So, is it 'real honey'?
Honey Adulteration
Food fraud is not new although it may be more sophisticated now. The Romans used spices many of which could be obtained from the vast areas they held, especially round the Mediterranean Sea. They not only used them for cooking but also medicines and no doubt these spices were sometimes adulterated by some merchants. The trade in spices in the middle ages lent its self to unscrupulous traders as these high value commodities could be 'extended' with many different substances during their long journey from the grower to the end user in Europe. The problem was recognised in Europe and the Trade Guilds of the middle ages enacted laws which tried to cover the economic food fraud of such things as bread, wine, milk, butter and meat. The extent of food fraud can be appreciated as in the 1200s flour millers were considered disreputable and dishonest as Geoffrey Chaucer alludes to with Robin the Miller in his Canterbury Tales.
Robin the Miller in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. (Source Wikipeadia rights from Wordsound)
The millers bad name was not so much for adulterating flour with sand or gypsum, although that took place, but also for giving short measure, both of course are forms of economic fraud. However, with the Reformation the guilds largely lost their importance and the force of their enacted laws became less.
When producers and users were physically close to each other fraud by bulking out or extending was less likely to happen as it could be seen. The separation of consumers from growers or providers, as happened in the industrial revolution, gave a greater opportunity to interfere with food in its passage from producer to consumer. Many of the materials added to food caused harm to the unsuspecting consumer. In the USA milk was often adulterated with chalk or plaster. In Spain during 1981 rape seed oil sold as olive oil and a number of people died. Antifeeze (toxic) was found in Austrian wine in 1985, it had been used to sweeten and make the wine more 'full bodied'. Some had been used in Germany for blending. The Austrian wine industry suffered for years. In 2009 a Chinese company added melamine to watered down milk to get it through the protein testing procedure and in the same year infected peanuts were shipped round the US, but the company CEO was jailed.
Soya flour producers and a bread maker separated by a bamboo wall in Dong Van, North Vietnam. (Photo Chris Coulson 1990)
In 2013 a number of 'beef' products were found to contain horse meat varying from a few percent to 100%. This substitution may have been going on for some time but as no one had suspected that horse meat was entering our food chain no one was testing for it! Some very large and trusted branded products, who previously had good reputations, were caught up in this. More recently in 2015 it was suggested that Parmesan cheese did not contain just Parmesan and if it did it was mixed with cellulose and starches to extend it. And so food fraud continues! These frauds can be classed as economic ones as someone has bulked out a product with inferior material to increase its weight or volume which, following mislabelling, can make the vendor more money and in a large scale fraud, a lot more money!
In the past we have seen problems with Manuka honey from New Zealand. Suspicions were raised because global sales were greater than production, 1,700 tons produced versus 10,000 tons sold. In the past I have written elsewhere about this. Manuka honey fraud detection depended heavily on pollen analysis and at the local level this detection is difficult because over the years environmental health officers (EHOs) who can do pollen analysis have become fewer and fewer. Placing a label saying Manuka honey on a jar when it's not Manuka is a relatively simple way into economic fraud. However, beyond the easy option of relabelling jars honey can be 'extended' for economic gain. By 'extended' I mean increased in volume and weight by the addition of none honey materials. Honey is the third most likely food to be targeted by the fraudsters after milk and olive oil and such is the mismatch between consumption and production that in 2017 the USA imported over 200,000 tones of it. This provided the economic impetus as well as the opportunity for adulteration.
Bee Warned! (Source. Pinterest)
Adulteration is the illegal addition of an impure or non-allowed ingredients into a product or alternatively to substitute a cheaper ingredient for a more expensive one without declaring it on the label. Honey adulteration seems now to have reached such proportions that it is likely a good proportion of the population has never tasted real honey and so to discriminate between raw and adulterated honey has now become a serious issue. Not only do the general public suffer from honey fraud but also beekeepers suffer economically. While honey adulteration is not new it has started to reach epidemic proportions affecting both beekeepers and customers and while I have been aware of it for some time the general public may not have been. It is thought that conservatively 25-40% of honey worldwide is labelled as pure but is not pure honey and these figures could be a considerable under estimate. In November 2019 Tecos' temporarily withdrew their own honey from the shelves after it was thought to be adulterated with rice syrup. Apparently though in December 2019 it was back on their selves.
