Thailand Implicated In Chinese ' Honey Laundering' Scheme

[ZhouZhou]

So an US company imported real honey and that real honey was falsely labeled as sugar or syrup because for the latter are maybe lesser import restriction.

and the xenophobes in america are afraid to eat honey from china so it got relabeled as honey from India or Mongolia or somewhere else to avoid that yellow peril scare.

Please take your medicine.

The company admitted in a factual statement that two former executives purchased Chinese-origin honey for processing at its facilities and sold that honey to its domestic retail, foodservice, and industrial customers as mislabeled non-Chinese honey, and at other times, as Chinese honey, all while knowing that it had been illegally imported to avoid antidumping duties and, at times, honey assessment fees. The honey was variously described falsely as sugars and syrups instead of Chinese-origin honey, and as having originated in Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Thailand, and Vietnam, instead of China.

www.justice.gov/usao/iln/pr/chicago/2013/pr0220_02.html

[BrianCR]

Buy aussie honey, its guarenteed to be the real stuff

That must be why so many Aussie men come to Thailand to get a honey? LOL

[bumpkin]

Buy aussie honey, its guarenteed to be the real stuff

If you want good honey, then you have to pay for it......Australia produces some good stuff.

People who eat that 99 baht Thai stuff are just eating mostly sugar.

The sweetness in Honey is from sugars. The genuine concern is other chemicals that maybe be present in ersatz honey, not the sugar content.

[StevenHeidbriderSr]

China will either clean up its act or go bankrupt. The Pollution they are forcing on thier people is Atrocious. They are killing thier own people with pollution.

[Locationthailand]

Honey with honeycomb still attached is a safe bet. Make sure you drain it over a jar as the real deal still has a few deceased bees in it with stings attached. I had a numb mouth for a day from a batch in Ayutthaya.

[Thai at Heart]

What we have here is a classical example of news laundering.

The Coconuts article, to which the OP links, gives two links, one to Business Insider, the other to Wired UK. Let's follow each back to the original news source, step by step.

Business Insider

Business Insider makes this statement:

So Chinese exporters simply ship their honey to Thailand or other countries, where it is relabeled to hide its origins, according to NPR.org.

Follow the NPR link and you see no mention of Thailand at all. Instead, that page mentions a US company that bought falsely labelled honey, without mentioning from what country it was imported.

Two big honey packers, including one of the largest in the country — Groeb Farms of Onsted, Mich. — admitted buying millions of dollars worth of honey that was falsely labeled.

However, the NPR page has a link to a page on the website of the United States Attorney's Office, where we find this (highlighting in bold is mine):

United States v. Groeb Farms, Inc.

The company admitted in a factual statement that two former executives purchased Chinese-origin honey for processing at its facilities and sold that honey to its domestic retail, foodservice, and industrial customers as mislabeled non-Chinese honey, and at other times, as Chinese honey, all while knowing that it had been illegally imported to avoid antidumping duties and, at times, honey assessment fees. The honey was variously described falsely as sugars and syrups instead of Chinese-origin honey, and as having originated in Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Thailand, and Vietnam, instead of China.

The above statement does not say from whom this US company, Groeb Farms, bought the honey, nor from which country it was imported. It mentions Thailand in the context that Groeb Farms falsely labelled some of the honey as having originated from Thailand. No mention is made at all that the honey was laundered in Thailand.

Wired UK

Wired UK does not mention any country where the fake Chinese honey is laundered, but gives a link to a Food Safety News investigation where we find this text:

“There are still millions of pounds of transshipped Chinese honey coming in the U.S. and it’s all coming now from India and Vietnam and everybody in the industry knows that,” said Elise Gagnon, president of Odem International, a worldwide trading house that specializes in bulk raw honey.

Search that page for the word "Thailand" and you get one hit, in a reader's comment, but it is not about honey:

I no longer eat most imported foods (except from Italy.) No farm raised shrimp from Thailand, etc...

Well, consuming Italian olive oil, and believing it originated 100% in Italy is truly delusional

[Thai at Heart]

The full article was quite interesting from Food Safety News.

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/08/honey-laundering/

"However, during that same period, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that almost 43 million pounds of honey entered the U.S. Of that, the Department of Commerce said 37.7 million pounds came from India, the same honey that is banned in the EU because it contained animal medicine and lead and lacked the proper paperwork to prove it didn’t come from China."

How odd that the country India, with honey so poor that it is banned in the EU, is used by China as a transhipping country for its own poor honey...

So yes it is the same poisoned honey being shipped abroad by China, but it appears that Thailand is not really used. By the numbers above clearly India is the main culprit in hiding the origins of Chinese honey. Strange that Coconuts Bangkok http://www.coconutsbangkok.com/news/thailand-implicated-in-chinese-honey-laundering-scheme/#

would try to drag Thailand into this mess.....tabloid journalism ???

its also not about fake honey, but real honey that got falsely labeled as sugar syrup to import it.

why do make people a story about fake honey from china out of it?

because that simplified and false story pleased their readers xenophobia and bias that anything from China or Thailand is bad.

i bet that "news source " is not chinese owned.

The issue is that it is adulterated with added processed sugar, and as such has no right to be labelled as honey.

[ZhouZhou]

The full article was quite interesting from Food Safety News.

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/08/honey-laundering/

"However, during that same period, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that almost 43 million pounds of honey entered the U.S. Of that, the Department of Commerce said 37.7 million pounds came from India, the same honey that is banned in the EU because it contained animal medicine and lead and lacked the proper paperwork to prove it didnt come from China."

How odd that the country India, with honey so poor that it is banned in the EU, is used by China as a transhipping country for its own poor honey...

So yes it is the same poisoned honey being shipped abroad by China, but it appears that Thailand is not really used. By the numbers above clearly India is the main culprit in hiding the origins of Chinese honey. Strange that Coconuts Bangkok http://www.coconutsbangkok.com/news/thailand-implicated-in-chinese-honey-laundering-scheme/#

would try to drag Thailand into this mess.....tabloid journalism ???

its also not about fake honey, but real honey that got falsely labeled as sugar syrup to import it.

why do make people a story about fake honey from china out of it?

because that simplified and false story pleased their readers xenophobia and bias that anything from China or Thailand is bad.

i bet that "news source " is not chinese owned.

The issue is that it is adulterated with added processed sugar, and as such has no right to be labelled as honey.

the issue is that story about that adulterated honey cannot be verified at the sources the article gives. if you read there you will find out it was just about 100% honey from china that got shipped to the USA.

in order to disguised the true country of origin it was shipped over india for example or declared as being just sugar syrup in the freight papers. but it was always 100% honey.

there seems to be market restriction and not 100% free trade when it comes to import honey to the USA. beside from that there was nothing about that that honey from china is somehow dangerous to your health. that is something that this coconutblog made up and the chinahaters want to believe in their bias.

[Thai at Heart]

The full article was quite interesting from Food Safety News.

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/08/honey-laundering/

"However, during that same period, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that almost 43 million pounds of honey entered the U.S. Of that, the Department of Commerce said 37.7 million pounds came from India, the same honey that is banned in the EU because it contained animal medicine and lead and lacked the proper paperwork to prove it didnt come from China."

How odd that the country India, with honey so poor that it is banned in the EU, is used by China as a transhipping country for its own poor honey...

So yes it is the same poisoned honey being shipped abroad by China, but it appears that Thailand is not really used. By the numbers above clearly India is the main culprit in hiding the origins of Chinese honey. Strange that Coconuts Bangkok http://www.coconutsbangkok.com/news/thailand-implicated-in-chinese-honey-laundering-scheme/#

would try to drag Thailand into this mess.....tabloid journalism ???

its also not about fake honey, but real honey that got falsely labeled as sugar syrup to import it.

why do make people a story about fake honey from china out of it?

because that simplified and false story pleased their readers xenophobia and bias that anything from China or Thailand is bad.

i bet that "news source " is not chinese owned.

