Study: 75 Percent of US Grocery Store Honey Is NOT Real Honey

According to Andrew Schneider with Food Safety News, testing done exclusively for the Web-based newspaper reporting on food safety found that more than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores isn’t real honey.

Test results reveal that pollen has been filtered out of the majority of honey on the market, and without pollen any product sold as honey is NOT honey, according to the quality standards set by world food safety agencies.

The World Health Organization, the European Commission and dozens of other regulatory agencies, including the FDA, claim that any product that’s been ultra-filtered and no longer contains pollen isn’t honey, and yet the FDA still does not monitor honey sold in the U.S. to determine if it contains pollen.

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.

Food Safety News purchased more than 60 jars of honey in 10 states and the District of Columbia. The contents were analyzed for pollen by Vaughn Bryant, a professor at Texas A&M University and one of the nation’s premier investigators of pollen in honey.

Bryant’s test results are listed as follows:

• 76 percent of samples bought at groceries had all the pollen removed, These were stores like TOP Food, Safeway, Giant Eagle, QFC, Kroger, Metro Market, Harris Teeter, A&P, Stop & Shop and King Soopers.

• 100 percent of the honey sampled from drugstores like Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS Pharmacy had no pollen.

• 77 percent of the honey sampled from big box stores like Costco, Sam’s Club, Walmart, Target and H-E-B had the pollen filtered out.

• 100 percent of the honey packaged in the small individual service portions from Smucker, McDonald’s and KFC had the pollen removed.

• Bryant found that every one of the samples Food Safety News bought at farmers markets, co-ops and “natural” stores like PCC and Trader Joe’s had the full, anticipated, amount of pollen.

Ultra Filtering

Ultra filtering is a variation of a technique refined by the Chinese, who have for years illegally unloaded tons of their honey on the U.S. market, some of which contains illegal antibiotics.

The contents of pollen in honey is the only fail-safe method of identifying the honey’s source, and is the only reason why the pollen is removed. Food scientists and honey specialists agree pollen is the only foolproof fingerprint to a honey’s source.

In addition, removing pollen from honey destroys all of honey’s inherent health benefits.

“Raw honey is thought to have many medicinal properties,” says Kathy Egan, dietitian at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. “Stomach ailments, anemia and allergies are just a few of the conditions that may be improved by consumption of unprocessed honey.”

Schneider points out that beyond pollen’s enzymes, antioxidants and well documented anti-allergenic benefits, a growing population of natural food advocates want natural, organic honey– not an ultra-filtered honey product.

Richard Adee, who owns 80,000 hives in multiple states which produces 7 million pounds of honey annually, told Food Safety News that honey has been valued by millions for centuries for its flavor and nutritional value and that is precisely what is completely removed by the ultra-filtration process.

“It’s no secret to anyone in the business that the only reason all the pollen is filtered out is to hide where it initially came from and the fact is that in almost all cases, that is China,” said Adee.

Mark Jensen, president of the American Honey Producers Association, told Food Safety News that removal of all pollen from honey makes no sense and is completely contrary to marketing the highest quality product possible.

“I don’t know of any U.S. producer that would want to do that. Elimination of all pollen can only be achieved by ultra-filtering and this filtration process does nothing but cost money and diminish the quality of the honey,” Jensen said.

“In my judgment, it is pretty safe to assume that any ultra-filtered honey on store shelves is Chinese honey and it’s even safer to assume that it entered the country uninspected and in violation of federal law,” he added.

Eric Wenger, director of quality services for Golden Heritage Foods, the nation’s third largest packer, said his company takes every precaution not to buy laundered Chinese honey.

“We are well aware of the tricks being used by some brokers to sell honey that originated in China and laundering it in a second country by filtering out the pollen and other adulterants,” said Wenger, whose firm markets 55 million pounds of honey annually under its Busy Bee brand, store brands, club stores and food service.

“The brokers know that if there’s an absence of all pollen in the raw honey we won’t buy it, we won’t touch it, because without pollen we have no way to verify its origin.”

Only Buy Honey Labeled “Organic”

Schneider claims the test results found that a consumer’s chances are better in obtaining honey that’s not ultra-filtered and includes pollen if you buy brands labeled as “organic” at major grocery chains. Out of seven samples tested, five (71 percent) were heavy with pollen. All of the organic honey was produced in Brazil, according to the labels.

Bob Olney, of Honey Tree Inc., sells Winnie the Pooh honey in Walmart stores, which contains no pollen. Olney says his honey comes from suppliers in Montana, North Dakota and Alberta. “It was filtered in processing because North American shoppers want their honey crystal clear,” he said.

The packers of Silverbow Honey added: “The grocery stores want processed honey as it lasts longer on the shelves.”

But Schneider claims most beekeepers say traditional filtering used by most will catch bee parts, wax, debris from the hives and other visible contaminants but will leave the pollen in place.

The U.S. imported 208 million pounds of honey over the past 18 months. Almost 60 percent came from Asian countries, writes, Schneider, traditional laundering points for Chinese honey.

Schneider notes the majority of the honey found to have no pollen was packaged as store brands by outside companies but carried a label unique to the food chain.

For example, Giant Eagle has a ValuTime label on some of its honey. In Target it’s called Market Pantry, Naturally Preferred and others. Walmart uses Great Value and Safeway just says Safeway. Wegmans also uses its own name.

Who actually bottled these store brands is often a mystery, said Schneider.

Target refused to say who wanted the source of their honey kept from the public. Similar obfuscation came from representatives of Safeway, Walmart and Giant Eagle.

And Schneider claims drugstores weren’t any more open with the sources of their house brands of honey. A Rite Aid representative said “if it’s not marked made in China, than it’s made in the United States.” She didn’t know who made it but said “I’ll ask someone.”

Truth in Labeling Law

What the U.S. needs is a truth in labeling law as they have in other countries. Many concerned advocates have tried to convince the FDA that we need a single national standard for honey to help prevent adulterated honey from being sold.

Schneider notes New York Sen. Charles Schumer is one of more than 20 U.S. senators and members of Congress of both parties who have asked the FDA repeatedly to create a federal “pure honey” standard, but the FDA has done nothing.

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Inquisitive foodie with a professional investigative background and strong belief in the organic farm to table movement. Author of Bad Seeds: A FriendsEAT Guide to GMO's. Buy Now!