(Submitted photo/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Food fraud

Fake honey leaves bitter taste in mouths of producers

Jul 26, 2019 | 5:12 PM

The President of the Saskatchewan Beekeepers Association says it’s very encouraging to see the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) step up enforcement on the entry of adulterated honey into Canada.

Simon Lalonde was responding to a recent news from the CFIA which shows that in 2018, an estimated 12,762 kg of adulterated honey valued at $76,758 CAD was prevented from entering the Canadian market. Lalonde said adulterated honey has been an issue for four or five years.

“There’s been more and more rumors of it coming [into Canada] and this proves it’s definitely happening in large amounts,” he said.

Adulterated honey occurs when other ingredients are mixed into a food and yet the food is represented as being genuine honey. Honey that has been deliberately adulterated is considered food fraud, which deceives consumers about what they are buying. Lalonde said “fake honey” also has an impact on the market, driving down prices for local producers who make pure, quality honey.

“Canadian bee keepers need to meet some of the toughest standards in the world, and I don’t think any beekeeper will have an issue with imported honey as long as it meets the same requirements that we need to meet to produce a safe product,” he said.

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Murray Hannigan, President of Hannigan Farms near Shellbrook, said he lost close to three quarters of a million dollars in 2015, as a result of a drop in the market. Since then he has stopped doing business with the United States, and has focused his efforts on Asia. Hannigan encouraged shoppers to look at labels, adding the biggest problem is not with the actual containers of honey, but rather products like cereals or granola bars that claim to have a honey content.

“That’s where it gets really tricky and the companies have gotten quite sneaky at using adulterated products because there’s no traceability. You know it’s hard to find any illegal adulterated honey product once it’s been baked into something else that already has a variety of sugars that were in the list already,” he said.

Hannigan explained it’s actually dangerous for entities to play with adulteration with honey bottles on shelves, because competing companies can come and take it off the shelf and send it in for analysis.

“Having said though there have still been some cheaters out there who have sent adulterated honey onto the store shelves as well but the biggest problem is in the ingredients,” he said.

For their part, the CFIA said they will continue to sample and test honey that crosses the border, and take action when non-compliance is found. The CFIA also intends to use the results of last year’s surveillance to improve the targeting of future sampling and inspection activities, inform analytical needs, and refine program design.

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Nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell