![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-469220-100x100.png\")
Who's watching most of our nation's imports? Pretty much no one.
Who's watching most of our nation's imports? Pretty much no one.
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Another reason I'm glad I only buy locally produced honey.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-161466-100x100.png\")
@morganlh85:
No question. Thankfully, we have a number of local producers and their honey tastes fantastic.
@morganlh85: Me too, but now I'm wondering about how many of them actually produce their honey and how many of them are just repackaging to turn a quick buck? The labeling on such honey is so minimalistic.
@MikeF74: Man, I know what you mean. The nice thing for me, though, is that you can visit the bees of the guy whose honey I buy, and he also sells it for like $6/half gallon, so there's practically no way he could be making a profit if he was reselling! ^_~
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-483565-100x100.png\")
@MikeF74: Yup. I believe that's been occurring with the produce now and then, too--a quick trip to the supermarket can get you some nice viable product in advance of the local season, and the consumer is none the wiser.
Well, I do my part as a honey-loving bear to keep tabs on the quality of what I consume. So far, I've noticed that my best option for pure honey is to visit my local farmer's market.
Still in the honeycomb. MMMMMMmmm!
Although, bear-shaped bottles are still cute! (I wash & refill them with fresh honey.)
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-489342-100x100.png\")
That doesn't mean my honey that says it's from New Jersey is really from China, does it? I mean, not that Jersey is a whole lot better than China...but it says New Jersey all over the bottle and gives a specific honey farm name!
@nicemarmot617: If your food items say \"distributed by\" a US company you can almost guarantee they're importing the food from another country - most likely China too.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-232165-100x100.png\")
@nicemarmot617: I buy my honey from a local guy who pays Amish people for it. (I live in NJ too).
It's unprocessed pure 100% honey.
Another problem with Honey is many companies Boil it making it lose many of it's health properties. Of course the only problem with 100% honey not boiled or processed is that sometimes you may find bee parts :)
@Skankingmike: Well, that and it's much more likely to recrystallize. Because the added step of heating the honey before use is too much for some people.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-3865-100x100.png\")
Wow, this freaks me out as I just bought a bear full of honey yesterday (for the first time in years, as part of a diet).
I checked, and it was at least distributed by a company in NJ (it had a NJ address on it), but it didnt specifiy where it was made. I'm concerned now.
This may be a myth, but I heard consuming local honey will also help your allergies, as you are getting trace amounts of the pollen, which builds up a tolerance. Luckily, NJ Bee's are so radioactive, anything harmful gets burned away. ;)
@SWM,30isoSWF_GitEmSteveDave: Even if it did help with allergies, it would only help if you were allergic to the specific pollinators for that honey. Odds of that are not so good.
@richcreamerybutter: The guy we buy our honey from at our local farmer's market says that's a myth. He was quick to point out all the other selling points to his honey but told me if it actually helped with allergies he'd be a lot richer than he is. :)
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-60891-100x100.png\")
There are supposedly health benefits to eating local honey, though I have yet to see any convincing evidence of that. But for my money, Tasmanian leatherwood honey, which obviously cannot come from China, is the best on earth. It's pricey but totally worth it. If you're going to buy honey from halfway around the world, you may as well get the best. Go to [www.tasmanianhoney.com] to find out more.
@You-Me-Us: It's the pollen the bee's collect, it should help with Allergies which has been proven.
but honey is a very natural way humans got sugar way back in the day, and our first alcoholic beverages mead.
All and all honey is way better for you than sugar or high fructose corn syrup.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-348745-100x100.png\")
it should help with Allergies which has been proven.
reference? Anecdotal proof doesn't count... people also believe that ufos exist
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-352008-100x100.png\")
@Skankingmike: No, it hasn't been proven. But it can't hurt to have a little honey on toast every day, though... unless you have lethal reactions to some pollens.
What has been proven is that honey is a good anti-bacterial and anti-septic. That's right: good for cuts, ulcers, burns, infections, and more. Makes your wounds taste better too. As always, local honey is supposed to be better.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-142705-100x100.png\")
Beer brewers: Honey makes a wonderful adjunct in beer making. You get the essence of what the bees made the honey from without the sweetness. Honey is wonderful stuff!
And apparently, Chinese honey can cure anthrax! Is there anything honey can't do?
