Supermarkets accused of selling fake honey

A storm is brewing over how to make sure your honey is what it claims to be on the bottle.
Australia’s biggest listed honey company and some of the country’s largest supermarket chains face accusations of selling fake honey.
Testing at a leading international scientific lab that specialises in honey fraud detection has found almost half the samples selected from supermarket shelves was “adulterated”, meaning it had been mixed with other substances. The adulterated samples were all products that blend local and imported honey.
Capilano’s Allowrie branded Mixed Blossom Honey, which sources honey from Australia and overseas, and markets itself as 100 per cent honey, showed up as “adulterated” in the majority of samples tested.
Experts say adulterated honey was generally bulked up with rice syrup and beet syrup and other unidentified substances, which aren’t detected by official honey tests.
International fraudsters, often criminal gangs in China, produce the fake honey and sell it to unsuspecting suppliers at a higher price, making a fortune along the way.
“That’s why Interpol is interested,” said Phil McCabe, the president of the International Federation of Beekeepers’ Association (Apimondia).
Capilano strongly denied any issues with its products and criticised the type of test – known as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance – used to detect the impurities, pointing out it differed from the official Australian test. Sydney Morning Herald – Read more…