TRUE HONEY BUZZ BLOG
THE LATEST NEWS & RESOURCES
More than 1 in 5 Honey Samples Suspected of Adulteration in CFIA Surveillance Project
The CFIA conducted a targeted surveillance report on honey imported into Canada in 2018-2019. A total of 240 samples of
How Bees Survive the Cold Winter Months
Have you ever wondered what happens to bees in the winter? As temperatures drop in the winter, insects can no
Why Food Fraud can be Bad for your Health
Food fraud, as stated by Michigan State University is "the deliberate and intentional substitution, addition, tampering, or misrepresentation of food,
Beehives and Honey Harvesting
Bees produce honey as a food source to sustain them throughout the winter when it is too cold for them
Canadian Food Fraud is Real
The Canadian Food Inspection agency speculates that 10% of the food on our store shelves is a target for food
How Bees Make Honey
Honey production and plant reproduction are strongly related - such that we can't have one without the other! Plant reproduction
Honey Fraud: Affecting your Health, the Economy, and the Environment
Across the world, beekeepers are feeling the toll of honey adulteration on their market. The addition of syrups and sweeteners
Food Authenticity Podcast
True Honey Buzz CEO and founder Peter Awram discusses honey fraud with lawyer Gillain Wade in this episode of Brukers
The Chemical Composition of Honey
Ever wondered what's in your jar of honey? While the ingredient list on your label might just say "honey", honey
True Honey Buzz is Tackling Honey Fraud in Canada
True Honey Buzz is helping to create a database of authentic honey samples that can help to detect even the
European Beekeepers Insist on Protection against Foreign Honey Imports
There are over 600,000 beekeepers and 17 million hives in the Europe. European beekeepers have been working to implement stricter
Honey Adulteration: Let me count the ways
Here at True Honey Buzz, we talk a lot about adulterated honey - but what exactly does that mean? The
Creating a database of Canadian honey
Authentic Food Solutions continues to partner with Dr. Leonard Foster and his lab at UBC to develop a test that
Accusations of Honey Adulteration in Tesco Honey
Tesco has taken their '100% pure honey' off their shelves due to allegations of honey adulteration with corn syrup. Tesco
British beekeepers call for stricter labelling of honey blends
Honey fraud is an issue that affects both consumers and producers. Consumers are misled to believe that what they are
US beekeepers sue over imports of Asian fake honey
A network of US beekeepers have started a class action lawsuit against the country's largest honey importers for importing fraudulent
Investigating Food Fraud in the Honey Industry
Are you curious about the ways in which honey adulteration occurs? This article covers important topics such as the impact
Has China messed with your honey? How the country’s ‘blending’ factories are now producing MORE honey than the world’s bees
To stay up to date on how the worlds honey production has grown by approximately 50% while the number of
Global food fraud rising as result of pandemic, report finds
Covid-19 is causing a rise in global food fraud, with "adulteration cases increased by 30% and counterfeit incidents by 47%".
Supermarket brands of honey are ‘bulked out with cheap sugar syrups made from rice and corn’
Honey tested using magnetic resonance in many of Britain's supermarkets have been under question for adulteration after products including Tesco
A Honey of an Issue
True Honey Buzz's very own Peter Awram delves into the many issues that Canada's beekeepers are seeing as the increase
The bee’s knees
Adulteration of honey can take many forms, including the addition of high fructose corn syrups, masking or mislabelling the product,
“Beekeepers Loves Bees”. A Beekeeper Sets the Record Straight About Honey
Honey is both a natural sweetener and considered to have a variety of medicinal properties. There are many misconceptions about
Government gives money for honey traceability program and library
THE Australian honey industry is looking to reassure public trust in the product with the creation of a national honey
Honey I shrunk the tests: India retains just one of three major quality parameters prompting adulteration fears
The Food Safety and Standards Authority India (FSSAI) has announced that it will be retaining just one of three major
US Beekeepers Fear for the Future
Huge volumes of low cost honey are being imported into the United States every year. Two thirds of the honey
Honey: Fancy or Fake
At Sweetwater labs in Missouri a series of tests in 2019 were run on various off the shelf honey brands
What is Honey Adulteration?
As technology advances, scammers are becoming more aware of the food testing practices implemented. Once scammers know which characteristics we
Allegations of Honey Fraud coming out in the US
A suit has been filed in the US District Court in Pennsylvania on false labelling of honey. The suit appears to be based on the high levels of HMF that were found. This is an indication of excessive heating of the the honey which results in alteration of the basic components of honey.
Honey Adulteration tests from India: A 100% Detection of C4 Sugars
While we are seeing rates of 20+ percent in some parts of the world. Tests in other areas can be even worse.
Honey Fraud is a Worldwide Problem!
South Africa has seen as much as 75% of the honey that has been tested as fraudulent and this was using the C4 test that doesn't detect rice syrup. Extensive testing is going to be the only way to stop this. It is far too easy to get starch syrups these days. And local doesn't necessarily mean safe any one can jump online and get it delivered. There often is some beekeeper that always has a great crop and never seems to run out of honey.
The honey mixed into other foods is one of the destinations for fake honey.
Jonathan Hache of the CFIA talks about how honey added to food products is one of the biggest problems with regard to syrup masquerading as honey. Read more here
CFIA report on adulterated honey in Canada is making waves
The CFIA report from last week found over 20% of the samples they tested were adulterated. These results mirror what have been seen in the European Union and in Australia. The CFIA needs to expand these analysis of Canadian honey further.
Honey Fraud in Australia
At the end of 2018 a paper came out in Nature Scientific Reports detailing an analysis of a number of honey from Australia and New Zealand as well as from other parts of the world. Well over 20% had indications of fraud using EA-IRMS. Read more about the report here
Chilliwack beekeeper to safeguard purity of B.C. honey with high-tech test
Using a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) machine, Peter Awram’s lab will be able to determine if cheap sweeteners, such as corn syrup or rice syrup, have been added to particular brands of honey to increase producers’ profits.
A B.C. solution to taking the sting out of honey fraud
In the last fiscal year, more than 23 per cent of imported honey products tested by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency contained additives, despite being labelled pure. The agency found the honey had been diluted with rice and corn syrups.
Cutting-edge lab opens in Chilliwack to detect fraudulent honey
A new cutting-edge laboratory to detect fake honey — the first in Canada — opened Thursday by the Worker Bee Honey Company of Chilliwack. “Our new lab is a response to honey adulteration, a worldwide problem which is growing larger,” said Peter Awram of the Worker Bee Honey.
Almost 20 per cent of Australian honey samples found to not be pure
The study, conducted by a team of scientists at Macquarie University, used 100 samples of honey sourced globally, including