Pure honey?

[Nimrod103]

A couple of weeks ago I read a very tendentious article in the Guardian claiming that basically all the common supermarket runny honey brands were adulterated with cheap corn syrup. The writer said, if you see on the label that the ingredients included those from outside Europe, it was certain that most would be highly adulterated Chinese honey.

Obviously if you pay a high price for UK farm sourced honey, it is likely to be a pure product. But I was thinking there has been a big campaign this week on the TV I watch for Rowse honey. That must contain Chinese honey, in which case it must be adulterated, yet the authorities seem to allow this. Is that right?

[ReformedCharacter]

A couple of weeks ago I read a very tendentious article in the Guardian claiming that basically all the common supermarket runny honey brands were adulterated with cheap corn syrup. The writer said, if you see on the label that the ingredients included those from outside Europe, it was certain that most would be highly adulterated Chinese honey.

Obviously if you pay a high price for UK farm sourced honey, it is likely to be a pure product. But I was thinking there has been a big campaign this week on the TV I watch for Rowse honey. That must contain Chinese honey, in which case it must be adulterated, yet the authorities seem to allow this. Is that right?

The sugar syrup in honey story isn't new and my knowledge is now a bit out of date. I remember it being newsworthy, at least among bee keepers, >25 years ago. Then it was the Chinese who were being blamed and a lot was used in blended honeys from various brands. It's not just the Chinese who do it, I remember one bee keeper in this country being caught out. It's hard to test for adulteration accurately:

https://honey.com/images/files/NHB-Honey-Testing-FAQs.pdf

Producing fully UK sourced honey in any quantity is hardly profitable or feasible, although there are niches such as heather honey which then again is a premium honey produced in small quantities. The best honey in my experience comes from small scale producers\hobbyists who care about bee keeping and producing a high quality honey. Of couse local honeys are more expensive but when you consider the work (not just by the bees) that goes into producing it, it isn't much of a money making activity.

I've heard the Rowse adverts on the radio and became so annoyed by the voice-actor who pronounces 'health' as 'helf' and 'them' as 'dem' that I left a comment on their website. I haven't heard back from them

RC

[AWOL]

http://www.scarletts.scot/honey/beekeeping/ I buy Scarlett's Honey or stuff I encounter at farmers markets. Neither of these compete on price with Supermarket Own Brand or Rowse's honey.

I seam to remember reading something somewhere, probably from the supermarkets, questioning the methodology used to identify adulterated honey.

[PhaseThree]

There is an FAQ section on "Provenance" on the Rowse honey site. Probably worth reading before jumping to too many conclusions.

https://www.rowsehoney.co.uk/faqs#provenance