The issue is that it is adulterated with added processed sugar, and as such has no right to be labelled as honey.

the issue is that story about that adulterated honey cannot be verified at the sources the article gives. if you read there you will find out it was just about 100% honey from china that got shipped to the USA.

in order to disguised the true country of origin it was shipped over india for example or declared as being just sugar syrup in the freight papers. but it was always 100% honey.

there seems to be market restriction and not 100% free trade when it comes to import honey to the USA. beside from that there was nothing about that that honey from china is somehow dangerous to your health. that is something that this coconutblog made up and the chinahaters want to believe in their bias.

Well, having worked in one of the more controversial agricultural industries in the world, if you label it as sugar syrup to "legally' gain it entry, that gives you a very nice level of deniability if it turns out to be "sugar syrup". Which would beg the question, why on earth would the USA as one of the biggest producers of High Fructose Corn Syrup, need to import any?

[biplanebluey]

Does anyone know and can recommend a good brand of honey here in LOS...and where it can be purchased? Thx!

Up here in Udon we have a couple come round with a bike/sidecar and they will de-cant into your empty whisky bottle real fresh honey strained through a muslin-like net------ 100bt a pop,In the net there leaves bits of honeycomb and the odd bit of body part from the unfortunate bee------------- But it tastes great and lasts a long time [does not go off]----------- Dougal the Kiwi

[biplanebluey]

Buy aussie honey, its guarenteed to be the real stuff

Australian honey is just extraordinary, no where else in the world I have tried such a good honey... it's just the best.

the taste is amazing... if you can try Australian honey, you wont regret.

Buy aussie honey, its guarenteed to be the real stuff

Australian honey is just extraordinary, no where else in the world I have tried such a good honey... it's just the best.

the taste is amazing... if you can try Australian honey, you wont regret.

Obviously you have not been across the ditch----- in NZ you can get Hollands honey and that has got to be the worlds best,Especially the thick white creamed one. I used to just eat it by the spoonfull---------Dougal the Kiwi

[Thai at Heart]

http://www.foodqualitynews.com/Public-Concerns/Honeygate-prompts-US-to-step-up-fraud-investigations

Bizarely got prompted with a statement that the page is copyright protected, but the issue is about antibiotics(or protectionism), involving 180 mn dollars of imports.

Find it quite interesting to see the amount of stories coming up about supply of food from Thailand/Asia in the last few weeks.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/07/honey-laundering-conspira_n_805707.html

Fifteen people and six companies spanning from Asia to Germany and the U.S. were recently indicted in Chicago and Seattle for their roles in an $80-million gambit still playing out in the courts. That case has been billed as the largest food fraud in U.S. history. But American beekeepers, already suffering from a bee death epidemic that is killing off a third of their colonies a year, say the flow of suspect imports has not let up.

"We see a flood, an avalanche of [laundered]honey continuing," said Ron Phipps, a global honey markets expert. "It has created a two-tier market where cheap, illegal honey … has a huge competitive advantage," he said, adding: "It's really putting the domestic industry on the verge of crisis."

Honey Laundering Conspiracy Is Largest Food Fraud In U.S. History

Edited March 22, 2013 by Thai at Heart

[EyesWideOpen]

The Brits seem to have a poor view of Chinese honey... Maybe the good stuff was sent to America??

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-101494/All-Chinese-honey-ordered-shelves.html

" Food watchdogs have ordered all Chinese-produced honey to be withdrawn from sale after trials found that much of it is contaminated by antibiotics.

Forty per cent of the honey sold in the UK comes from China.

Tests of 16 pots found that ten contained the powerful antibiotic chloramphenicol.

The chemical is a trigger for aplastic anaemia, a rare but serious blood disorder which affects up to 100 people in Britain each year. It has also been linked to leukaemia."

[Thai at Heart]

Not that I like the dailymail, but it gives a bit of reference

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-101494/All-Chinese-honey-ordered-shelves.html

Tests of 16 pots found that ten contained the powerful antibiotic chloramphenicol.

The chemical is a trigger for aplastic anaemia, a rare but serious blood disorder which affects up to 100 people in Britain each year. It has also been linked to leukaemia.

