Supermarkets selling "fake honey"

[Black Orchid]

Australia's biggest listed honey company and some of the country's largest supermarket chains face accusations of unwittingly selling "fake" honey.

Testing at a leading international scientific lab that specialises in honey fraud detection has found that almost half the honey samples selected from supermarket shelves were "adulterated", meaning it has been mixed with something other than nectar from bees.

The adulterated samples were all products that blend local and imported honey.

ASX-listed 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.

Capilano strongly denied any issues with its products and criticised the type of test — known as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) — used to detect the impurities, pointing out that it differed from the official Australian test.

There is no suggestion that Capilano's eponymous brand of Australian-sourced honey has any issue or that Capilano or other brands were aware of the adulteration.

Phil McCabe, the president of the International Federation of Beekeepers' Association (Apimondia), believes the NMR test is the most accurate available and thinks consumers are not getting what they paid for.

"Adulterated honey isn't honey at all," he told 7.30.

"By and large [the impurity] is some kind of syrup that's been converted to look like honey, it tastes like honey.

"Everything about it seems to be honey, when in fact it's just sugar syrup or something else.

The results are set to ignite a storm over how honey purity is tested that will involve the Federal Government as well as local and international regulators.

Supermarket chain, ALDI, has already moved to pull any affected product from its shelves as a precaution.

Mr McCabe said he would refer the tests, obtained by Fairfax Media and 7.30, and commissioned by top law firm King & Wood Mallesons, to Interpol for further investigation.

Germany's Quality Services International (QSI) lab was commissioned by the law firm on behalf of horticulturalist Robert Costa to conduct two types of tests of the sampled honey.

One used NMR screening and the second used the official C4 sugar test.

The joint media investigation into the honey industry was supplied a copy of the results from Mallesons.

The law firm collected 28 blended and imported honey samples from supermarket stores around Australia, including Coles, Woolworths, ALDI and IGA and documented the stores, locations, brands and batches.

The lab tested eight Allowrie samples as well as IGA's Black & Gold private label and ALDI's Bramwell's private label brand, which are blended local and imported honey, and detected adulteration in almost half the samples.

Using the NMR testing the results showed that 12 of the 28 samples tested were not 100 per cent pure honey.

Four of the six IGA Black and Gold private label products registered as adulterated, two of six ALDI Bramwell's private label brands failed the NMR test and six out of eight of Capilano's Allowrie budget branded bottles had adulterated honey when NMR screening was used.

The same 28 samples were then tested using the official Australian test, C4, and all passed.

Capilano was sent a copy of the results of the tests.

It vigorously denied that any of its products were not pure honey and rejected NMR testing as the best way to determine adulteration.

It said Australian and international regulators "do not use this testing regime at all."

Capilano said it was 100 per cent confident its Allowrie honey, which is made using up to 70 per cent imported honey, was pure and that it was not surprised by the results given the "weaknesses" in NMR testing as an analytical method.

More at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-03/c ... y/10187628

[Black Orchid]

But Phil McCabe, president of the International Federation of Beekeepers’ Association (Apimondia), believes the NMR test is the most accurate available and thinks consumers are not getting what they paid for.

“Adulterated honey isn’t honey at all,” he told 7.30.

“By and large [the impurity] is some kind of syrup that’s been converted to look like honey, it tastes like honey.

“Everything about it seems to be honey, when in fact it’s just sugar syrup or something else.

“Consumers don’t realise what they are buying and eating isn’t honey.”

Mr McCabe said he would refer the tests, obtained by Fairfax Media and 7.30, and commissioned by top law firm King & Wood Mallesons, to Interpol for further investigation.

Germany’s Quality Services International (QSI) lab was commissioned by the law firm on behalf of horticulturalist Robert Costa to conduct two types of tests of the sampled honey.

One used NMR screening and the second used the official C4 sugar test.

The joint media investigation into the honey industry was supplied a copy of the results from Mallesons.

The law firm collected 28 blended and imported honey samples from supermarket stores around Australia, including Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and IGA and documented the stores, locations, brands and batches.

According to the ABC, the lab tested eight Allowrie samples as well as IGA’s Black & Gold private label and Aldi’s Bramwell’s private label brand, which are blended local and imported honey, and detected adulteration in almost half the samples.

Using the NMR testing, the results showed that 12 of the 28 samples tested were not 100 per cent pure honey.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/food/ ... 2bb1357d23

It has never occurred to me that there is any such thing as fake honey. In fact I never even look at the label when I buy honey

[cods]

Good Lord.... what the hell isnt fake today....

there is so much ripping off today....

how do we know for instance eggs are free range??>..

just because it says so on the box... doesnt mean a thing...

I buy large f.r.eggs... pay that little bit more..

but so help me the ones I buy dont look any bigger than the smaller ones...

as for fr... who can tell?..

[Black Orchid]

I buy free range eggs too but I think the term doesn't technically mean 'free range'. Many times it just means that the chooks aren't kept in a tiny cage.

Buying eggs from local and trusted roadside farms is best but not all of us have that luxury.

But fake honey? You have to be kidding me!!

[Rorschach]

I never liked Capilano Honey much but have always like Allowrie.

[Bobby]

I have some Capilano creamed honey on my shelf.
I was wondering why it doesn't smell that good after 3 months.

What a rip off & dangerous too if it goes off & I eat it.

[Black Orchid]

From 2 months ago ...

Shoppers in Coles have one less choice to make when shopping for honey as the supermarket giant has dropped the Allowrie brand of honey, which is produced from mostly imported product by Australian company Capilano Honey.

The Allowrie brand is made from up to 70 per cent imported honey from countries including China, Argentina and Mexico.

The brand is the subject of a court case after a social media campaign raised questions about the origin and quality of the Allowrie brand.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2018-0 ... es/9947924

[Bobby]

They are talking about it on the 7.30 report now.
It's a scandal.

[The Mechanic]

This has been going no for years...

And forget looking at the label.. there is either no information or out and out lies on it...

Anyone who speaks out against Capilano usually ends up in a court of law...

I follow a guy who has been battling them for years...

https://www.facebook.com/savethebeesau/ ... =3&theater