8 replies to this topic

[armagh]

Florida first state to require ‘pure’ honeyJacksonville Business JournalStarting Tuesday, honey produced, sold or processed in Florida must be all natural.Florida has become the first state in the nation to prohibit additives, chemicals or adulterants from being added to the sweetener.Florida’s agriculture commissioner announced the new regulation Monday."We want to assure consumers that the product that they are buying is pure," Charles H. Bronson said in a media release. "Too often in the past, honey has been cut with water or sugar, and sometimes even contaminated with insecticides or antibiotics. In the future, when you're paying for honey in this state, pure honey is what you will get."The new regulation says honey containing anything other than the "natural food product resulting from the harvest of nectar by honeybees" is considered an adulterated or mislabeled product. If found to have additives, the products are subject to a stop sale order. Repeat offenders face fines of up to $500 per violation.The regulation grew out of a flood of adulterated honey products that came into Florida from overseas in 2006. A group of honey producers asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to create a national standard, but, two years later, the FDA said it would not be able to review the petition due to other pressing matters, according to a news release.It was at that point the industry asked Bronson’s office to come up with a standard. Monday’s announcement was the result of those efforts.Florida is the fourth-leading honey-producing state in the nation, employing more than 500. Cash receipts to beekeepers were more than $15 million in 2008. The beekeeping industry has an annual economic impact estimated at $40 million.

[ScottS]

Any idea how or if they plan to enforce this?

[armagh]

Typically the onus is placed on the retailer to maintain compliance, subject to unannounced inspections by the Ag. Dept. As to the anticipated question of how effective is that scheme, I would say historically, it depends - it worked well with source labeling for produce but not so well with some other initiatives. I'm guessing the average household buys its honey from grocery retailers and large chains tend to comply as a matter of efficiency.

[wengared]

this is the same problem they've had with olive oil, i think random testing is what solved the problem.

[Brewer Pete]

I have been studying all sorts of hives and apiarist techniques and issues for the past year and its quite a worry with fat solubility of the chemicals used combined with reuse of the wax honey comb and how potentially safe doses build up over time in the wax into harmful levels. Mmm probably more eye raising than bee fecal matter in honey :-)Im still brewing with honey, but a bit glad I did not jumpmright into beekeeping as I was initially going to kit out with langstroths and do what most would consider 'modern' beek technique. Not going down that path the more I read. If I go vertical I might go Warre hives. Or horizontal TBH. But I cant convince myself to go Lang anymore.Cheers,Brewer Pete

[BeesNBrews]

This is probably one of the better articles concerning honey regulation and some of the very inexpensive products available....https://www.seattlep...053_honey30.asp

[VolFan]

This is probably one of the better articles concerning honey regulation and some of the very inexpensive products available....https://www.seattlep...053_honey30.asp

Wow. I'll never again buy honey from any store. Now that I've found a good local source it shouldn't be an issue, but I believe the wife has some in the pantry from a foreign country. Going to have to let her start tapping the 5 gl jug I recently bought and toss the other.

Edited by VolFan, 04 August 2009 - 07:05 PM.

[Stout_fan]

Any idea how or if they plan to enforce this?

If they would even THINK to argue with a guy named Charles Bronson, they've got a lot more stones than I do!

[Stout_fan]

Wow. I'll never again buy honey from any store. ...

Costco was locally supplied with Dutch Gold honey. It only half fermented, the remainder tasting a lot like corn syrup. Actually, the honey didn't have the usual bite and did taste a bit syrupy. So I suspected fakery.A fellow mazer actually asked them and they SWEAR it is from US, Argentinian and Canadian sources. They sell it for half the price of locally produced honey. I was always a bit suspicious. After reading the article, my suspicions are confirmed. I haven't purchased their honey in 10 years. Now, I never plan to.Many thanks for the post.