@pegr: Better yet, brew the honey into mead! Once it's brewed down to zero, you can add more. lather, rinse, repeat until it's strong enough to knock down a bear at five paces. Just make sure that all the yeast is killed, unless you like exploding bottles. Friends actually made a batch where the yeast refused to die - 'splodey bottles, but wonderful mead.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-106827-100x100.png\")
@pegr: Apparently you can even substitute soap with a drop of honey while washing your hands. I befriended the owner of large-ish bee farm in VA a while ago and he would always toss out random honey facts. He was definitely a good salesman, but I don't think he would stoop to lying about the properties of honey,
Honey is so awesome. It's so awesome that it should be immune to taint, but, alas, no foods or drugs in America are immune these days. So sad.
Why would there be antibiotics in Honey? are they giving antibiotics to sick bees?
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-21970-100x100.png\")
@shoelace414: The whole honeybee \"industry\" is pretty amazing -- check out this Slate article from a while back.
@Chris Walters: The slate article proves that some people know just enough to be dangerous. Oh, and it's probably fairly arrogant to correct ol' Albert. He had this way of seeing things somewhat differently. I'd take his warning somewhat seriously, yeah.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-373342-100x100.png\")
@shoelace414: Maybe because some honey can contain clostridium botulism bacteria that can harm children under two. Don't know if these antibiotics stop it.
In general using antibiotics like this can lead to resistant bacteria. This could eventually become a big problem.
I buy my honey from the bulk foods section of Whole Foods because I'm happy with the price and quality, but I just now realize that I have no idea if this is foreign or domestic honey.
@ludwigk: Our Whole Foods has another selection of honey from local farmers near the baking supplies. I wouldn't trust the bulk stuff.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-411956-100x100.png\")
the National Honey Board should take a cue from the American Peanut Council regarding consumer information. Sure, it's \"not their job\" but don't they want to ensure that people continue to buy honey?
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-131635-100x100.png\")
Does \"Product of U.S.A.\" = not from China?
Somehow I think they could argue that if they imported it but shipped and sold it here, they could still label it as being a \"Product of U.S.A.\"
@apronk: Um, I may be wrong, but I thought \"Product of U.S.A\" just meant that a portion of it was from the US or it was finished here. There are no controls on what that phrase means. This could mean that the bulk honey was harvested in China and repackaged in the US.
In my neighborhood you can also buy imported Polish \"honey flavored syrup.\" It's mainly corn syrup with a small amount of honey and flavoring. I wonder if this stuff is ever accidentally or intentionally mislabeled?
I'm also paranoid about fake olive oil!
@Rob Weddle: Fake olive oil is a real problem--if you find extra virgin that is too cheap to be true, it's probably a mix of canola oil, vegetable oil, some olive oil, and possibly some peanut/nut oils. They had a story on NPR not too long ago about a fake olive oil ring that got busted in New Jersey. The real problem, obviously, is the inclusion of nut oils, which some people can be very (like deadly) allergic to.
Oh, and local honey is the best! I am troubled by this article though--I have a reaction to Cipro. I guess I will avoid honey from restaurants, since I have no clue where that stuff comes from, and keep my honey consumption in house.
You think it's bad in the US, try living in Japan. I swear half my grocery-shopping time is spent looking on the back of packages to see where stuff comes from - after a few people died last year eating Chinese frozen vegetables, the store by my house changed all the \"from China\" signs to say \"from a foreign country\" on the produce for a few weeks. Nobody trusts their crap anymore, but yet almost all our honey (and a lot of other food as well) is Chinese - it scares me, so I pay twice as much now to get Canadian honey. I heard somewhere that local honey can help if you have seasonal allergies, but I live in the middle of Osaka and can't remember the last time I saw a tree, so hell, Canadian it is.
@CarinKabobber: Hop on any non-commuter train and you'll eventually find something. Kansai is better in this regard.
Most apple juice, which includes juices that use apple juice as a filler, comes from china. You can purchase huge bulk containers of highly concentrated apple juice for whatever your needs are. I try not to drink juices anymore just because of this. Who knows where the juice comes from.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-54520-100x100.png\")
@johnarlington: Just as you can purchase locally-grown honey, you should be able to purchase locally- (or regionally-) produced apple cider.
