Honey scams and deceptions
Honey scams and deception
As honey is a hot-selling product in France and abroad, this juicy market has attracted numerous wholesalers and retailers who are often unscrupulous about their customers. Not to mention the Internet sites that resell their fake honeys, without being worried about anything.
Consumers are the first victims of this large-scale deception, as retailers take advantage of their naivety and lack of information to dupe them. As for honest beekeepers, they too are victims of these frauds, which are simply unfair competition for them and their work.
A study carried out by the European Union in 2015 shows that out of 2,000 honey samples tested, more than a third are non-compliant or strongly suspected of being non-compliant.
And that's not all... An official survey commissioned and paid for by FranceAgrimer (Etablissement National des produits de l'agriculture et de la mer) reveals that "47% of honeys offered to consumers in direct sales are import fraud (4,500 tonnes out of 9,550)". These figures and data are alarming, and we have every right to ask how this is possible!
A pretty white piece of paper with an official stamp is not always a guarantee of safety, and this is what several surveys have shown us about the famous "pollen analyses". Of course, even less can they guarantee the good faith of honey sellers... on the contrary, they often conceal deliberate deception!
We're going to try to shed some light on some unscrupulous practices and understand how certain retailers go about duping consumers, based in particular on the explanations of Mr. Schweitzer Paul, director of CETAM (Centre d'Etudes Techniques Apicole de Moselle). We'll try to show what the real criteria are for quality honey, and what solutions are available to us.
What are the main scams you come across?
There are many scams when it comes to selling honey:
In a report devoted to common honey frauds, CETAM Director and researcher Paul Schweitzer, who is also a beekeeper, explains how foreign products are difficult to identify during controls.
1. The dubious origin of honey:
Professor Schweitzer analyzed 15 brands of 1st price honey sold in supermarkets; the aim was to check that the honey had not undergone excessive heat treatment, and also to verify the origin of the honey.
The pollen analyzed was undoubtedly from the tea plant, found only in China. The honey is therefore of Chinese origin, but paradoxically, at no point is it stipulated on the product label that the honey comes from China.
Manufacturers have a simple trick for covering their tracks: they blend honeys from several countries, and the label thus states "Blend of honeys originating and not originating from the EC". This is legal when 2 honeys are mixed. But in reality, this means absolutely nothing, and the consumer has no idea what the origin of the honey is. The bottom line is simple: 1 in 3 jars of premium honey comes from China.
Sample comparison
2. The fraudulent composition of honey:
Unfortunately, the deception doesn't stop with the dubious origin of the honey. If you check the composition of the honey, and in particular the sugars, you'll soon realize that the honey has been lengthened with sugar. This makes it possible to increase the quantity of "honey" without adding even a gram of real honey; since sugars have a much lower market value than honey, the margin increases considerably.
An investigation was carried out in China, using a hidden camera: journalists posing as Western buyers. When negotiating the price, the person in charge suggests adding a percentage of sugar water to the honey, thus lowering the purchase price and increasing profits. But the scams don't stop there: it's also possible to make honey... without honey! And what's even more incredible is that, once analyzed, this honey complies with all legal criteria! And these are the kind of blends we find on our supermarket shelves, believing we're getting a bargain, when in fact we're buying a totally fake product!
(Explanations taken from an ApiServices document, then diagrammed)
3. Using pollen content as a quality argument:
One of the main deceptions is undoubtedly the use of the pollen count in honey to claim its incredible purity and quality. But this is nothing but a huge deception! The level of pollen in a honey has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with the honey itself.
→ But how do they back up their claims?
They use laboratory pollen analyses as an argument for the good quality and monofloral purity of their honey.
The official CETAM website states:
"Some beekeepers only ask for a pollen analysis. A pollen analysis isnever an analysis ofa honey's composition. It simply refers to the pollen present in a honey, which comes from both the nectar collected by the bees and the pollen collected as such in the form ofpellets […] " .
As this point merits further elaboration, we'll begin a more detailed explanation below.
Official analyses: smoke and mirrors
A pollen analysis is an analysis of the pollen in a honey to determine its botanical and geographical origin .
"A pollen analysis is not used to determine the composition of a honey. It is a pollen fingerprint of the hive which provides, to a certain extent, information on the botanical and geographical origin of honeys, but also on the beekeeper's work [...]". (Paul Schweitzer)
The mistake lies in these analyses: judging the monofloral percentage of a honey on the basis of its pollen percentage, and then claiming that this percentage in the honey guarantees a pure, high-quality product. However, pollen has absolutely nothing to do with the manufacture of honey; a bee uses nectar to make honey, not pollen. Pollen is used by bees as a protein for their own development and that of their larvae.
→ But then, why is there pollen in honey ?
Here are several possible schemes for pollen to be mixed into honey:
- A bee can collect only nectar from one plant and then go and collect pollen from another flower. For example, a thyme honey may contain a high proportion of lavender pollen, but not a single gram of lavender honey;
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Contamination by pollen affected by so-called primary pollutants (mechanical action of insects, wind, etc.);
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Secondary pollution during the transfer of nectar from one bee to another;
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Tertiary pollution during honey extraction operations;
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Quaternary pollution caused by pollen in the atmosphere.
