The truth behind fondants

[Patrick1]

Toast has over 2,000 mg per kg of HMF.

It is not about human health but the damage to bee larva

 

[Patrick1]

Utter tosh I’ve placed bakers fondant on literally hundreds of hives also helping a number of bee farmer friends. Funny how they or me have consistently lower losses than the National average.

Can you share with us all the source of these statistics

 

[Markthebuilder]

Al true all accurate sort of… evidenced and verified in the three above ..
1 Hmf Is of no real concern in the human diet it’s in loads of everyday food stuff sometimes at very high levels including coffee.
2 if for no other reason than the above manufacturers of food stuff for human consumption are not required to measure it or provide details of it in the ingredients
3 because hmf can increases in products due to the way they are stored. through ageing or if they are heated it can and is used as a marker for the quality of honey.
4 because of 3 above. a limit of 40 someithing hmf has been set as the maximum allowed in honey higher than this suggests the honey has been excessively heat treated is old or has been incorrectly stored. And is therefore considered poor quality and should not sold as honey for evreday normal use.

5 individuals may feed their live-stoke what they like.providedit is not detrimental to the animals well-being and meats it’s nutritional needs
5 the law requires that manufacturers and suppliers of animal foods test and ensure that the food it is selling is fit for the purpose advertised
6 different raw materials can be used to produce the basic ingredient for fondant the extraction process of the ingredient and differing manufacturing processes that can be used to produce fondant could result in fondant containing high levels of hmf
7 feeding bees food with very high levels of hmf dose not directly kill them
8 however feeding bees with high levels of hmf in test conditions appears to reduced the life expectancy of bees from 40 days down to 30 but this is thought to be something els that is in products with a high hmf not yet understood possibly correlated with. High levels of hmf
9 It is not not known if 25% life expectancy reduction seen in 8 above applies to winter bees or whether in the hive bees are able to manage the impact of agents implied in 8 above.
10 fondunt manufacturers /and others selling the products as bee food may not be required to measure hmf levels in there product because of 7 above.

11 beekeepers have been been using bakers fondant as bee food for years and their hives survive

12 would a hive come out of winter in better condition if it was fed fondant with no hmf than it would if it was fed fondant containing high levels of hmf ? Almost certainly.

 

[user 20297]

No one could compete on the basis of comparing a robin reliant to a car with four wheels.
One healthy hive has a value of around £250 and you want to save £2.00 on a dubious, unregulated feed, No wonder we have so many winter losses.

That really is a very poor comparison. If we are going to use matters relating to cars as our metaphor, I would say that using regular fondant is like hiring a brand new car at your holiday airport and turning down the additional insurance which triples the price of the car hire package.

You accept a slight risk in order to make a significant financial saving. This goes against a business model which relies on creating fear and doubt in the consumer's mind.

 

[Ian123]

Can you share with us all the source of these statistics

What statistics! Pls refer me to any I’ve quoted. On the off chance you mean the reference to winter losses, that survey is available on the NBU site and normally published by the bbka in bee craft. Do you have a copyWhat I clearly said was based on personal experiences and that of some larger beekeepers. We have 1 of the largest here who’s given his own personal experience that there’s not an issue. It’s no different than a 2 log hive owner coming on here and suggesting he’s found a cure for varroa. I’d laugh! If a respected beekeeper with 5k hives turns round and tells me he’s found a cure, I’d be interested! There is nothing to back up your claims of fondant causing losses and there at present is no correlation to the use of bakers fondant over bee feeds!

 

[Anduril]

If girls are made of sugar and spice I wonder what their HMF level is?

 

[Boston Bees]

The HMF (Hoax Marketing of Fondant) level of this thread has reached toxic proportions.

 

[WoodenBeam]

About time this thread was locked…..12 pages of discussion? & no common ground.
Can’t see where the saying comes from about asking a group of beekeepers a simple question………………

 

[Moobee]

Bakers or ‘Bee’ Fondant? This sketch sprang to mind…..

 

[Ian123]

Bakers or ‘Bee’ Fondant? This sketch sprang to mind…..

Lol brilliant!!!!!!

 

[user 20297]

Bakers or ‘Bee’ Fondant? This sketch sprang to mind…..

..Nailed it!!!!!

 

[Erichalfbee]

And they all lived happily ever after

 

[Somerford]

I was a bit late to the 12 page party from the forum manufacturer sponsor discussion on Fondant and HMF levels in bakers fondant…

been rather busy of late in the main business and also still busy extracting - only 5 apiaries to go

anyway, having read the thread I rather feel I’m in ITLD’s Murray’s camp on the smoke and mirrors the sugar manufacturers get up to. I’ve fed bakers fondant for years. I dispute the supposed issues with it.
As for over winter losses - the biggest cause which is being ignored is Varroa. Fix that by timely intervention and you’ll more than likely get your 1/10/100/1000 colonies through winter

on the supplementary feeding idea I used to feed ultrabee as it had extra in it to stimulate brood development and even used a thin patty between honey flows.

now the price has shot up I no longer use it.

therein lies the lesson for the supplier(s)
KR
S

 

[Erichalfbee]

Worth reading

https://www.theapiarist.org/hydroxymethylfurfural/