Food-safety experts have discovered that much of the honey sold in the US isn’t really honey, but a mixture of corn or rice syrup, malt sweeteners or cheap, unrefined sugar and only a tiny amount of real honey. Even worse, much of the honey imported from Asia—often via a circuitous route through another country—has been found to contain lead and other heavy metal toxins, as well as drugs like chloramphenicol, a broad-spectrum antibiotic.
Furthermore, laboratory tests have revealed that the majority of honey obtained from major grocery store chains like Safeway, Giant Eagle, QFC, Kroger, Metro Market, Harris Teeter, A&P, and Stop & Shop has been processed by ultra filtration. This filtration process removes all of the pollen from the honey. Not only is honey less natural and nutritious without pollen, it is also impossible to trace its source. According to food experts, pollen analysis is the only means to determine where honey is harvested originally. And, the only way to be absolutely sure that there are no microcontaminants in your honey would be to conduct extensive laboratory testing.
What can you as a consumer do to protect yourself and your family? Do your research. Know what you are buying. Purchase honey directly from the beekeeper that lives in your neighborhood. Small local apiaries like Bee America Honey offer consumers the confidence of knowing exactly how the bees are treated, the nutritional quality of the honey, and how it was harvested. These boutique honey-producers can educate their customers about their bee management strategies and sustainable land-management practices. By buying their honey and honey products from these apiaries, consumers are making an environmentally-sensitive decision to support sources of natural ingredients.
This philosophy of sourcing local honey—both from our own apiary and distinctive regions across the United States—is at the very foundation of Bee America Honey: great-tasting, 100% natural honey and a variety of flavors. This is sweetness that you can trust.