CETAM's director explains: " Fir honeys of great monospecific purity, confirmed by physical-chemical sensory analysis, sometimes contain 90% rapeseed pollen, and many lavender honeys contain chestnut pollen. Extracting even the smallest frame containing pollen pellets will introduce large quantities of pollen into the honeys! In the many regions where rapeseed is grown, certain black locust honeys of great monofloral purity, confirmed by physico-chemistry (sugar profile in particular), can sometimes contain over 80% rapeseed pollen, when in fact they contain no rapeseed honey at all!
They order a "standard" analysis for €60 and use the results as a "free pass".
Pricing of various analyses (CETAM)
It should be noted that these standard laboratory analyses are intended for beekeepers, so that they can draw up a more complete product description of their honey for the consumer. However, these analyses cannotprove that the honey has not been deliberately modified to mislead the consumer .
One of the tests carried out as part of a standard honey analysis is to look for signs of adulteration, but even if the result is zero, this type of test specifies that: " Absence does not mean that there is no adulteration. Presence implies that adulteration must be investigated by other methods " .
The pollen analysis of a honey gives clues as to its origin, but it is necessary to use other clues to categorically state the origin of a honey.
These documents in no way prove that the honey has not undergone additions or other modifications, and are therefore no guarantee of safety. In order to find any fraud, further analyses would have to be carried out, but these are not the responsibility of the seller, but of the buyer. And it's worth noting that a laboratory analysis to detect fraud can cost upwards of €400!
Jujube honey: a honey apart
Jujube honey, also known as Sidr maliky honey, is a highly prized honey due to its rarity and extraordinary benefits, and is therefore very expensive. Many resellers are interested in this sought-after honey, but unfortunately, a lot of fraud is currently circulating.
We asked Mr. Schweitzer about jujube honey, and here's the exchange:
Question : " Hello, we've been selling jujube honey from Yemen for a few years now, and despite the fact that we choose high quality honeys, we often find ourselves in a quandary when it comes to the results of our analyses .
Indeed, in the minds of our customers, the level of "jujube" pollen in the analysis result is THE criterion for honey quality and, above all, is the indicator, for them, of the honey they are buying. […]
Isn't there an analysis or analysis criterion that would make it possible to know the precise composition of […] honey? That is,a criterion that would allow us to determine that our honey is a jujube honey with X percent jujube flowers? "
Answer: […] As far as jujube is concerned, it's very easy, because this honey has a peculiarity that's almost unique among honeys. It's not acidic, but almost neutral to basic when it's very pure (in the monofloral sense). However, your two honeys have a very high pH - 7.37 and 6.94 - which is exceptional and is an indication of almost 100% jujube honey (despite the pollen analysis). We do not accept honeys with a pH below 5 as jujube honey […]
The most characteristic features of jujube honeys are :
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Low water content: < 14%, no more than 15%
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Very high pH: above 6 or even 7
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High electrical conductivity
As soon as a honey meets these criteria, it is considered monofloral and is largely dominant in jujube. It's impossible to give a precise percentage, but when the pH is close to 7, it's almost 100%"
We can see from the CETAM director's response that there are many factors involved in determining the composition and purity of a honey, bearing in mind that a honey is never 100% monofloral. Paul Schweitzer explains: " The following analyses are mandatory for the 'jujubier' appellation: qualitative pollen count, sugars, electrical conductivity and acidimetry (pH).
So be very careful with honey sellers who claim their honey is "97% jujube" when in fact it contains only jujube pollen, not jujube honey!
Paul Schweitzer says: " In beekeeping, as elsewhere, certain preconceived ideas die hard. In the field of honey analysis, if there's one myth that absolutely must be debunked, it's that of a close link between pollen analysis and the floral composition of a honey. This belief, held even by some scientists, that there is a direct relationship between the pollen profile of a honey, with or without weighting coefficients, is a calamity for laboratories. Not only does a pollen analysis often bear little relation to the origin of a honey, but there is currently no way of knowing its precise floral origin
It is therefore essential to eradicate this false belief that exists between a pollen analysis AND the composition of a honey !
Example of an analysis report for jujube honey (CETAM)
What solutions for consumers?
According to the newspaper "L'OBS", from September 1, 2019, French law is planning an amendment that would make it compulsory for honey distributors to indicate the country or countries of origin. While this solution is not the ultimate solution to the problem, it would nonetheless enable consumers to see things a little more clearly. Even seeing the words "origin China or Spain" on the label could be a warning to customers.
But even if this new regulation comes into force, it's in all our interests as consumers to be vigilant about the products we buy. First of all, we need to find out what's going on, and then give preference to retailers who work with genuine beekeepers who care about the well-being of both their customers and their bees!
Bear in mind that a high price and a pollen analysis do not necessarily mean that we are dealing with a high quality product, so let's demand more information!
In the case of jujube honey, as the director of CETAM explains, it's vital to look atthe pH to determine its purity .
Let's take action and get informed so we don't fall victim to these scams again!
Sources :
https://www.apiservices.biz/fr/spmf#fraude
http://www.des-abeilles-dans-mon-jardin.com/2017/02/les-analyses-un-faux-argument-commercial.html
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