Fake news Honey

We’re probably all used to reports and accusations of fake news these days, what I find disconcerting are reports this morning that Australian Honey producer Capilano and and some of our largest supermarkets are facing accusations of unwittingly selling “Fake” Honey. Something as simple and pure as honey would seem to be that which you wouldn’t mess with, not so according to a leading international laboratory in Germany that specializes in Honey Fraud Detection, they have found that almost half of the samples tested were found to be “adulterated”, meaning that the product has been mixed with something else apart from nectar from bees.

The tests performed by Germany’s Quality Services International (QSI), were 1.Nuclear Magnetic Resonance screening (NMR)  and the second used the official C4 sugar test.

“ASX-listed Capilano’s Allowrie-branded Mixed Blossom Honey, which sources honey from Australia and overseas, and markets itself as 100 per cent honey, showed up as “adulterated” in the majority of samples tested.”

“The tests were commissioned by top law firm King & Wood Mallesons, on behalf of horticulturalist Robert Costa.”

“The law firm collected 28 blended and imported honey samples from supermarket stores around Australia, including Coles, Woolworths, ALDI and IGA and documented the stores, locations, brands and batches.”

“Capilano strongly denied any issues with its products and criticised the type of test — known as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) — used to detect the impurities, pointing out that it differed from the official Australian test.

The lab tested eight Allowrie samples as well as IGA’s Black & Gold private label and ALDI’s Bramwell’s private label brand, which are blended local and imported honey, and detected adulteration in almost half the samples.

Using the NMR testing the results showed that 12 of the 28 samples tested were not 100 per cent pure honey.

Four of the six IGA Black and Gold private label products registered as adulterated, two of six ALDI Bramwell’s private label brands failed the NMR test and six out of eight of Capilano’s Allowrie budget branded bottles had adulterated honey when NMR screening was used.

The same 28 samples were then tested using the official Australian test, C4, and all passed.”