Most of the honey on store shelves isn’t the genuine article. This according to testing findings, which found that most products labeled as honey are actually flower nectar with pollen filtered out. This filtering process disqualifies the product form passing most worldwide quality standards.

According to the Food Safety News, the World Health Organization says that a lack of pollen in so-called honey makes it impossible to identify its source and thus ensure its safety. The Food and Drug Administration has similar standards, but doesn’t check domestic honey for pollen.

Most of the honey-like products sold in stores come from ultra filtering, in which honey is often diluted and filtered to remove the pollen. Some products created in this fashion are tainted with antibiotics and are potentially hazardous, and many people assume the filtered product comes illegally from China. The Federal Trade Commission has blocked Chinese honey with tariffs since 2001 because of safety issues and to protect the domestic honey industry,

The tests found that all honey sampled from drugstores including Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS — as well as honey packets in McDonald’s and KFC — have had their pollen removed.

One American honey seller in the U.S. said the filtering process is an answer to consumer demand who insist on buying “crystal-clear honey.”

Tests Show Most Store Honey Isn’t Honey [Food Safety News via The Awl, The New York Times]

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