A 'poster' from 'Organics.org' a community driven platform extolling health and happiness. (Source Organic.com website)
A pointer for fraud comes from the fact that 'some areas' of the 'world' seem to have increased their honey export tremendously but seemingly without an increase in beekeeping. This is alarming as there seems to be no explanation for the 'appearance' of this extra honey. The graph below (from Peter Awram June 2020 BBKA News) illustrates the problem. The blue line 'countries' show a great rise in honey exports without any apparent increase in beekeeping.
This graph indicates that some countries have greatly increased their honey exports without a concomitant increase in beekeeping (Source Peter Awram BBKA News No 227 June 2020)
This vast production and export of honey lead to 'antidumping' legislation. Dumping is when a product is flooded onto the market at below production costs. This activity skews the market for those producers not involved in it and makes it difficult for them to compete commercially. This is particularly true for the 'hobby' beekeeper who form the vast majority of the 40,000 odd beekeepers in England although they do have the advantage that in most cases their clients know where the honey comes from but their production is too small to warrant the steps needed in honey adulteration even if they wanted to. However, I have noticed an increase in my clients asking about the feeding of bees with syrup and temperatures involved in honey preparation.
A jar of raw honey from my own bees (Photo Chris Coulson)
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Several antibiotics have been found in Chinese honey (tetracycline, oxytetracycline, doxycycline, chlortetracycline, and chloramphenicol) but in 1997 China started to use more chloramphenicol to control an outbreak of the serious bee disease, American Foulbrood. There are two kinds of 'foul brood' diseases of honey bees, European and American and although caused by different organisms they were actually named after where they were first investigated. Unfortunately the antibiotic choloramphenicol can be transferred to honey and could be dangerous to humans. When chloramphenicol was discovered in Chinese honey the USA placed a temporary importation ban on the product and Europe did the same. This resulted in a drop in honey sales. To get back its market share the Chinese then dumped more honey (selling below production costs) on the market and this resulted in anti-dumping legislation being passed in the USA. Honey then became scarce and the price went up. This price rise in honey was a stimulus for honey fraud. More honey started to appear on the market, but then the question arose - where did the 'extra honey' come from? (see the graph above).
Honey can be extended (the volume increased) by the addition of water. This not only reduces the taste but also the honey's osmotic concentration, fundamental to its preservation as well as many other food products e.g. jams. Dilution with water can allow micro-organisms e.g. yeasts to grow and the honey then ferment. Another approach to making 'more' honey is to extend it with syrup and that's what seems to have happened and be happening.
Initially corn syrup (a syrup high in fructose) was used and this is sweet and probably why some cheap honey you may buy tastes excessively sweet and with not much of a 'honey' taste. Because of regulatory concerns their was more interest in the testing of honey but older style testing was time consuming and might need the attention of several chemists. Eventually corn syrup (from maize) was identified as a 'honey extender' and eventually researchers came up with better tests for this. 'The fakers' then started using rice syrup which does the same job as corn syrup but was more difficult to detect and cheaper to produce, two things of interest to unscrupulous honey launderers.
Maize (corn) A C4 plant from Rice -a C3 plant from which
which corn syrup is made. rice syrup is made.
(Both illustrations from Wikipedia)
As suspicion started to fall on certain honey exporting countries trans-shipping started to occur. In trans-shipping a commodity is shipped to another country who then sell it on as their own product but under a different label or description which might be allowed under their laws but hides the origin of the product. The laws defining honey in the intermediate country are usually more relaxed which cleared the route for this to happen. Much of the labelling in the intermediate country is not up the rigorous standards of the UK/EU which British beekeepers and honey producers have to follow. Labels may claim for instance that the honey is organic but from more than one none EU country. Such an organic claim should be regarded with suspicion. Reading the labels of cheaper honey can be very enlightening.
The seeds of corn (maize) and rice are extremely important worldwide for human and animal nutrition but both corn and rice syrup are produced in similar ways as the seeds of both these plants are high in starch. Essentially the seeds of these plants are steeped in water and enzymes introduced to break the starch down into the simple sugars of glucose, fructose and smaller parts of the starch molecule called dextrins. Water is then evaporate from the solution until corn or rice syrup is produced. It these syrups that can be used to extend honey. There are a myriad tests that can be applied to identify the components in honey but with the advent of adulteration with corn syrup regulators took more interest in this component. This was against the back ground of designing newer tests and obtaining money to support such research.
