National Honey Board

Honey.com is the home of the National Honey Board, an industry agency which promotes sales of honey across the USA. The reason I wanted to post this one was because of an article on another site which SJ is currently linking to:

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/10/01/corn-syrup-antibiotics-may-taint-u-s-honey-supply-as-bees-decl/

According to this article, most of the table honey sold in supermarkets comes from outside the USA, with 200 million pounds of it per year coming from China. Which doesn't include honey shipped from China to other far-eastern countries and then exported by them, as a way of beating honey tariffs imposed on the Chinese for selling under-cost honey to try and corner the market. But even so, that's still honey, a single ingredient. Well, more or less. Some barrels have been found to contain antibiotics illegal in the USA, which is a concern in itself. But the worse news, again according to the WalletPop article, is that pure honey is being adulterated with the dreaded corn syrup, for cheapness, and then sold either as the real thing or with bottling and labeling that is very hard to distinguish from those traditionally used to sell honey in the USA ("the honey bear", for example).

However, I am pleased to report that on an exploratory trip to the local supermarket today, I found no "blended" honeys at all. And with only one exception, all honey bottles were labeled as produce of the USA. The exception was organic honey, which was imported from Brazil. So if the majority of honey is imported, as WalletPop claims, there's no evidence of that in my local store. Which is good news, and leads me back to the Honey Board, which of course praises the many virtues of the real, single-ingredient product and offers recipes for both home and professional kitchens, scientific and technical reports on honey, and even recipes for mead and cider. It's a simple, tidy site that emphasizes information rather than presentation, just for a change.

I don't know what the buying patterns for honey have been in the USA, but it seems to me that it doesn't occupy the position of importance on the breakfast table that it once did. Being English, though, I haven't been brought up with maple syrup as an alternative and that seems to be more popular and more traditional here. I have to admit I can't recall the last time I bought a jar of honey, but now I'm thinking I really ought to go treat myself. Before the Chinese corner the market.