If you're in Texas, look for bee poo from English Honey Farms in El Campo. My dad grew up there (in El Campo, not on the honey farm) :D
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-246704-100x100.png\")
I am sure the same thing is happening with apple juice from China. Ever wonder why any \"juice\" product always has apple juice in the ingredients. China exports close to 50% of the apple juice they produce.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-350988-100x100.png\")
@laserjobs: Exactly why I buy 100% juice without added sugar. It's juice! I don't need extra stuff added to the juice.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-184636-100x100.png\")
@Red-headed bookworm: Most of the time it's still sweetened. With de-ionized pear, apple, and white grape juice. If you see any of those juices in your drink where they shouldn't be, they're used as a sweetener.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-453882-100x100.png\")
@Red-headed bookworm: 100% juice doesn't mean it's 100% ONE TYPE of juice.
Look on the label. Usually 100% juice is a mix of apple, pear, and whatever the main flavor is supposed to be.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-332258-100x100.png\")
Who's Watching Our Nation's Honey Imports? Pretty Much No One
Well, I was until about an hour ago. Then I starting looking at Consumerist. Cut me some slack, huh?
Orange blossom honey is the best kind. By far. And it's local.
@SkittleKicks: Thirded...I get some stuff from the farmers market in a jar, made right here in Florida :)
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-505944-100x100.png\")
@SkittleKicks: I'll see your orange blossom and raise you our local sourwood honey. I'd fight my own sister over that stuff.
What about Pitcairn Island Honey?
Upside: \"Pitcairn has one of the most disease free bee populations of anywhere in the world and the honey produced is of an exceptionally high quality.\"
Downside: \"due to mailing difficulties, honey may not be received for anything from 2 months to 5 months.\"
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-738820-100x100.png\")
So what?! My honey was sourced from Plum Island, made right here in the USA, just off the coast of Long Island, New York.
CIPRO?! Seriously? As in the same stuff we were trying to avoid giving out to anthrax-fearing Americans to prevent microbes from evolving resistances?
And they're giving it to BEES in China. Shit, it's like we might as well not bother trying to be environmentally and socially responsible if we're still importing stuff from there.
@opsomath: Yet another reason to stick to local honey - I have a REALLY BAD reaction to Cipro. In fact, for a few days last week, I could have told you where every. single. ligament. in my body is, because they all hurt. That stiff has a black box warning for joint damage, and the doc I saw hands it out like candy.
This is a pretty sweet article.
I bought a big bottle of honey at Sam's Club recently. It is labeled Virginia Brand Honey Co. but nothing about origin of said honey. I looked on the website on the bottle, it just goes to some online retailer that sells all sorts of food mail order. So there is no way of knowing where the heck this honey came from. But the label is subtly misleading that it is honey from Virginia, if you don't read the label close.
This is getting old fast. I am still perplexed about the whole olive oil mess and have no idea what labels to believe as far as origin or if it even actually IS olive oil.
Free market FTW! Not.
Okay. So, as a pregnant woman, I'm not supposed to have unpasteurized foods, including honey. So that knocks out the farmer's market.
But apparently, now I can't have commercially produced pasteurised honey, either.
Where's my honey? :(
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-460519-100x100.png\")
@littlemisslondon: littlemisslondon: As a fellow preggo who's on baby #3, I take that warning with a grain of salt. Eating raw honey is NOT the same as eating raw fish or meat.
For the record - and I'm NOT giving medical advice - but I've been eating raw milk cheddar and raw honey and runny eggs every day, and everyone is perfectly healthy.
@littlemisslondon: Did you specifically ask about honey? Pasteurization isn't generally de rigueur for honey the way it is for other stuff, and it doesn't knock out the botulin spores anyway (which is why you're not supposed to feed honey to kids under a year whether it's pasteurized or not). Never heard a doctor ban the regular stuff from the pregnant before.
@floraposte: @pollyannacowgirl: Thanks both of you! That makes a lot of sense... and I will celebrate by buying some delicious raw honey and eating the heck out of it. (Well actually since I'm still nauseous all the time I'll probably just flavour my ginger tea with it...)
I am a beekeeper.
The antibiotics are residues from beekeepers in China eing supplied with Chloramphenicol by their government.
They use it to control a disease called \"foulbrood\".
It was clearly a very poor choice.
