Buy Local Honey for Safety Reasons
added 11/17/11
More than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores isn’t exactly what the bees produce, according to testing done exclusively for Food Safety News (Tests Show Most Store Honey Isn’t Honey).
What Can You Do?
Their results show that the pollen frequently has been filtered out of products labeled “honey.” While this might sound like a good thing for those who associate pollen with allergies, the removal of microscopic particles means the source of the honey can no longer be traced. The food safety divisions of the World Health Organization, the European Commission, and dozens of others have ruled that without pollen there is no way to determine whether the honey came from legitimate and safe sources. Some Chinese honey, including honey “laundered” through India, has been found to contain illegal antibiotics such as chloramphenicol.
At the Co-op
At the Co-op, we carry two commercial brands of honey (Sue Bee and Shurfine) and several brands from local and regional producers. Franklin Heyburn and Champlain Valley Apiaries are among the beekeepers located in Vermont, and Northwoods Apiaries is one located in New Hampshire. Heyburn also supplies the honey we carry in bulk. At least two other honey producers are from New England and New York.
McClure’s is a company based in Littleton, NH, that sells a wide range of flavored honeys includes some sourced from other states. In addition, McClure’s is owned by Dutch Gold, a Pennsylvania company that mentions its practice of filtering its honey to reduce pollen as a selling point for those with allergies to pollen. The Co-op cannot be sure what the origin of their honey is.
What You Can Do
What can you do to be sure your honey is safe? Buy honey from Vermont and New Hampshire beekeepers who sell what they harvest. That’s another benefit of buying local!
