergen de-sensititization, suposidly),
A lot of people like their coffee sweet, and many of them put honey in their coffee. It seems to me that coffee honey in coffee would be damned good, if you like sweet coffee (I don't).
Maybe it's just my personal chemistry, but every time I've put honey in coffee, it tastes horrible . It's like there's some sort of weird chemically reaction or something that happens, like what happens when you have a sip of wine after brushing your teeth. Honey in tea is awesome, but in coffee, I've never been able to stand the resulting flavor.
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
...if you think of Winnie the Pooh looking for the "Honey Pot" in the adult context, it makes those cartoons enjoyable a second time around.
There are 2 groups of people you can make fun of on the Internet without fear of attack. The illiterate, and the Amish.
Honey in the US is inspected both for it's labelled origin and content. There are 2 basic types - filtered - lightly filtered and super filtered. super-filtration removes all of the pollen particles from the honey, thus rendering it unidentifiable. Honey sold in the US as a specific type must contain a minimum amount of the pollen(s) named on the label. True, it could be diluted. The pollen can also identify the source of origin. Bees in China eat chinese plants. And these pollen particles can be identified microscopically. It's only the 'generic' superfiltered honey that is really suspect. And I would guess most of it comes from Asia where pesticide/herbicides are not as strongly regulated and it's super-filtered to conceal it's source.
And if it's origin is listed as New Zealand, even worse. Although most Aussies would be inclined ot buy NZ if not Australian, laws across the Tasman allow products to be labelled as Product of New Zealand so long as something happened there, like final packaging. So bulk Chinese 'honey' can be shipped to New Zealand, bottled, then sold in AU as Product of New Zealand. If shipped direct to AU, it would be labelled 'packed in Australia from imported ingredients' or Product of China.