food stuff

oh, honey honey

Barry Estabrook from Gourmet.com summarizes a recent article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that tells you “organic” and other value-adding labels on honey are basically bullshit:

• The USDA “Certified Organic” label for honey is, for the most part, meaningless, although you’ll have no trouble finding bottles emblazoned with it, and priced accordingly. “Like other foods from free-roaming wild creatures, it is difficult—and in some places impossible—to assure that bees have not come in contact with prohibited substances, like pesticides,” Chuck Benbrook, chief scientist for the Organic Center, told Schneider. Bees, in fact, range out from their hives for more than two miles in search for pollen, bringing them in contact with commercial crops and treated lawns.

• Terms like “100% Pure,” “U.S. Choice,” “U.S. Grade 1,” and “Natural” are similarly meaningless, sometimes adorning the labels of brands that have been cut with sugar and other cheap sweeteners.

• The word “honey” doesn’t even guarantee the substance’s presence in cereals and crackers, or if it’s there, it’s used in lesser quantities than sugar and high-fructose corn syrup.

• Legitimate beekeepers have long been frustrated by the erosion of the term “honey,” according to the report. But until stricter regulations are put in place and enforced, consumers are left on their own—unless they have access to a local farmers market where they can deal directly with the person who raised the bees and bottled the honey.