Labeling Honey

[leechmann]

The grade A honey Label. Who decides what is Grade A honey? Is it tested some where to receive this label or is it a label without meaning?

[AllenF]

Grade honey is normally heated and raw honey is not heated.

Here is something else on Grade honey
"You may be paying more for honey labeled "certified organic" or feel reassured by the "USDA Grade A" seal, but the truth is, there are few federal standards for honey, no government certification and no consequences for making false claims.

And while they're required to put the country of origin on the label -- a fact that could help guide wary consumers -- some honey producers don't bother.


Unless shoppers buy honey from a farmers market, where they can talk with the person who raised the bees and bottled the honey, they're relying on what's printed on the label.

Part of this is because of the government's failure to define what true honey is, but the blame also goes to a handful of sleazy honey packers who buy and sell cut-rate foreign honey, which usually has little problem slipping past overstretched customs inspectors.

The Seattle P-I surveyed 60 honey products commonly sold in the Pacific Northwest and found glowing praises of healthfulness, sincere promises of quality and an endless selection of advertising adjectives touting honey as the true elixir.

"100% Pure." "U.S. Grade A Pure." "U.S. Grade 1." "America's Best Honey." "U.S. Choice." "Natural and Pure."

The list goes on and on, but it's mostly hype, experts say.

"If somebody puts 'U.S. Grade A' on there, who's going to say it isn't?" said Harriet Behar, outreach coordinator with the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service. "There's no enforcement, so people can say whatever they want."

The government takes a minor role in the grading of honey. It's left entirely up to the industry.

The government, he said, doesn't have the resources to set and enforce needed standards. And that leads to inaccurate or misleading labeling."


Copied from http://www.seattlepi.com/local/394198_honey31.asp

[D Coates]

Wow, I always kinds suspected as much.  As long as safety is not the issue, in the industry I am in unless you are willing to take on a competitor for false claims (ie lawyer, lawsuit and the costs involved) they can claim just about anything. 

Buyer beware...

[leechmann]

So if you sell your honey at a farmers market. Should you be heating your honey to the Grade A stadard. Furthermore, if you sell your honey in the local grocery store, should you be heating it to the grade A standard. If the answer is yes, is the heating temp approximately 145 degrees?

 I'm a little baffled, I thought the whole idea of local honey was the issued of takin advantage of the health benifits. ney, we are educing it to being a great tastig sweetner. Am I right?

Thanks Leechmann

[AllenF]

You would heat honey to make it easier to work with.   After extraction to storage then to be bottled.  Flows like water.

[Brian D. Bray]

The Seattle P-I surveyed 60 honey products commonly sold in the Pacific Northwest and found glowing praises of healthfulness, sincere promises of quality and an endless selection of advertising adjectives touting honey as the true elixir.

This led to an investigation where it was found that these same honey packers (several national brand names) were buying banded honey from china that was contaminated with a spectrum of antibiotics not approved anywhere in the world for use on bees, foreign nonhoney substances, and honey cut with corn fractose sugars and even molasses.  They found contaminated 50 gallon barrels of honey from china at a honey packer in Sultan, WA, which they turned in to US Customs.

The only safe honey is honey from local known beekeepers who can tell you everything you want to know including where the hives were and what their primary forage was. 

Processed honey (Packers) has been pasturized, which darkens the color, to reduce the likelyhood of crystalization.

The grades of honey run from clear amber (ie blackberry) to black (ie Alfalfa).  There are colorcharts available from most equipment suppliers and the USDA on the grades of honeyaand their corresponding colores.

[rdy-b]

 8-) RDY-B
http://www.honey.com/images/downloads/exhoney.pdf
national honey Board

[edward]

what !!!!!!

why heat up honey  :?

heat kills off all the health benefits  :'(

mvh edward  :-P

[jsmob]

This might help as well. Although it is for CA.

http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/faculty/mussen/NovDec%202010.pdf