All Chinese honey banned in UK

[stoneleighhouse]

Well its still interesting
The ' honey laundering ' news item thats been running in the US this year is a bout Chinese honey being relabelled in intermediary countrys before being shipped into the States
Some reports there say that Chinese honey is banned in UK and Australia
Now when I pick up a jar of cheap honey on a supermarket shelf it says blend of eu and non eu honeys
Not really a detailed indication of provenance is it??
It doesnt take much of a stretch of the imagination to speculate that if relabling and shipping to the US is a problem what about imports into the EU ??
Which non EU countries I'd like to know and of course you couldnt guarantee the origins of the EU honey either
Apparently the imports that were relabelled and shipped into the US were also refiltered to disguise the Chinese origin

 

[mbc]

The Daily Mail, eh?...... Sigh.

Time to roll out my favourite flow chart again :

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Twas a RED HERRING then !​

What! - the EC has banned that great delicacy now have they? they'll be banning bent bananas next

 

[MartinL]

What! - the EC has banned that great delicacy now have they? they'll be banning bent bananas next

I suspect the Germans!!



Perhaps the Yanks did too??

Just can't trust these forigners

 

[mbc]

I suspect the Germans!!



Perhaps the Yanks did too??

Just can't trust these forigners

Thats just racial stereotyping, why is the porridge jocky emoticon necking a bevy ?

 

[MartinL]

why is the porridge jocky necking a bevy ?

To help digest the deep fried mars bars?

 

[mbc]

To help digest the deep fried mars bars?

 

[Into the lions den]

1. The story is absolutely ancient.
2. The US story is of equal vintage, but due to the legal machinations is rumbling about to this day.
3. Chinese honey as it existed back then was a pretty distinctive product, difficult to launder in huge amounts. That is without the connivance of those who were allegedly duped. In the US it was relatively small fish in the structure who fell on their swords and have done the time.
4. Chinese honey is legal and imported in vast amounts. Today it is generally bland and characterless. Not vile, not delicious either. Speciality honey types are also available from there and are broadly as one would expect the type to be.
5. EVERY batch is now tested for a wide range of residues, normally at more than one point in the chain.
6. The level of detection for chloramphenicol is 0.1 ppb. 1g in 10,000 tonnes (Even lower in some labs, I am told now down to 0.01ppb) Rejection follows any positive finding of 0.1ppb or more, or any level at all, depends on the packer.

I am sure more of the same old questions and prejudices will come out soon........

ps. I am not very sympathetic regarding importing Chinese honey. It is nondescript at best and not likely to lead to a developing market for honey due to lack of temptation to eat it on behalf of those who have bought it. Driving force behind the imports are the supermarket buyers. Its price price price all the way. However, facts are facts and the honey today meets all the regulations.

 

[itma]

...
2. The US story is of equal vintage, but due to the legal machinations is rumbling about to this day.
...

Errr. Hmmmm.

The 'news' (that I previously linked) is that 3 weeks ago (1st October 2013) Groeb Farms filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
http://www.groebfarms.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/PressRelease10012013.pdf

 

[pargyle]

1. ....

I am sure more of the same old questions and prejudices will come out soon........

ps. I am not very sympathetic regarding importing Chinese honey. It is nondescript at best and not likely to lead to a developing market for honey due to lack of temptation to eat it on behalf of those who have bought it. Driving force behind the imports are the supermarket buyers. Its price price price all the way. However, facts are facts and the honey today meets all the regulations.

Thanks ITLD ... I think everyone on here will be behind your sentiments about cheap imported honey ....once anyone who has tasted the 'real' stuff they would never even use the rubbish at £1.49 a jar for cooking .... let alone spread it on their toast !!

 

[chrismcd]

MAVIS has the survey results

Since chloramphenicol is a veterinary medicine the surveillance is done by the VMD and reported in their regular reports aka MAVIS

http://www.vmd.defra.gov.uk/pdf/mavis/mavis87.pdf

If you look at page 14 - You will see that they checked 210 samples in 2012 and found no contaminants.

That has not always been the case

http://www.vmd.defra.gov.uk/vrc/pdf/papers/2013/vrc1307.pdf

Mind you, I get the impression they are more worried about bute in horsemeat and god knows what in Tiger Prawns and Vietnamese catfish at the moment

 

[Nige.Coll]

they can't afford the proper stuff.

