Cheating in honey is no longer as it used to be in the past. Unfortunately, it has become more professional and cunning, fueled by greed and the pursuit of profit by any means. Skillful cheaters have managed to exploit scientific knowledge in a malicious way, as well as the limited capabilities of laboratories in many countries. They have also seized the opportunity to take advantage of the high cost of accurate laboratory testing for detecting fraud. The cost of such testing is much higher than the value of the honey itself, surpassing the capacity of the average consumer and deterring others. It is not reasonable for someone to buy one kilogram of honey and send half or a quarter of it to the laboratory for testing at a cost exceeding the value of the honey itself!
Consumers buy products that contain artificial sugars, such as chocolates and sweets, without hesitation. They purchase and enjoy consuming them, despite being aware of their content of sugar, artificial colorings, and other additives. However, they cannot accept the same in honey. Naturally, they buy honey for its medicinal properties in addition to its beneficial nutritional properties.
Cheating is widespread in the two main categories of honey:
Commercial honey: Have you not noticed the significant similarity in taste among many types of commercial flower honey? Despite the differences in countries of origin and the variation in prairies in each country!
Raw honey: Meets high-quality standards and possesses distinctive medicinal properties was not spared from fraud and adulteration. We used to believe, until recently, that New Zealand Manuka honey was one of the most difficult types to counterfeit. However, even this honey has not escaped the deceit of these criminals, with adulteration rates reaching over 80% of what is available in the markets.
We will reveal to you some cunning methods used to adulterate honey:
1. Artificial honey: It is composed mainly of ingredients such as glucose, fructose, enzymes, and artificial flavors. They may add some pollen grains to mask the adulteration and unfortunately, they have managed to deceive some laboratories. In fact, there is a famous type of German honey that is locally manufactured in some countries where it is sold, and it is not even Honey.
2. Adding high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to honey to prevent crystallization: This form of adulteration requires specialized testing by laboratories to detect the addition of artificial fructose. Besides being a deceitful practice, it also poses health risks, including the potential to cause allergies. Moreover, this type of adulterated honey does not crystallize even when exposed to cold temperatures, where natural honey would normally crystallize.
3. Feeding bees with a sugar syrup containing invertase, an enzyme that converts sucrose into glucose and fructose: This accelerates honey production but undermines its authenticity and nutritional value. The resulting honey is essentially a product of sugar syrup rather than the nectar collected by bees from flowers. The honey produced through this method may be a mixture of sugar syrup and natural flower nectar, but selling it as 100% natural honey is deceptive. While there may be no issue with feeding bees this solution during periods when natural food sources are not available, mixing it with natural honey or selling the resulting product as pure honey is considered adulteration. It is important to leave a portion of honey and pollen for the bees to consume naturally to ensure the strength, health, productivity, and sustainability of bee colonies.
4. Laboratories evaluate the freshness of honey by examining diastase enzyme activity: Diastase is a naturally occurring enzyme in honey. Fraudsters add this enzyme to diluted or adulterated honey artificially to increase diastase activity, aiming to deceive consumers into believing the honey is of high quality. Unfortunately, they have managed to deceive not only consumers but also some laboratories.
5. Ultrafiltration is commonly used to prevent honey crystallization. However, some manufacturers employ this extensive filtration method to obscure the floral origin of honey which allow them to claim that their honey is from a superior source of flowers while it’s not.
6. Falsifying the honey source: This can take various forms, such as importing honey from one country and labeling it as originating from another country known for its high-quality and expensive honey. Similarly, honey may be imported from multiple countries, locally packaged, and certified as locally produced honey. Recently, in some Arab countries, a deceitful practice has emerged, where they label imported Sidr honey (known for its high global demand) with an authentic Arabic name to deceive consumers into believing it is locally produced honey. They sell this honey at a cheap price that does not reflect the cost of genuine local honey or even come close to its actual cost. They also exploit social media influencers for such deceptive practices. This type of adulteration is referred to as “honey laundering,” similarly to money laundering. The dangers of this type of adulteration include the risk of consuming honey contaminated with antibiotics, pesticides, heavy metals, or all of them, as it may be imported from countries with lenient regulations.
7. Adulterating honey by falsely labeling it as organic or raw when it is not.
These deceptive practices highlight the importance of sourcing honey from trusted and reputable suppliers to ensure its authenticity and quality.
To combat the widespread cheating and ensure the integrity of the honey industry, governments and regulatory bodies need to enforce stricter regulations, conduct regular inspections, and implement standardized testing methods with high detection standards for all types of adulteration. Increasing consumer awareness and educating them about honey production and reputable sources are also crucial. It is important to make training for beekeepers mandatory at accredited institutes or establish an institute to educate them about proper practices, warn them about the dangers of incorrect practices, and their impact on health and the national economy. Additionally, it is recommended to require all certified honey producers in the country to have their honey production tested free of charge by the relevant government authority, while providing the highest international standards in testing. Emphasizing the importance of expedited testing is essential. Such measures, among others, play a vital role in reducing cheating, supporting market integrity, and allowing everyone to enjoy the true benefits of this wonderful product.