# Organic Honey In Stores



## Michael Bush

Raw honey has not been heated. Most honeys that are not heated tend to crystallize sooner or later (with a few exceptions). That's the cause of the "cloudiness". The USDA owns the term "Organic" so unless you are certified you can't really call it that. You can state what methods you use (don't treat etc.) . USDA doesn't have a honey standard so I have concerns about how people claim they have USDA certified organic honey... Most of it seems to come from Brazil. I wonder if it has something to do with NAFTA?


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## Rusty Hills Farm

Personally I cannot understand how ANY honey can be sold as organic unless there is some magical way of controlling where bees forage. How can anyone guarantee that their bees have not visited a single flower or plant or tree that's been sprayed or fertilized or altered with something that is not strictly "organic" when they may forage up to 2 miles? 

IMO calling any honey "organic" is false advertising. Saying the BEES have been raised to an organic standard is about the best anyone can do and still be truthful.

JMO

Rusty


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## Riskybizz

Brazil and Mexico are two countries that do have a certification program for organically produced honey. I used to have the requirements somewhere but not handy at the moment. Its stringent. Those honeys are produced away from any large agricultural zones in vast expanses of non-habituated areas. As MB advised we do not have a certification program for "organic" honey in the U.S. Just sell your honey as raw, and leave it at that.


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## crofter

Crush and strain with lots of pollen can be pretty murky looking; of course that has nothing do do with being "organic" but some people do associate being a bit gross and organic. I think organic may be nothing more than a good sales gimmick in more cases than not.


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## Agis Apiaries

Don't forget that "Organic" has to do with how the honey was created. It does't always have to do with what is done to the honey later. It can still be labelled "Organic" but later heated excessively, highly filtered, etc. I am aware of a local chain that told an organic honey producer they would not sell his honey unless he heated it way up so it would not crystalize so fast. He said he wouldn't do that and pulled out. Another "organic" honey producer is now selling there. You can bet his "organic" honey has been heated up too much.


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## M&M

Thanks for explanations. BEAUTIFUL Website http://bestrawhoney.com/ !


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## Joe Hillmann

M&M said:


> Thanks for explanations. BEAUTIFUL Website http://bestrawhoney.com/ !


I feel that website is misleading. They compare super market honey to pure raw honey and claim high fructose corn syrup is a main ingredient in the super market honey then all their comparisons from there on are between HFCS and raw honey even though they are supposed to be comparing store honey and their pure raw honey.


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## Agis Apiaries

Joe Hillmann said:


> I feel that website is misleading. They compare super market honey to pure raw honey and claim high fructose corn syrup is a main ingredient in the super market honey then all their comparisons from there on are between HFCS and raw honey even though they are supposed to be comparing store honey and their pure raw honey.


Have you read all of the studies that have been done on big box store honey? Take the one below for example. Not what I want to be eating. It's just plain dishonest.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-schiffman/most-store-bought-honey-i_b_1118564.html


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## Joe Hillmann

Agis Apiaries said:


> Have you read all of the studies that have been done on big box store honey? Take the one below for example. Not what I want to be eating. It's just plain dishonest.
> 
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-schiffman/most-store-bought-honey-i_b_1118564.html


The larger honey packers can and supposedly do test for HFCS. That isn't the problem, the issue is the pollen is removed which makes it impossible to track where it originated which allows Chinese honey to come in to the U.S. through other countries. Chinese honey isn't restricted because it is diluted, or dangerous but because it is too cheap.


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## Agis Apiaries

Joe Hillmann said:


> The larger honey packers can and supposedly do test for HFCS. That isn't the problem, the issue is the pollen is removed which makes it impossible to track where it originated which allows Chinese honey to come in to the U.S. through other countries. Chinese honey isn't restricted because it is diluted, or dangerous but because it is too cheap.


According to Food Safety News

"A third or more of all the honey consumed in the U.S. is likely to have been smuggled in from China and may be *tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals*. A Food Safety News investigation has documented that millions of pounds of honey banned as unsafe in dozens of countries are being imported and sold here in record quantities."

That's more than just a pollen or "cheap honey" problem.


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## Beeman1554

The Food Safety News story if fascinating. It's also 5 years old. I wonder what, if anything has changed.


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## camprn

http://abc7chicago.com/food/-60-ton...ed-by-federal-authorities-in-chicago/1325478/


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## Joe Hillmann

Agis Apiaries said:


> According to Food Safety News
> 
> "A third or more of all the honey consumed in the U.S. is likely to have been smuggled in from China and may be *tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals*. A Food Safety News investigation has documented that millions of pounds of honey banned as unsafe in dozens of countries are being imported and sold here in record quantities."
> 
> That's more than just a pollen or "cheap honey" problem.


If the website I originally commented on had mentioned that I wouldn't have an argument, and would agree with them. But they were focusing on HFCS which even that story says is pretty easy to spot.


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## Joe Hillmann

camprn said:


> http://abc7chicago.com/food/-60-ton...ed-by-federal-authorities-in-chicago/1325478/


According to that story it wasn't seized because the honey was bad but because it came from China and was cheep.


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## Agis Apiaries

I guess we can agree there are a number of reasons to be careful where you buy honey.


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## DavidZ

It's like I've been saying for 10yrs now the word "Organic" has become the new "Lite"
jump on the wagon, people will buy anything now with the word organic to be part of the so called enlightened hip crowd.


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