The news comes just two weeks after the Food Standards Agency told leading supermarkets to withdraw specific batches of own-brand honey produced in China which were found to be contaminated with another antibiotic, streptomycin.

The sudden withdrawal of all Chinese honey threatens to cause a UK shortage.

Two Tesco Finest Acacia Honey jars tested positive for chloramphenicol. One also contained traces of streptomycin.

A pot of Tesco Pure Set Honey also tested positive for both.

Two jars of Sainsbury's ownbrand honey and a Gales product tested positive for both.

Honey from Rowse, Bee's Queen and Asda also tested positive for at least one of the chemicals.

It is understood that the antibiotics are used in sprays by Chinese beekeepers to keep down bacterial infection of beehives.

The country's shambolic food safeguards system means there is no proper testing to ensure illegal residues do not get into food.

The FSA's original approach was to remove only batches of Chinese honey which tested positive for illegal contaminants.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-101494/All-Chinese-honey-ordered-shelves.html#ixzz2OHx5nV8F
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Of course it appears beyond the capability of the bloody supermarkets to pay 100 quid for their own tests. Who the hell goes to China to buy a product, and doesn't pay for their own tests?????

Edited March 22, 2013 by Thai at Heart

[ZhouZhou]

The Brits seem to have a poor view of Chinese honey... Maybe the good stuff was sent to America??

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-101494/All-Chinese-honey-ordered-shelves.html

" Food watchdogs have ordered all Chinese-produced honey to be withdrawn from sale after trials found that much of it is contaminated by antibiotics.

Forty per cent of the honey sold in the UK comes from China.

Tests of 16 pots found that ten contained the powerful antibiotic chloramphenicol.

The chemical is a trigger for aplastic anaemia, a rare but serious blood disorder which affects up to 100 people in Britain each year. It has also been linked to leukaemia."

thats an over 10 years old news story.

where is your outrage that the questionable news source coconutz told you and untrue story?

where is your outrage that US honey packers relabeled china honey? where is your outrage that in case you want get the best price on the market there is an over 200 percent import tax on chinese honey to protect lazy us honey makers from fair global competition?

[EyesWideOpen]

The Brits seem to have a poor view of Chinese honey... Maybe the good stuff was sent to America??

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-101494/All-Chinese-honey-ordered-shelves.html

" Food watchdogs have ordered all Chinese-produced honey to be withdrawn from sale after trials found that much of it is contaminated by antibiotics.

Forty per cent of the honey sold in the UK comes from China.

Tests of 16 pots found that ten contained the powerful antibiotic chloramphenicol.

The chemical is a trigger for aplastic anaemia, a rare but serious blood disorder which affects up to 100 people in Britain each year. It has also been linked to leukaemia."

thats an over 10 years old news story.

where is your outrage that the questionable news source coconutz told you and untrue story?

where is your outrage that US honey packers relabeled china honey? where is your outrage that in case you want get the best price on the market there is an over 200 percent import tax on chinese honey to protect lazy us honey makers from fair global competition?

Wrong again zhouzhou/jackspratt..... Reread the link, that story is from today's paper. Fair global competition ??? Yeah I guess the US honey makers would have a tough time competing with Chinese honey workers getting a dollar a day, or what ever slave wages they are paid.. :-)

[ZhouZhou]

no its not from todays newspaper. it is news from 2002.

but did you read also that part:

It said consumers could use Chinese honey already in their cupboards because the risk was considered 'extremely small'.

that anti china propaganda is still nonsense.

why not let the buyer/ consumer decide what kind of honey he wants to buy instead of putting an 200 percent import tax on foreign products?

anyway, i would always suggest to buy local.

[Thai at Heart]

no its not from todays newspaper. it is news from 2002.

but did you read also that part:

It said consumers could use Chinese honey already in their cupboards because the risk was considered 'extremely small'.

that anti china propaganda is still nonsense.

why not let the buyer/ consumer decide what kind of honey he wants to buy instead of putting an 200 percent import tax on foreign products?

anyway, i would always suggest to buy local.

