icing sugar

[Parsonage Bees]

Should we be more worried about honey adulteration after so many entries were rejected at the Apimondia show?

Cheap honey might be 50% sugar syrup . . . maybe. ? Whereas a few cells stored and extracted of icing sugar might be a few percent. What level is acceptable?

Anybody seen bees foraging in bins for discarded sugar?

(I need to get out more!)

 

[Erichalfbee]

What level is acceptable?

From Muswell Metro in another thread



From the 2003 regs otherwise it ain't 'oney

1.2. Sucrose content in general not more than 5 g/100 g

exceptions
a)not more than 10 g/100 g
false acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia), alfalfa (Medicago sativa), Menzies Banksia (Banksia menziesii), French honeysuckle (Hedysarum), red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), leatherwood (Eucryphia lucida, Eucryphia milliganii), Citrus spp.

b)not more than 15 g/100 g

lavender (Lavandula spp.), borage (Borago officinalis)

 

[Poly Hive]

Don't over winter with supers involved.

Learn how to use your hive tool in Spring to both get the over winter stores used up and increase the brooding. Remove excess stores frames for use in nucs or emergency feeding.

I suspect that the first is the most important. Brood and a half has more than a few issues associated with it.

PH

 

[deemann1]

Don't over winter with supers involved.

Learn how to use your hive tool in Spring to both get the over winter stores used up and increase the brooding. Remove excess stores frames for use in nucs or emergency feeding.
PH

Some good advice there ! Which is rare in this forum lately

 

[Parsonage Bees]

From Muswell Metro in another thread



From the 2003 regs otherwise it ain't 'oney

1.2. Sucrose content in general not more than 5 g/100 g

exceptions
a)not more than 10 g/100 g
false acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia), alfalfa (Medicago sativa), Menzies Banksia (Banksia menziesii), French honeysuckle (Hedysarum), red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), leatherwood (Eucryphia lucida, Eucryphia milliganii), Citrus spp.

b)not more than 15 g/100 g

lavender (Lavandula spp.), borage (Borago officinalis)

Thanks. And who has the ability to measure sucrose content? In a lab I guess.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Thanks. And who has the ability to measure sucrose content? In a lab I guess.

Here’s one
https://www.fera.co.uk/food-safety/sugars-in-honey-individual-fructose-glucose-and-sucrose-test.html

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Here’s one
https://www.fera.co.uk/food-safety/sugars-in-honey-individual-fructose-glucose-and-sucrose-test.html

(Thanks. Not as expensive as the HMF test.)

So going back to the opening post, if you are dumping 125g of icing sugar into the brood box once a week over the whole season and say half is taken up by the bees, the rest falls out the bottom or gets stuck in wax and propolis, the bees digestion will convert this to fructose and glucose. And it gets stored.
A simple test for sucrose would be passed. Perhaps bland but it would be honey. No worries.

 

[MuswellMetro]

From Muswell Metro in another thread



From the 2003 regs otherwise it ain't 'oney

1.2. Sucrose content in general not more than 5 g/100 g

exceptions
a)not more than 10 g/100 g
false acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia), alfalfa (Medicago sativa), Menzies Banksia (Banksia menziesii), French honeysuckle (Hedysarum), red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), leatherwood (Eucryphia lucida, Eucryphia milliganii), Citrus spp.

b)not more than 15 g/100 g

lavender (Lavandula spp.), borage (Borago officinalis)

2003 regs are now revoked

but similar requirement is in The Honey (England) Regulation 2015 or identical 2015 regs for Wales and Scotland for those in the far reaches of the UK

 

[MuswellMetro]

I have seen set honey for sale that is so white that it must have more feed sugar than OSR Honey in it, it turned out that it came from hives that had been shook swarmed then fed api-invert liquid sugars

 

[Karsal]

What are your thoughts on icing sugar dusting to remove varroa. I am concerned about the bees taking up to pollute the honey quality.

A waste of icing sugar!

