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FDA Food Fraud Testing Finds Adulteration Among 10 Percent of Honey Imports

December 14, 2022 - from Food Safety Magazine. More information from the FDA is found here

"A sampling and testing assignment conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found 10 percent of imported honey samples to be adulterated.

"FDA collected and tested honey imported to the U.S. in 2021 and 2022 for economically motivated adulteration (EMA), which is also known as “food fraud” when relevant to food products. FDA defines EMA in relation to food as “intentionally leaving out, taking out, or substituting a valuable ingredient or part of a food… or adding a substance to a food to make it appear better or of greater value.”

"The specific aim of the FDA sampling and testing assignment was to identify products that contained undeclared added sweeteners (when the product is labeled solely as “honey” rather than a “blend”) and prevent them from being distributed in the U.S. market. Some honey producers engage in food fraud to lower production costs by adding undeclared, inexpensive sweeteners to the product, such as syrups derived from cane, corn, rice, or sugar beets.

"FDA cites studies suggesting that EMA of honey is somewhat prevalent, with a rate of 13 percent in Canada and 14 percent in the EU in recent years. Additionally, more than 70 percent of the honey consumed in the U.S. is imported. Therefore, FDA conducted the present assignment to better understand the extent of EMA among imported honey, and to identify fraudulent products and prevent them from being distributed in the U.S. market.

"The honey evaluated for the assignment was imported from 32 countries. About 40 percent of the samples originated in India and Vietnam, which have been the top two sources of honey imported by the U.S. in four of the last five years. FDA collected all the samples in import status, which refers to products collected at ports of entry or other locations where they are held prior to being released into the U.S. market.

"he agency cautions against making inferences or comparisons based on the data on nations of origin for noncompliant honey, due to the small sample sizes and the fact that FDA did not design the assignment for such purposes. However, the majority of adulterated honey was imported from Yemen (4 of 4 samples), followed by Vietnam (3 of 28 samples), the Dominican Republic (2 of 2 samples), Thailand (1 of 1 samples), Lebanon (1 of 1 samples), Greece (1 of 4 samples), Italy (1 of 4 samples), and India (1 of 29 samples).