Friday, Mar 22 2013

All Chinese honey is ordered off shelves

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-101494/All-Chinese-honey-ordered-shelves.html

[waza]

I for one, wouldnt trust product from China, there are too many horror stories............

The 2008 Chinese milk scandal was a food safety incident in the People's Republic of China, involving milk and infant formula, and other food materials and components, adulterated with melamine. By November 2008, China reported an estimated 300,000 victims,^[1] with six infants dying from kidney stones and other kidney damage, and an estimated 54,000 babies being hospitalised.^[2][3] The chemical appeared to have been added to milk to cause it to appear to have a higher protein content. In a separate incident four years before, watered-down milk had resulted in 13 infant deaths from malnutrition.

In recent weeks, China’s news media have reported sales of pork adulterated with the drug clenbuterol, which can cause heart palpitations; pork sold as beef after it was soaked in borax, a detergent additive; rice contaminated with cadmium, a heavy metal discharged by smelters; arsenic-laced soy sauce; popcorn and mushrooms treated with fluorescent bleach; bean sprouts tainted with an animal antibiotic; and wine diluted with sugared water and chemicals. Even eggs, seemingly sacrosanct in their shells, have turned out not to be eggs at all but man-made concoctions of chemicals, gelatin and paraffin. Instructions can be purchased online, the Chinese media reported

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/world/asia/08food.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Edited March 22, 2013 by waza

[Thai at Heart]

I for one wouldnt trust product from China, there are too many horror stories............

The 2008 Chinese milk scandal was a food safety incident in the People's Republic of China, involving milk and infant formula, and other food materials and components, adulterated with melamine. By November 2008, China reported an estimated 300,000 victims,^[1] with six infants dying from kidney stones and other kidney damage, and an estimated 54,000 babies being hospitalised.^[2][3] The chemical appeared to have been added to milk to cause it to appear to have a higher protein content. In a separate incident four years before, watered-down milk had resulted in 13 infant deaths from malnutrition. ^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal}

^{In recent weeks, China’s news media have reported sales of pork adulterated with the drug clenbuterol, which can cause heart palpitations; pork sold as beef after it was soaked in borax, a detergent additive; rice contaminated with}

cadmium, a heavy metal discharged by smelters; arsenic-laced soy sauce; popcorn and mushrooms treated with fluorescent bleach; bean sprouts tainted with an animal antibiotic; and wine diluted with sugared water and hemicals.

^{Even eggs, seemingly sacrosanct in their shells, have turned out not to be eggs at all but man-made concoctions of chemicals, gelatin and paraffin. Instructions can be purchased online, the Chinese media reported.}

Waza, I can only agree. Having worked in an industry where the supply chain was sacrosanct, I can only scratch my head and wonder what testing these stupid supermarket chains in the EU and US were attempting to implement.

[ZhouZhou]

no its not from todays newspaper. it is news from 2002.

but did you read also that part:

It said consumers could use Chinese honey already in their cupboards because the risk was considered 'extremely small'.

that anti china propaganda is still nonsense.

why not let the buyer/ consumer decide what kind of honey he wants to buy instead of putting an 200 percent import tax on foreign products?

anyway, i would always suggest to buy local.

Friday, Mar 22 2013

All Chinese honey is ordered off shelves

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-101494/All-Chinese-honey-ordered-shelves.html

if you look at the page tomorrow you will get tomorrows date.

believe me, its an old story. look here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/sitemaparchive/day_20020221.html

[ZhouZhou]

I for one wouldnt trust product from China, there are too many horror stories............

The 2008 Chinese milk scandal was a food safety incident in the People's Republic of China, involving milk and infant formula, and other food materials and components, adulterated with melamine. By November 2008, China reported an estimated 300,000 victims,^[1] with six infants dying from kidney stones and other kidney damage, and an estimated 54,000 babies being hospitalised.^[2][3] The chemical appeared to have been added to milk to cause it to appear to have a higher protein content. In a separate incident four years before, watered-down milk had resulted in 13 infant deaths from malnutrition. ^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal}

^{In recent weeks, China’s news media have reported sales of pork adulterated with the drug clenbuterol, which can cause heart palpitations; pork sold as beef after it was soaked in borax, a detergent additive; rice contaminated with}

cadmium, a heavy metal discharged by smelters; arsenic-laced soy sauce; popcorn and mushrooms treated with fluorescent bleach; bean sprouts tainted with an animal antibiotic; and wine diluted with sugared water and hemicals.