 

[Into the lions den]

I think everyone on here will be behind your sentiments about cheap imported honey ....

Not really quite what I meant. Cheap and imported does not necessarily equate to inferior, just as expensive and home produced does not necessarily equate to superior. There is a tendency for there to be some substance to this, but just that its not a rule of any kind. Price is more likely to be a response to supply and demand than quality, and the scarcity can be due to a number of factors, floral source (quality linked) and/or local provenance (not really quality linked) being the main ones.

During the peak of the ban some of the cheapest honey on the shelves, Argentinian white mostly used in the 'graded by colour' category for cheap blends was actually excellent.

If you take a sack of OSR seed, divide it in half, plant half just outside Calais, half just outside Dover its amazing how different a Daily Mail writer/reader will find the honey. The stuff planted in good old Blighty makes excellent local honey, subtle, tasty, all round superior stuff, yet less than 40 miles away the very same variety only produces inferior imported rubbish............... Its all so puzzling as to why Johnny Foreigner is so bad at things as simple as making good honey......they need to come to the UK to see how it should be done.......even you Finman lol.

The Chinese product I am so unimpressed by is however just utterly bland. It has VAST batches all with the same number, it meets every rule, if it does not they take it away in in a month or two it DOES meet the rule. Almost seems to have come out of a factory rather than a beehive. Thousands of tonnes with NO variation at all??? That's what rankles with me, and my own honey would probably be about 20% higher priced should the bottom level of the market go up a rung or two.

 

[psafloyd]

Wether it is dangerous to human health all depends on levels detected and it is calculated on the average daily intake. Level of detection is usually 10PPB! It is very low.

Doesn't really matter whether it's harmful or not. It isn't honey. It's honey with antibiotics, and that ain't on the label.

 

[Dishmop]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=EVnhRDuXGPs

 

[Norton]

Honey contains many "foreign" substances that are not on the label, sodium benzoate is probably one of them. As I mentioned above, it all depends on the level present if actually poses a threat to human health. It might interest you to learn that antibiotic residues can be leached from beeswax into honey. A large amount of beeswax of Asian origin is used in the EU to manufacture foundation. Get the picture?

 

[pargyle]

Not really quite what I meant. Cheap and imported does not necessarily equate to inferior, just as expensive and home produced does not necessarily equate to superior.......

The Chinese product I am so unimpressed by is however just utterly bland. It has VAST batches all with the same number, it meets every rule, if it does not they take it away in in a month or two it DOES meet the rule. Almost seems to have come out of a factory rather than a beehive. Thousands of tonnes with NO variation at all??? That's what rankles with me, and my own honey would probably be about 20% higher priced should the bottom level of the market go up a rung or two.

Interesting post ITLD ... I must admit that I was equating 'cheap foreign honey' very much with the Chinese rubbish you are talking about .... if indeed stuff like that could actually be seriously classed as 'honey'.

What bothers me most is that the labelling requirements appear to be very 'loose' insomuch as it only has to be labelled as 'contains honey from non-EU sources' or words to that effect. Fruit and Veg require a specific country of origin labelling when they are sold in the UK so how is that honey appears to be treated differently ? It beggars belief that a honey which contains 1% British honey and 99% Chinese cr*p could possibly meet the (apparent) current labelling regs for honey by stating that it contains honey from non-Eu countries ? Bizarre ... Makes a strong case for British honey to be very loudly and clearly stated on the label as contains ONLY 'All British honey' ...

My local Tesco now has several fixtures full of a variety of different honeys - from all over the world it seems ... next time I'm in there I think I will have a look at how some of them are labelled ....

 

[Dishmop]

If you imported honey and mixed it with UK honey, you could resell it as UK flavoured honey.

China is buying up vast amounts of land and companies in Europe, Africa, everywhere.
Chinese goods made in Italy are EU products and easily imported into UK and other EU countries.

 

[psafloyd]

Honey contains many "foreign" substances that are not on the label, sodium benzoate is probably one of them. As I mentioned above, it all depends on the level present if actually poses a threat to human health. It might interest you to learn that antibiotic residues can be leached from beeswax into honey. A large amount of beeswax of Asian origin is used in the EU to manufacture foundation. Get the picture?

If added, it should be declared, whether it is harmful or not.

 

[mbc]

... Makes a strong case for British honey to be very loudly and clearly stated on the label as contains ONLY 'All British honey' ...

....

Something along these lines ? ;