uk to define what honey is

[ronwhite3030]

some one posted about a country in the uk wanting to define what honey is. For example "honey has to contain pollen." I was hoping someone can post an article they read on this because I have to do an article review for one of my college classes and I think this would be interesting to share.

thanks ron

[organicfarmer]

Ron,
yes European community has defined honey to contain pollen (as everyone knows). It also means that if it is ultrafiltered, as is the practice of some commercial operations in US, it is not honey anymore in E.U. It makes sense: if you can't add anything to honey or it is not honey anymore, why could you substract to it and still call it honey?

PS: there is no 'country' in the uk, uk is a country. You risk offending the Brits on this forum.

[ronwhite3030]

do you have an article link that I can send into my professor organic?
thanks ron

P.S. sorry brits

[edward]

Scotland , Ireland , North Ireland , Wales , England  :roll:

[AllenF]

http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,35795.0.html




http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/europe/uk.htm



Old stuff:
http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/consumers/product_labelling_and_packaging/l21124a_en.htm

http://ec.europa.eu/food/animal/liveanimals/bees/residues_honey_en.htm

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/regulations/vs/iregs/products/downloads/ee_apiculture.pdf

[BjornBee]

some one posted about a country in the uk wanting to define what honey is. For example "honey has to contain pollen." I was hoping someone can post an article they read on this because I have to do an article review for one of my college classes and I think this would be interesting to share.

thanks ron

Ron,

You may be talking about another discussion. So not sure if the following was what you were talking about.

The article or the discussion I remember was not based on honey requiring pollen, but the fact that honey must now be labled as containing pollen. Something that has never been required previously. It probably started from this... http://www.apinews.com/en/component/k2/item/17084

What happened from what I can tell, is some anti-GMO beekeeper sent in samples and proved his honey was "tainted" by GMO pollen. Great for attacking GMO farming...but what did it show for honey?And what followed was a requirement to possibly have all honey now tested to pass the new requirement of not being over a certain amount of GMO present. The requirement does not ban the GMO, just limits it's amount.

But having this new requirement will possibly force all honey producers pay for testing. Something that the beekeeper in the article feels is very detrimental for small sized operations

Now, in the February issue of Bee Culture, (See the letter to the editor section) is a call from the Muslim community in Europe for a complete ban of all honey on the market that contains GMO pollen. Where will this lead....another certification of honey with No GMO pollen, or honey being micro-filtered to meet consumer demand. I would imagine the Muslim community may be the first in a series of religious groups wanting honey without adulteration of GMO pollen.

But that may be really hard to do. Since the government approved GMO crops, now they want to limit the amount of pollen the bees collect from these very crops.

So this can of worms will continue to grow. Once upon a time, honey was considered pure. Pollen was assumed to be in the honey. That was the basis of allergy relief from raw honey.

Now we are at a cross roads of confusion. We want honey to contain pollen to show honey is real and that it can be traced to the origin of production, yet now beekeepers in the U.K may need to test and approve that the pollen is of the right type (Non-GMO). And now consumer groups will also make demands as to what should be labled as marketable to their groups.

In the end, I see testing, certification, additional costs, and smaller operations not able to process honey as demanded.

Once you start going down the "I want definitions and regulation" of a product such as honey, it may lead to results that might not be intended. I have said that since day one. But I'm just a nut!

No doubt, we asked for this, and once one country or state mandates testing for something such as GMO pollen amounts in honey, it will domino to others. I'll bet California will be the first to require testing and certification of honey to be required to sell a bottle. And the only other thing more certain is the number of beekeepers who will be crying since they will be screwed by crops down the road their bees worked and that they had no control over.

I have always said that once the public figures out that bees drag in all kinds of stuff, it will not take much for honey to be highly regulated. 99% of all beekeeper can not honestly say how pure their honey is. I actually thought the HFCS industry would of been the ones to open that can of worms. But they need not do that. The beekeeping industry is more than happy to do it ourselves. And while some will say this is a good thing, since the consumer needs to know what is in it, I also think small bee operations will suffer for things that up till now, never harmed a consumer yet.

[ronwhite3030]

thanks everyone who posed and thanks bjorn for you explenation it will make my project much easier to write.

[ronwhite3030]

P.S. I thought I was right for which countries make up the U.K. as in United Kingdom

[BjornBee]

Here is an article on this matter:

http://www.apinews.com/en/component/k2/item/17283

[BjornBee]

Yeah, Yeah....I know. Some say that this all amounts to nothing.

Here is the first victim or group that can throw their beekeeping business away.

http://www.apinews.com/en/component/k2/item/17341

[fish_stix]

Our liberal societies want the government to be responsible for us from cradle to grave. This BS is just a symptom of that real problem. Can anyone relate something positive that the EU has done for Europe? Central FL has many European visitors due to Disney World and other attractions and I've talked to a good number of them. Almost to a person they cuss the EU for stupid policies that cost billions yet help few. If Muslims want GMO-free honey let them buy wild honey from the sandboxes of the Middle East where no agriculture exists. Luckily our own Constitution has not yet been interpreted to mean that everyone has to be pleased with every facet of life.