^{Even eggs, seemingly sacrosanct in their shells, have turned out not to be eggs at all but man-made concoctions of chemicals, gelatin and paraffin. Instructions can be purchased online, the Chinese media reported.}

Waza, I can only agree. Having worked in an industry where the supply chain was sacrosanct, I can only scratch my head and wonder what testing these stupid supermarket chains in the EU and US were attempting to implement.

isn't there a food scandal every month somewhere about questionable quality of industrialized food products, also about products on the shelves in the supermarkets in the west? and how often you can solely blame "greedy Chinese people" for it and is it possible to declared that Australian, US-American or English supermarket products any saver to consume?

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

I for one wouldnt trust product from China, there are too many horror stories............

The 2008 Chinese milk scandal was a food safety incident in the People's Republic of China, involving milk and infant formula, and other food materials and components, adulterated with melamine. By November 2008, China reported an estimated 300,000 victims,^[1] with six infants dying from kidney stones and other kidney damage, and an estimated 54,000 babies being hospitalised.^[2][3] The chemical appeared to have been added to milk to cause it to appear to have a higher protein content. In a separate incident four years before, watered-down milk had resulted in 13 infant deaths from malnutrition. ^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal}

^{In recent weeks, China’s news media have reported sales of pork adulterated with the drug clenbuterol, which can cause heart palpitations; pork sold as beef after it was soaked in borax, a detergent additive; rice contaminated with}

cadmium, a heavy metal discharged by smelters; arsenic-laced soy sauce; popcorn and mushrooms treated with fluorescent bleach; bean sprouts tainted with an animal antibiotic; and wine diluted with sugared water and hemicals.

^{Even eggs, seemingly sacrosanct in their shells, have turned out not to be eggs at all but man-made concoctions of chemicals, gelatin and paraffin. Instructions can be purchased online, the Chinese media reported.}

Waza, I can only agree. Having worked in an industry where the supply chain was sacrosanct, I can only scratch my head and wonder what testing these stupid supermarket chains in the EU and US were attempting to implement.

isn't there a food scandal every month somewhere about questionable quality of industrialized food products, also about products on the shelves in the supermarkets in the west? and how often you can solely blame "greedy Chinese people" for it and is it possible to declared that Australian, US-American or English supermarket products any saver to consume?

no I don't think they are indicting Chinese people. I think they are just criticizing the policies of the Chinese govt and regulation, labeling accuracy etc.

Let's face it some dodgy stuff is coming out of there... It's just a product of the whole system. Population stress, history, central planning and a turbulent past.

[ZhouZhou]

I for one wouldnt trust product from China, there are too many horror stories............

The 2008 Chinese milk scandal was a food safety incident in the People's Republic of China, involving milk and infant formula, and other food materials and components, adulterated with melamine. By November 2008, China reported an estimated 300,000 victims,^[1] with six infants dying from kidney stones and other kidney damage, and an estimated 54,000 babies being hospitalised.^[2][3] The chemical appeared to have been added to milk to cause it to appear to have a higher protein content. In a separate incident four years before, watered-down milk had resulted in 13 infant deaths from malnutrition. ^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal}

^{In recent weeks, China’s news media have reported sales of pork adulterated with the drug clenbuterol, which can cause heart palpitations; pork sold as beef after it was soaked in borax, a detergent additive; rice contaminated with}

cadmium, a heavy metal discharged by smelters; arsenic-laced soy sauce; popcorn and mushrooms treated with fluorescent bleach; bean sprouts tainted with an animal antibiotic; and wine diluted with sugared water and hemicals.

