HONEY FRAUD RIFE IN SA — EXPERTS

Where does the honey in the squeeze bottle you buy from your local supermarket come from, what has it been blended with, and is it honey at all?
There‘s a very good chance that what is in the bottle is not 100% honey nor the liquid gold containing pollen with the health benefits.
That is what emerged at a virtual workshop on honey fraud hosted by the SA Bee Industry Organisation (Sabio) on Thursday and attended by beekeepers, retailers and regulators.

Local beekeepers are only able to meet half the demand for honey in this country and the rest is imported, mainly from China.
Prof Norberto Garcia from Argentina, president of the Apimondia Scientific Commission of Beekeeping Economy, revealed that SA‘s honey imports trebled from 2,000 tons in 2011 to 6,000 tons last year, 60% of which (4,700 tons) came from China. The rest came from Zambia (706 tons), Poland (305) and Romania (257).
The reason for that becomes clear when you consider the price, Garcia said.
Chinese honey is the cheapest, at about $1,141 (about R15,900) a ton, versus double that for Zambian honey ($2,375, or about R33,100) and close to $3,000 (about R41,800) for Polish and Romanian honey. Here‘s the thing. ―There are not enough bee colonies in China to explain the huge amount of honey they are exporting,‖ Garcia said.
―Honey is a product of the interaction between the plant and the animal kingdom. No additions can be made at all. If you blend pure honey with fake honey, it is not honey.

―Local beekeepers can‘t compete with the price of Chinese honey,‖ Garcia said. ―Your [SA‘s] situation is particularly worrying.‖
Other forms of honey fraud include:
● Labelling honey as from a particular floral source, for example orange blossom, aloe or litchi, when it has been blended with other honey or doesn‘t come from that source at all;
● Adulterating it with fructose, rice or beet syrup; and
● ―Honey laundering‖, or importing cheap Chinese honey in bulk and passing it off as high quality local honey.

Honey is the third most adulterated food in the world after milk and olive oil, Shannon Riva, of the Stellenbosch based Food and Allergy Consulting and Testing Services (Facts), said.
Garcia said with honey adulterators constantly coming up with new methods, it boils down to ―a competition between the development of new tests and the development of new syrups‖.
―Old testing methods will not detect the latest adulteration methods,‖ he said.
―Testing is complex and expensive, with the main labs in Europe, particularly Germany. They have the most advanced testing methods for honey adulteration.‖
With SA‘s 20-year-old honey legislation and standards in urgent need of updating, adulterated honey could falsely be considered compliant, it emerged.
Matlou Selati, of the Consumer Goods Council of SA, said it was ―saddening‖ that honey fraud was happening.
―We will look at this and recommend to the regulators and the legislators that we crack down,‖ she said.
―Laboratories are very expensive to set up, but we could accredit private labs and work together.

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