The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Bees & Beekeeping => Topic started by: Orinlooper on June 07, 2016, 07:31:53 pm
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A friend has bought some so called local honey, but they suspect the beekeeper has been buying cheap stuff from China, is there an easy way to test it?
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I doubt there is an easy way of testing it.
What makes your friend think it might be from China?
Trading standards might be interest if there is some real reason to believe it's fake.
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This is indeed a difficult one, I agree with [member=8989]Bionic[/member] it would be good to ask the friend why they think this. I am not sure any test would be able to tell you would really need to have rock hard proof that it was fake before getting trading standards onto it. It might be worthwhile when buying the honey to ask how many bees they have or take a peek, with permission of course as being an inquisitive, ask how much they sell in a year and calculate from that, per what a single hive will produce if it doesn't add up then maybe then. It also might be worth buying chinese honey and comparing the 2
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Tests can tell what flowers made the honey. Is there another beekeeper nearby whose honey you could compare it with?
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This is so bad there is onley one that was proper manuka honey whith high properties The rest is not worth having. But the market is flooded whith the fake honey specialey the better honey. So this is the one you need
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Just watched a recorded program on TV last night about this very thing. They can test to find out what flowers the honey has been made from. The simple answer is, if she thinks she is getting cheap imported honey don't buy from this person again.
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Agree no way to really test it. I think asking questions to see how trustworthy the seller is, would be the best bet and if you don't trust them, don't buy it.
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No way for us to test it, but authorities/those with the right equipment can and trading standards may well be interested. There will be traces of pollen in it, so either DNA or pollen analysis, neither of which is all that expensive, would show which species of flowers it is made from. While there will be some exotics within foraging range, it's unlikely that bees wouldn't use at least some uk natives.
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What grounds do they have to suspect the honey in question is not genuinely local? There would have to be some good evidence, just rumour isn't enough and has been said it would be difficult to test without getting trading standards etc involved.
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When I was using the Honey Cooperative I discovered that you can also make " Electric or Expresso honey " by double brooding & feeding each hive gallons of sugar syrup each week using scrap sugar .
Because it is taken into tehbhoney stomach where converting bacteria are found & regurgitated by the bees and mixed in microscopic amounts in each cell then moved around the hive as well , it is nigh on impossible to tell the difference even for big companies like Nestle where they have all manner of gas spectrum analysers & electron microscopes in their quality control labs .
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Find a small local producer then I would hope you know the authenticity of what you are buying - contact the local beekeeping association and they can most likely put you in touch with somebody
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Find a small local producer then I would hope you know the authenticity of what you are buying - contact the local beekeeping association and they can most likely put you in touch with somebody
Thought Manuka honey came from the Manuka plant which grows in new Zealand?
So wouldn't be available from a local producer anyway.
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A friend has bought some so called local honey, but they suspect the beekeeper has been buying cheap stuff from China, is there an easy way to test it?
No mention of manuka in the original post........
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No - you're right - sorry looked at the picture of Manuka and assumed that was the problem, as Manuka honey carries such a premium.
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There are easy ways to test now, a spectrum analyser can tell if its local or imported.
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I've recently read in THE TIMES that the annual traceable volume of sold Manuka honey is seven times the annual production of all the registered & licensed Manuka honey producers .
I think they said that H&B the health food place alone is selling more than the licenced & registered tonnage of production .
I guess , " Somebody's cheating ......... Big time " .