Australian Honey vs Imported Stuff

20 years ago you might of been able to say 'honey just honey' - The Australian honey market has been infiltrated by multinationals who have brought up well known and established honey brands, they now control a large portion of the domestic and export market.

Importing cheap 'honey' - Multinationals and other importers are flooding the domestic market by importing cheap foreign honeys, packaging them up and placing them along side Australian honey on the supermarket shelves. For the average consumer price point is important and when the cheap stuff is nestled amongst the real deal it's hard to past the significate price saving up. Keep reading to see why you want to pass it up!

Blending cheap 'honey' with Aussie honey - importing cheap nasty foreign honey and blending it with Australian honey. It's then packaged with flashy labels, that say 'Australian Blended Honey', making the average consumer think they are buying Aussie honey but the reality is the percentage of Australian honey present is just enough that they can put Australian on it and the rest is made up of honey from multiple countries.

Adulterated Honey, what is it? Adulteration is when a product is tampered with and is no longer in it's natural god given state. Honey adulteration occurs by the adding of syrups to honey. Syrups such as corn, glucose, rice, cane or beets, they are cheap and have similar consistency to honey. When honey is diluted with these syrups it allows these blends to be sold very cheaply and they are mostly undetectable. These syrups are not ideal for your health and can lead to a whole swag of health problems, unlike honey which in its natural state is health promoting.

There is also sugar feeding to create honey, this is where large quantities of white sugar is diluted into a syrup, the bees are then fed this sugar syrup and then they store it as honey in there honey comb which is then harvested and sold as honey, this is not nectar from a flower, it's sugar from a sugar syrup. Fortunately this act is detectable and is not as common as it was several years ago, but still does occur.

Detection of chemicals - Many of these foreign honeys are riddled with agricultural herbicides, pesticides and pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics, that are banned for use in Australia due to their negative health effects. Unfortunately those exporting and importing this cheap 'honey' are well aware of the chemical soup and will bunny hop their 'honey' through different ports around the world to avoid detection, relabeling its' 'country of origin' at each port and repeating it at the next as a way to dupe the Australian authorities in to thinking it arrived from a country with high food standards.

Is eating foreign honey or blended honey worth the cheap price tag? Well, it's probably not honey, more likely a syrup or a low quality blend. It's highly likely to be chemical laden. It's certainly not Australian, it may, may have a smidge of Aussie honey in it but it's definitely not pure Australian honey.

Find yourself a beekeeper or a good Aussie owned company who sells only Aussie honey and vote with you wallet. We have plenty of honey in Australia there is no need for imported honey!.