Here I'd like to introduce the concept of 'actors in a play'. This idea came about through a project that I initiated with a Dutch colleague in 1982. The project (TTMI, Traditional Techniques for Microclimate Improvement) ran across several African countries and threw up the idea of actors in a play and their ambitions. For example, say a play has 10 actors then it seems logical that not all the actors are there for the same reason. Some may be there for the money, others for the fame, others have a need to act, others to improve their acting, still others may like dressing up etc. This idea can colour what happens in honey adulteration and thus its solutions. For instance some in the honey fraud chain don't want the problem examined, regulators might like to chemically investigate the honey (if they had the money) while others would like to sell or rent equipment used for the examination of honey, some would like to uncover the chain of product movement, some would like to examine the economics of the fraud. When you delve into honey adulteration you will recognise these vested interests unfolding.
The left hand picture shows an old Mass Spectometer while that on the right shows a modern one, the size of an under the counter domestic fridge. The small sample changer on the right is represented by the lady in the left photo. (Sources Wikipedia and Thermofisher.com advert).
Micro-electronics has made scientific equipment smaller, more reliable, accurate and sensitive. Computer aided design (CAD) has had a hand in making them 'user friendly'. These have opened the doors of complex analytical testing to more researchers. Of all the tests in the armoury of honey testing the use of chromatography tied to mass spectroscopy (LC/IRMS) looks to being successful in allowing the identification of the syrups from either C3 plants eg rice or C4 plants eg corn (maize) (See *Foot note) by identifying the stable isotopes of carbon (13C versus 12C) present.
An LC/IRMS (chromatography and mass spectrometer) machine. This has allowed the identification of syrups from C3 and C4 plants from the 13C and 14C isotope ratios in honey. A large sample base is required, (Source Thermofisher internet advert)
The advent of NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) for molecular analysis has opened another possible door to honey testing but it demands a large data base of honey composition. As NMR machines are large and expensive it is not surprising to have their owners or makers extolling their virtues for honey analysis or any other analysis. The NMR analytical technique are essentially similar to the more familiar MIR but the latter is the medical equivalent of NMR. The word 'nuclear' has been removed from the title of MIR as it has unfortunate connotations. Both techniques excite the nucleus of atoms with radio waves and the resulting magnetic resonance can be measured by very sensitive radio wave detectors. NMR should allow the finger prints of honey components to be analysed as well as any bulking agents or extenders. In the case of NMR the method was initially tuned to pick up syrup from C4 plants like corn (maize) honey so adulterers switched to rice syrup (a C3 plant) as an extender. This was more difficult to detect and cheaper to produce. For an explanation of C3 and C4 notations please see *Footnote.
Unfortunately the NMR machines are expensive and large and usually found in universities or large analytical companies and require highly trained personnel thus it is in the interest of this 'actor in the play' to 'sell' this analytical technique as being 'the answer'.
Another analytical tool is fluorescence spectroscopy. This is not a new technique but one now being applied to honey adulteration. Reading through these methods it does not go unnoticed that support may be given by the makers of the equipment used. Never the less such is the state of the science and the vested interests involved that not as much has been done to prosecute the adulterers of honey.
An NMR machine (Source Wikipedea)
That honey adulteration is a large scale practice as can be judged by googling say 'Rice syrup for honey'. Looking through the results you will not only come across familiar packaging but also things like 'High Fructose rice syrup which can (be) add(ed) into honey' (see Alibaba.com). In 2011 76% of honey in the USA had no pollen in it indicating it may contain a lot of syrup and little if any honey. Also in 2018, 27% of Australian honey was said to be contaminated with corn syrup. Honey scammers like computer hackers learn to 'fly' under the regulatory radar but in the case of honey this is getting harder to prevent or control.
So for 'proper' (raw) and interesting honey always seek out a reliable and preferably local source. Local honey is also better for respiratory allergies.
If honey is cheap --there is a reason!
Chris Coulson
June 2020
*Footnote: Photosynthesis is the method that plants use to combine the carbon in carbon dioxide from the air to make sugars. They use the energy of the sun to drive this process. In plants there are 3 basic methods of photosynthesis which we abbreviate to C3, C4 and CAM. In C3 photosynthesis the carbon from carbon dioxide in the air is made into molecules containing 3 carbon atoms (C3). In C4 photosynthesis the carbon from carbon dioxide in the air is made into molecules containing 4 carbon atoms (C4). CAM plants need not bother us here. Thus we have plants that we call C3 plants and those we call C4 plants depending on the types of photosynthesis that they use. The attributes of C3 and C4 plants are very important in agriculture. By testing it is hoped to show which group of plants has produced the adulterating syrup and thus which particular plant is likely to be involved in the syrup used. The basic problem is to decide whether it is a C3 or C4 syrup in the honey and develop fast and cheap techniques for doing this.