 

[Erichalfbee]

2003 regs are now revoked

but similar requirement is in The Honey (England) Regulation 2015 or identical 2015 regs for Wales and Scotland for those in the far reaches of the UK

Cheers

 

[Poly Hive]

Heather?

I would print off this thread and hand it to her. You could of course redact your info.

PH

 

[Parsonage Bees]

I have seen set honey for sale that is so white that it must have more feed sugar than OSR Honey in it, it turned out that it came from hives that had been shook swarmed then fed api-invert liquid sugars

So because the sugars were processed outside of a bee this would be 'adulterated' honey. White sugar syrup or left over icing sugar converted by a bee would not be adulterated. Just unethical. ?

I'm going to do some googling on what is and isn't adulteration rather than extend this thread any longer.

Thanks . . . . Ben

 

[Erichalfbee]

I'm going to do some googling on what is and isn't adulteration rather than extend this thread any longer.

Thanks . . . . Ben

Mind you come back and tell us what you find

 

[pargyle]

So because the sugars were processed outside of a bee this would be 'adulterated' honey. White sugar syrup or left over icing sugar converted by a bee would not be adulterated. Just unethical. ?

I'm going to do some googling on what is and isn't adulteration rather than extend this thread any longer.

Thanks . . . . Ben

You can google all you like ... if it hasn't come from nectar or honeydew .. it ain't HONEY ... it's bee processed sugar/ sugar syrup and therefore is adulteration.

 

[Ian123]

You can google all you like ... if it hasn't come from nectar or honeydew .. it ain't HONEY ... it's bee processed sugar/ sugar syrup and therefore is adulteration.

Exactly!!!

 

[Parsonage Bees]

You can google all you like ... if it hasn't come from nectar or honeydew .. it ain't HONEY ... it's bee processed sugar/ sugar syrup and therefore is adulteration.

Yes. Had to read The Honey (England) Regulation 2015

"Definition of “honey” and different types of honey

2.—(1) In these Regulations “honey” means the natural sweet substance produced by Apis mellifera bees from the nectar of plants or from secretions of living parts of plants or excretions of plant-sucking insects on the living parts of plants which the bees collect, transform by combining with specific substances of their own, deposit, dehydrate, store and leave in honeycombs to ripen and mature. "

No sugar syrup or icing sugar as a source.

Apimondia statement on honey fraud Section 6

"Different types of honey fraudcan be achieved through:. . . .


5.artificial feeding of bees during a nectar flow."

 

[Beefriendly]

You can google all you like ... if it hasn't come from nectar or honeydew .. it ain't HONEY ... it's bee processed sugar/ sugar syrup and therefore is adulteration.

One of the many dodgy practices in the far east is taking the fresh nectar collected by the bees and then manually drying it to honey levels of moisture. This is one of the many forms of honey adulteration practised abroad. It's not honey, although it has been derived from nectar.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

One of the many dodgy practices in the far east is taking the fresh nectar collected by the bees and then manually drying it to honey levels of moisture. This is one the many forms of honey adulteration practised abroad. It's not honey, although it has been derived from nectar.

Such equipment is for sale in the UK. I've heard a local beekeeper call such machines very useful if water content a bit too high.

To do this on a large scale, removing frames, spinning out, putting frames back and concentrating the nectar doesn't sound like much of a short cut. Easier to add some sort of syrup and flavourings to the proper honey or feed a syrup to the bees.
Don't think I have the imagination or the cunning to achieve this. Just trying to avoid mistakes.

 

[pargyle]

One of the many dodgy practices in the far east is taking the fresh nectar collected by the bees and then manually drying it to honey levels of moisture. This is one of the many forms of honey adulteration practised abroad. It's not honey, although it has been derived from nectar.

It doesn't surprise me .. double the crop from the same colony if the bees don't have to ripen it. Seems like a bit of a faff to me but people seem to spend a lot of time trying to find shortcuts to profit. Just hope that it's not UK beekeepers.