November 2018
BEE NEWS
Straight from the Hive!
Beware of Food Fraud!!! Honey is one of nature’s purest foods, referred to by nutritionists as “functional food” because of its many health benefits. It is relatively expensive, and consumers are entitled to get what they pay for. The latest honey food fraud scandal in Australia exposes what committed beekeepers have known for some time now, that cheap, fake honey is increasingly being sold to an unsuspecting public. “How is honey adulterated?” you might ask. And “why has it not been detected before?” Honey is adulterated in two main ways: by adding cheap Chinese honey or various syrups. After a devastating bout of foulbrood disease which wiped out huge numbers of China’s bees in 2001, honey appeared on the market which was artificially “ripened” (eliminating much of its health benefits) and some which it is suggested was synthetic and never troubled a bee to be produced. The US placed heavy tariffs on Chinese honey as a result. This did not stop it reaching the US by transhipping and relabelling, it appeared to come from other countries to which the tariffs did not apply. Further, to avoid detection, Chinese honey is also now heated and ultra-filtered to remove all pollen which makes it impossible to determine its source. The detection of added syrups is the other issue. Typically, syrups made from starchy plants like sugarcane and corn were added and are easily detected using a C4 test. The fraudsters have become sophisticated and have started adding cheap rice, wheat and beet syrups which cannot be detected using the standard C4 test. However, a new test, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) pioneered in Germany, has already detected these syrups and put the cat among the pigeons. Earlier this year, T&T Beekeepers used a German lab to test samples of honey being sold locally. They all proved to be adulterated and contained no pollen. Threatened with exposure the merchant removed the offending product from the shelves. Also, despite the ban on the importation of honey into T&T, the USDA National Honey Report disclosed that 13,900 kg of honey were exported to T&T during the first half of 2018.
Beware of where you purchase your honey, the fraudsters are among us. … Gordon Deane
What our beekeeper has been up to
Bee Fact! Hard working bees A single honey bee visits between 50 and 100 flowers during one collection trip. A typical hive visits approximately 225,000 flowers per day and makes an average of 1,600 round trips in order to produce one ounce of honey. To make one pound of honey, bees fly over 88,500 km to gather enough nectar. … Dr. Jo-Anne Sewlal
November is a busy month for our beekeeper and his colleagues. They will be attending the 9th Caribbean Beekeeping Congress in Guyana. They will also be presenting two posters at the 21st Biennial Conference of the Caribbean Academy of Sciences.