If honey does not say \"PRODUCED in USA\", then it may only be packed in the USA, which means it is imported honey from who-knows-where. Farmer's market honey is certain to be locally produced, as long as the person selling is an actual beekeeper. Sadly, it is not impossible for someone to get a table at the farmers market, and sell mostly honey that they bought elsewhere, as they may not have enough honey from their own hives to meet demand.
Years ago, honey from South American producers was contaminated by Nitrofurans at even lower trace levels. Regardless of the level of contamination, the honey is unfit for human consumption if it contains anything other than honey. As the contamination was barely detectable, there was never any threat to health, so we all made jokes about it, such as this:
[bee-quick.com]
@DrGirlfriend: The phrasing \"Product Of\" is far too vague, given that it is common to blend honey from different sources to create the familiar (bland!) product Ms. Housewife is used to calling \"honey\". \"Produced In\" is much more specific, as it tells you where the hives were.
When in doubt, ask the beekeeper about buying some wax. Tell him you want to make some candles. All real beekeepers have wax to sell, and are happy to sell it at \"retail\" prices.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-793795-100x100.png\")
@jfischer: That is an awesome tip. I will be sure to ask at the farmers market. Who knows I might even make a candel or two.
@jfischer: So now, having read all of these comments and whatnot, Mr. Beekeeper, I gotta say:
Where do you live? Can you hook a brother up?
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-406200-100x100.png\")
Crap. I'm eating honey on cornbread right now. . . .
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-529488-100x100.png\")
Damn, well I guess getting the cheapest honey shouldn't be my priority any more. Well fuck.
Because technically, it's still (the importer's) property until we pay for it.
In Washington, this is called working within the spirit of the law.
What if it's organic honey? Surely that has to be regulated somehow...
@audiochick:
\"Organic\" can mean just about anything. There are really no regulations. If it says \"USDA Organic\", it at least passed some kind of tests, but even then there is still doubt.
That's scary... says Product of USA on the honey I buy, I hope that means it's from the US.
The beekeeper at our farmer's market only comes when he has honey to sell. I stock up when he's there because we only see him about two or three times from spring to fall.
The more I read about our food supply, the better I feel about doing our best to eat local.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-159178-100x100.png\")
@Red-headed bookworm: I support my local farmer's market and all, but they are essentially regulationless. It feels safer and more natural, but it's difficult to tell.
Even worse, many people aren't checking ingredients and are so used to the taste of HFCS that they don't realize that they're not actually eating real honey.
Buy from local growers!
Hmmm, bin Laden finances Al Qaeda via honey shops in the Middle East ;
[news.bbc.co.uk]
don't let him see this article, ever-vigilant FDA
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-351903-100x100.png\")
I just get mine from a local beekeeper.
Next stop on the China Product Death Train... Tilapia!
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-527174-100x100.png\")
HONEY- THE SILENT KILLER!
Unrelated honey fact (disclaimer: I saw this as a movie theater preview factoid and have no clue if it's true) - Honey is the only food that doesn't seem to go bad. Honey has been found in Egyptian tombs that is still edible.
I LOVE seeing that so many people (here, at least) are supporting the local beekeepers and honey producers. Yay!
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-793925-100x100.png\")
Yet another reason to get local honey from the Greenmarket. They also say it helps with allergies, too.
Unless you're a bear, you won't use giant pots of hunny.
Buy local stuff, especially if you just use it to sweeten your tea or make hot toddies...
I can't get past the first page of comments (keeps redirecting me to the first page over and over), so I don't know if this is addressed already, but this article is only ONE from a series of articles about honey laundering that the P-I has done. I read a few and the one about the country of origin is pretty scary. I had no idea honey was such a huge industry.
Full series linked here: [seattlepi.nwsource.com]
OK consumerist get on it.......
get us some email addresses so we can ECB these idiot.
the schultz defense -I know nothing, NOTHING! is unacceptable.
when a provider or producer is aware of a tainted product it is their as well as anyone else in the food chain's responsibility to report it.
I'm no bulk honey buyer but sue bee has been tossed and I will be picking up a new bottle from the farmers market after quizzing them with questions and handing them a copy of this page and the PI article.
People like Bill Allibone are short sighted and when the honey industry is spending millions recovering from a tainting scandal or trying to differentiate itself from chinese honey it will be too late .
