A recent study by a professor at Texas A&M University revealed that the majority of products labeled as honey in many grocery stores and drugstores are not honey at all.
Three-fourths of honey on the market in America today has been ultra-filtered, a process where heated honey, sometimes watered down, is forced at high pressure through extremely small filters to remove all traces of pollen. According to the FDA, if there’s no pollen it’s not honey.
Companies who participate in ultra-filtering claim customers want honey that has no impurities. These “impurities” are the reason honey works as a health aide (for ailments like allergies). Stripped of the local pollen, watered down with other liquids and even illegal antibiotics, honey goes from being a helpful part of a healthy, vital body to empty calories and sugar.
So why isn’t the FDA cracking down on mislabeled honey? The reason given is they are simply understaffed. Perhaps they need to pull some employees off of other projects.
According to the Food Safety News Study, 100% of the honey “at farmers markets, co-ops and ‘natural’ stores like PCC and Trader Joe’s had the full, anticipated, amount of pollen.
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