Commerce clause challenge in three...two...one...

Damn fine idea.

Finally the State is looking out for local manufacturers as well as the consumer.

Good. Adding anything to honey is dumb.

How is this fair to consumers? If one wishes to buy honey that is anything but, they should be allowed to. If enough people want to buy 100% real honey, the market would produce 100% real honey products. If I'm not incorrect, this is the case now. People who want 100% honey read the labels and buy 100% honey. People who want something different, do. Can someone tell me why this regulation makes sense?

I think as long as people can still sell a honey substitute, called something else much fake maple syrup is called waffle syrup, the law will stand. However, if the state is banning honey substitute, good luck - you might as well try to ban Spenda.

@Alexander Saites: It only makes sense if you're a producer of 100% honey. This helps keep your competition out of the market. Remember kids, the free market doesn't create monopolies.

If you buy maple syrup or pure maple syrup, you would expect to get maple syrup. You can buy maple flavored syrup or syrup or any variation of syrups with similar labeling.

If a manufacturer wanted to sell Honey Flavored Sweetener, or Sweetener with 10% real honey, I doubt they would be stopped. It is when the label describes honey - a product you would assume to be pure - that this law will address.

What? They can take my HFCS injected honey flavored syrup from me...when they pry it from my numb diabetic fingers.

Real honey is made from bee barf...geee-rosss.
I want my honey made from an industrial chemical process via GMO corn. Just like god intended.

/s

I think part of the impetus is due to the contaminated honey which has been imported. There was an investigation which led to indictments in Washington State over honey this year.

[www.seattlepi.com]

The state agricultural department generally has the right to set standards. There's nothing wrong with this law. If what you're offering is not 100% honey but some mixture, you can still sell it as long as you don't call it honey. Maybe something like "I can't believe it's not honey."

they can ban anything they want but i doubt they'll manage to enforce it.

florida is the same state that prohibits the purchase, sale or distribution of cigarettes and tobacco for the purposes of smoking which contain, in whole or in part: clove, clove oil or eugenol.

which is where i got busted by a cop for possessing clove cigarettes that i bought at the grocery store, which had a tobacco tax stamp on them, proving the state had collected their due taxes.

the above prohibitive law? part of the 1985 tobacco tax code.
yeeeeeeeah, not allowed to sell them, part of the tax code, right under the paragraph about the tax collectors reviewing all brands carried by a store each month....

There was a problem recently with honey that wasn't 100% pure honey being labeled as "honey". Really, if it's labeled "Honey" but also contains other syrups/sugars/whatever, then it's not "honey", it's "honey flavored syrup". The same thing was noticed with maple syrup.

@Brendan Long: Anyone with the freedom to do so would be stupid not to form a monopoly. It's true that one does this by limiting others' freedom, but at best your "free market" is a fragile and ephemeral flower.

@Alexander Saites: Seems to me like it's just a purity law. Honey=sweet stuff from beehives. You should still be able to sell "golden syrup" or whatever. I've never seen a fake honey product, so the law is probably unnecessary anyway, although I suppose it could be an attempt to limit imported honey. I bought a cheap jar once that was made in Vietnam, which was somewhat unsettling

no one is forcing fruit juice companies to make 100% pure juice. just seems anti-american if you ask me.

Domestic, my foot. Most manufacturers sell honey mixed with imported honey from Central and So. American countries. This is probably to improve their bottom line since imported honey is cheaper.

There's more to this ban that meets the eye. Deeper political machinations are probably at play here due to the fact that we do import honey from down south.

@morlo: You've never seen a fake honey product because there is no law requiring any truth to the altered content. Here in the USA you can put a tablespoon of honey in a 500 gal vat and fill the remainder with corn syrup and call it honey. (ref: [consumerist.com] and [consumerist.com] ). So this is a good move for the lucky folk in Florida.

@wrjohnston19283: You do realize 90% of the pancake syrups in the store have nothing to do with maple trees right? Most people are shocked.

@AcceleratedDragon: LOL you want enzymatic poo rather than bee barf wth is wrong with you!?! ;)

@JohnDeere: Keep in mind what 100% pure juice is labeling law wise. You can juice an orange, extract the water to make a concentrate, add vitamins and minerals and some other additives and then ship it, add water elsewhere bottle it and then finally label it as 100% fruit juice.

WTH?

@Alexander Saites:
Exactly, education and communication are friends of the consumer; government regulation is not. What sounds like a good thing today can become a bad thing tomorrow. Ingredients are on the label... even if the front says "Honey" the back says "High Fructise Corn Syrup." If you don't like that don't buy it.

Consumers need to read the labels like grown-ups, and stop asking to government to do it for them.

ya know, I can honestly say I've never given honey much thought. I didn't even realize there was fake honey. Good idea out of Florida. First time for everything!

This is one thing I have to give McDonald's credit for.

McD's is the only fast food restaurant that I know of that offers pure honey when you ask for honey as a sauce.