\"But really, we're fine with that; the past couple of years of food safety failures have made it fairly clear that every food safety issue should be taken seriously.\"
And the last couple of years has made it pretty clear that it isn't. Most of the food producers seem to be taking the tack that all is well until they get caught.
Manufactuers all over the place import everything they can from China praying that they aren't the next Poison Train whistlestop.
Not matter how many industries get burned, they keep playing with fire.
My clover honey from Wegmans; Product of USA, Canada and Argentina.
But I guess it could be from China. Who knows.
My biggest challenge against the Chinese food juggernaut is actually food at the kid's school. They keep coming home during holidays with novelty candy from China.
This whole tainted food thing is all part of our race to the bottom. Cheaper everything, and more of it. All so we can keep getting fatter, die younger with lots of cheap stuff in our attics. It's the new American way.
Mesquite and blackberry honey are my two favorites. Trader Joe's appears to be a product of the U.S. for the mesquite, but the blackberry I buy bulk at Winco. :/ No source listed...
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-2537-100x100.png\")
@Ratty: The Trader Joe's Mesquite Honey tastes great and is reasonable in price in the 3 lb cans. Says right on front \"From the Deserts of Southwest America & Northern Mexico\" so not totally US but none from overseas.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-436584-100x100.png\")
Gonna have to switch to local from here on.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-267895-100x100.png\")
At the orchard near my house is a little store that sells produce from the area. The bees are kept about 20 minutes away. I always thought that it tasted better from there, rather than the store bought stuff. It never occurred to me that the store bought stuff might be contaminated.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-334007-100x100.png\")
i guess our bodies will eventually get used to whatever disease prone crap the chinese sweat shops decide to put in our food, toys and clothing.
yet american companies thought it would be better if giving the jobs to the chinese was going to be much better than keeping all those factories here in the good ol' U.S of A!
damn you NAFTA or whatever other great piece of legislative work is causing all these problems!!!!
The thing I find most disturbing is that in 49 comments, and not 1 person asks why are the honey bees disappearing. It is a reality the bees are dying. There are some districts in China that are hand pollenating their fruit crop. They use chicken feathers on the end of a stick to dust the flowers. Without bees you don't have to worry what country your apple juice comes from there won't bee (I meant that)any. Many scientists believe that a combination of pesticides and a type of virus (bee aids)is the problem. A lot of crops are pollenated by bees and not the wind. Check it out, it is very scary. On a different note I buy local honey and have a garden, etc. I would try to keep some bees but I don't have the acreage and am surrounded by pesticide laden cotton fields. Support your local bee keepers it about more then honey.
Isn't there a law that force every food label to show the country of origin of every ingredient?
Good to know if I get anthrax I can buy a case of Chinese honey rather than those expensive Cipro pills from the store.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-508188-100x100.png\")
You can also add fish to that list. There's a lot of \"fresh fish\" in grocery that's raised in China.
I have my own bee hives and I get about 200 lbs of very local honey a year.
If I was not a beekeeper I still would only buy local honey from a local beekeeper.
There is still many times honey claimed as local is just bottled here.
Also the label amy say it is from certain plant or tree and it is not.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-39316-100x100.png\")
This only reaffirms my intent of starting my own bee colony this upcoming Spring.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-176236-100x100.png\")
The only thing I have found that I am allergic to is honey. But only when I eat in Europe. I've only once had a problem with food allergies in the US and that was when I ate Sweet and Sour Chicken from a Chinese delivery place. Random. I'm going with local from now on and will see how that goes.
When people are talking \"green\" they should support and use only local honey.
The amount of energy to make a teaspoon of sugar from cane is staggering.
Honey which is about 4 times sweeter and one of the few foods that can be sold non-pasturized (plus it is kosher) has a tiny tiny carbon foot print.
Plus it keeps local bee's busy visiting local flowers.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-110017-100x100.png\")
My daughter asked for honey on her oatmeal this morning (the oatmeal was an organic brand so we're crossing our fingers and hoping for no HFCS/mercury contamination) and I let her choose from three jars we had on hand--different flavors but all purchased directly from the beekeepers and all produced within 20 miles of our home.
Local honey should be a relatively easy choice.
This is partially why I use agave now. Well that and the glycemic index agave has over honey or sugar without the Stevia concerns.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-666959-100x100.png\")
I am a honey freak - it goes on and in a lot of food I eat. Honey in my tea on my bread in my sammiches on my chicken...I may have to join Honey Anonymous.
