Poor Honey in Tesco

[oliver90owner]

Perhaps a bit off the subject but beeswax candles only have to contain 25% beeswax,I believe.

Regards, RAB

 

[gavin]

I cannot find a source that states exactly what amount of "other" sources i.e. Borage etc it needs to contain before you can no longer call it a Honey from a specific type of plant, could it be 99%, 80% 60%. Seems a bit muddy here. If your Honey only contained traces of other plants, then it sounds like you were correct in your labelling.

Or am I missing something obvious

There are tables somewhere that indicate the levels of other pollen which you can find in monofloral honeys. Heather (=ling) honey can have a particularly high proportion of non-heather pollen yet still be basically heather honey.

G.

 

[JCBrum]

The mind boggles a candle where 75% of it is wick !

 

[gavin]

Not really. Heather honey is made from the nectar of heather flowers, but not so much pollen gets in while the bees are processing it. Why? Perhaps the big odd grains get filtered out readily while they dry it down, maybe they have less on their bodies when they are marching about on the comb. The background level of pollen from previous plants visited can be high in the small areas of honey (and maybe pollen) stored from earlier in the summer or at the same time.

G.

 

[JCBrum]

It seems to me that honey analysis by pollen identification is only an indicator, not absolute proof.

Maybe I've assumed incorrectly that flowers don't put pollen in nectar when they make it. The bees put the pollen in as an accidental 'contamination'.

Therefor it follows that included pollens are not a strict proof of nectar origin.

Maybe it depends on the level of proof required in a contest, and generally the burden of proof is established from the evidence.

We seem to have a choice in this respect between " simple likelihood" and " beyond any doubt "

Hopefully, one day, someone will put Trading Standards to a strong test.

 

[oliver90owner]

Therefor it follows that included pollens are not a strict proof of nectar origin.

It most certainly is if the pollen is derived from flowering plants in China, or the like but the honey is claimed to be local.

It was a superb method to provide evidence of the Norfolk (I think) honey seller who cut their honey with imported material and sold it on as 'Lavender' honey.

If the pollen is from a typical plant on which the bees will forage for nectar, one can assume there is likely to be nectar contamination, perhaps only a small amount collected by some of the bees. Now if that plant flowers at another time of the year, it would indicate a slightly different scenario.

The only thing is that one cannot argue that it is not there, only explain the truth (and yes, cover your backside with some small print, if that is allowed)

There are lots of 'ifs and buts'. Remember, even if a product is nut free, a food processor has to put out a warning for possible contamination if the production line is used for other products, which do contain nuts. An extreme comparison, I know, but the trading standards person probably had nothing better to chase that day or week or whatever. Pick on a beekeeper, have a practise for a new inspector where they know how easy it is to have 'less than perfect' operating conditions.

Me, I would single out those bees from that particular hive and sack them on the spot. Line them up against a wall and shoot them with fly spray! Fancy them not doing as the beekeeper wanted!! Teach them a lesson (er?) and show the rest the consequences if it happens again. That's what I would do.

Regards, RAB

 

[Somerford]

re. poor honey

To be fair to Tesco (my previous employers) and all supermarkets, you need to contact the manufacturer of the product. Tesco do not check each pot that sits on their shelves and we all know how naturally produced products can sometimes go past their best.

If it is an issue, the manufacture then contacts the retailers concerned and a random check, often involving all the stock in the central warehouse and 10% or more of the stores will check each pot is stock. If a problem is reported back, and Emergency Product Withdrawal (EPW) notice is issued and ALL product is withdrawn from sale, pending a solution form the supplier.

regards

 

[Chris B]

Can you explain this one Chris B? - I've never heard it before and I've darned well just gone and got myself a black lab bitch!

Tony has been quoted as saying he wouldn't feed English honey to his dog. I wouldn't feed it to mine either as dog food is much cheaper.