Honey Laundering: Is Your Honey Real or Fake?

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Up to 70 percent of this popular food is fake or adulterated, meaning you’re not only missing out on all the therapeutic benefits, but you’re also consuming a highly inflammatory food. So how can you spot the difference when even the “watchdog” is compromised?

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

• Honey is the third most-faked food in the world. Tests have revealed 50 percent to 70 percent of all U.S. honey is fake or adulterated.
• True Source Honey, a honey certification group, was created by the businesses it certifies. According to a class action complaint, True Source Honey is being used by these businesses “to fraudulently control the market, sell fake honey at substantially lower prices than honest beekeepers, and divert sales, revenue, and profits to themselves.”
• Honey can be faked and adulterated in many different ways. Common strategies include diluting the honey with sugars or syrups, or feeding corn syrup to the bees rather than allowing them to forage for pollen.
• Inexpensive, low-grade honey can also be filtered and then dusted with high-grade pollen from another location to obscure its origin. Oftentimes, honey labeled as “local” is, in fact, cheap honey sourced overseas.
• To ensure authenticity, buy honey from a local beekeeper. You’ll typically find them at farmers’ markets. Also, use your senses. Many adulterated honeys will lack the floral notes found in pure honey. Adulterated honey may also have a lingering aftertaste, or will simply taste too sugary, and is far stickier and transparent than real honey.

Remarkable as it may seem, food fraud is a huge business and a rampant problem. Award-winning journalist and best-selling author Larry Olmsted revealed many of the food fraud tricks in his 2016 book, “Real Food/Fake Food: Why You Don’t Know What You’re Eating and What You Can Do About It.”^1,2