But like many commenters here I never buy from the store. There are beehives just 5 miles from my house. In my cupboard right now are orange blossom clover wildfower almond blossom and sage honeys. The almond blossom honey is AMAZING. Local honey FTW!
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-93244-100x100.png\")
\"Honey I Poisoned the Kids\"
I was pretty disturbed to see \"includes Honey produced in Venezuela\" on a bottle of what was - up until now - a Canadian honey producer.
This sort of shit is unethical.
I guess it's a good thing that honey is too expensive to be used as a sweetener in other foods. When China spreads some terrible bacteria to the US in its honey supplies all we'll have to do is cut back on our tea. Hooray for high fructose corn syrup. Or something.
Is it common to see members of the honey and bee industry to have names that start with B? (count the numbers of \"B\" in the article!)
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-808248-100x100.png\")
I've been a satisfied Sue Bee customer for most of my life and instead of bee-ing outraged over this, it cemented my confidence that they are testing their imported products and rejecting the loads that do not meet the standards. I think this thread irresponsibly implies that Sue Bee is doing something wrong when the real problem lies with the producers that go on to sell the tainted honey or with insufficient regulation.
Being an ex-angry old Republican, now turned Independent... When ex President George W. Bush said he would never allow the import of medications into this country because of the obvious safety and quality issues, it makes me damn mad every time I have to think about products like these coming into the country. You can't gut, or keep an agency's budget predictably low and disregard all calls for improvement on the one hand. Then on the other claim your worried about the Nation's safety. The only thing he was worried about was the Pharmaceutical company's PAC money. A reoccurring theme throughout his former Administration. They will have to live with the deaths of children, the sickness and suffering they have caused and probably the death of consumerism / capitalism. No small feat.
MISLEADING STATEMENT ALERT
\"The first problem with that is some Chinese honey is 'tainted with banned antibiotics' such as ciprofloxacin and chloramphenicol...\"
Ciprofloxacin is not banned; it is one of the best antibiotics made, and is the primary treatment for Anthrax.
Disclosure: I am a Pharmacist.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-466466-100x100.png\")
I CURRENTLY PURCHASE AS MUCH LOCAL FOOD PRODUCTS AS POSSIBLE. I WILL NOW ADD HONEY TO THE LIST.
Damn, if I knew which honey came with free Cipro, that company would never go out of business.
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The Werner von Braun defense, eh?
note to self: continue to buy honey from the farmer's market where it is sold by local producers. Fuck you, Sue Bee.
One more reason to keep buying up the local honey. We, too, have a rather baffling (but delish!) collection of local stuff from the farmer's market and other local makers we run into at fairs and festivals (the honey tables draw us like...well...).
@mythago: I bought 5lbs of honey last fall at the local county fair -- should last me for a little while. $25. Very tasty! Not that sissy nearly-transparent stuff, either -- good and flavorful, excellent in tea or on cereal, ice cream or yogurt.
@mythago: Hells yeah. Another great place to check out are local botanical gardens. My local botanical garden also sells delicious honey sticks in tons of different flavors (ya' know, the honey in a plastic straw). MMmMMMMMmmmmm
@mythago: There's a reason I buy my honey from the local health food store. It's local and unfiltered, which gives it a wonderful flower taste. makes excellent mead.
@mythago: I wish I didn't live in a frozen wasteland because fresh local honey is ALWAYS superior to the store stuff.
Does anyone know if Capilano Australian honey is actually coming from Australia?
@mythago:
I have an almost pathologically diverse selection of local(and in-state) honey. It's amazing how different the flavors are depending on the source of the pollen. And it all tastes FABULOUS on a homemade biscuit.
Now I'm hungry.
@mythago: Hell yes! I buy fresh local honey. Not only is it cheaper but it tastes better too! There is nothing like fresh clover honey.
@mythago: Exactly. I only buy pure raw honey from local sources. Some of those products sold in stores aren't even honey. They include corn syrup and HFCS and honey flavors.
@mythago: Honey is one of those awesome products that is at a farmer's market no matter where you live. I love it.
@mythago: No doubt. So much for the fuzzy feeling those cute bottles always gave me. I've got your honey right here, Bill Allibone.
@mythago: My thoughts exactly!
@mythago: Ditto. I'm going to check when I get home.