^{Even eggs, seemingly sacrosanct in their shells, have turned out not to be eggs at all but man-made concoctions of chemicals, gelatin and paraffin. Instructions can be purchased online, the Chinese media reported.}

Waza, I can only agree. Having worked in an industry where the supply chain was sacrosanct, I can only scratch my head and wonder what testing these stupid supermarket chains in the EU and US were attempting to implement.

isn't there a food scandal every month somewhere about questionable quality of industrialized food products, also about products on the shelves in the supermarkets in the west? and how often you can solely blame "greedy Chinese people" for it and is it possible to declared that Australian, US-American or English supermarket products any saver to consume?

no I don't think they are indicting Chinese people. I think they are just criticizing the policies of the Chinese govt and regulation, labeling accuracy etc.

Let's face it some dodgy stuff is coming out of there... It's just a product of the whole system. Population stress, history, central planning and a turbulent past.

but its often hysteria and some xenophobia added and old yellow peril racism. like this story that is actually about that some honey packing companies imported Chinese honey to the US and with labeling it as honey from Mongolia or importing it as sugar syrup the avoided to pay 180 million dollar import tax. nothing about poising little babies.

that is only bad for american honey producers because the cannot stand international competition. so some people start to play the racist hate card.

[GentlemanJim]

Everyday they are figuring out ways to cheat people out of there money. We asked a honey seller is that real honey they said oh yes. We ask is that why it is so expensive, they reply no it is because sugar is expensive and it takes a lot of sugar to make the the honey.

not that I am calling you a liar, but I would be VERY interested to know exactly WHERE you heard this.

i find it hard to believe that someone would say is REAL honey and then tell you that they make it with sugar.

so, please, let me know a shop or place that this happened and what product.

thanks

Well I was asked if I wanted to buy a 'genuine Rolex with real seiko insides', so I believe gosompol !

We had been sold fake honey in the town here, they even drop bits of pollen and crap in the top of the bottle to make you think you have the real stuff. It prompted me to go to google to find out how to tell real honey from fake, the methods are easy, accurate and I wont be buying any more fake honey !

Edited March 22, 2013 by GentlemanJim

[surangw]

For the more seasoned readers it's been well known that Thailands got plenty of fake honey.

and some of the honey's started out as drones

[yoshiwara]

For the more seasoned readers it's been well known that Thailands got plenty of fake honey.

and some of the honey's started out as drones

The evidence in Thailand indicates vice-versa.

[impulse]

and the xenophobes in america are afraid to eat honey from china so it got relabeled as honey from India or Mongolia or somewhere else to avoid that yellow peril scare.

Take a look at any picture of "American" (or British, or German, or...) politicians, police, military, church congregations and celebrities- in fact just about any group. And then look at any picture of the same "Chinese" groups. Look at their ethnic traits. Look for the variations in skin and hair color.

Then come back and tell us who are the world's xenophobes.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

This story is a lot more complicated than the OP article would let you think.

If you read the U.S. Justice Department news release on the prosecutions dated Feb. 20, it indicates that this whole Chinese honey scam has been going on for the past decade, and their have been prior prosecutions over it.

Largely, it seems much of this was the work of Chinese honey producers and importers who were scheming to avoid U.S. import duties on China-made honey that were imposed more than a decade ago after the U.S. concluded China was "dumping" its honey on the U.S. market at below fair market value.

So, in order to try to evade those duties, they and their counterparts in the U.S. started importing the Chinese honey either falsely labeled as various kinds of sugars and syrups, or importing it as honey but misdocumented not just as having come from Thailand, but also from Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Vietnam, and India.

In the latest U.S. case, the one company that was charged with importing foreign honey that was contaminated with an antibiotic actually got that honey from Poland -- not China, according to the indictment.

Separately, the same indictment accused a Canadian company and its president of illegally importing antiobiotic contaminated honey into the U.S. But the Justic Department news release doesn't say what country that honey was sourced from.

The Justice Department news release, however, does say:

None of the charges allege any instances of illness or other public health consequences attributed to consumption of the honey.

What's hard to tell from this report, however, is whether honey brokers/companies in all the various named Asian countries were conspiring together with the others to import Chinese honey illegally into the U.S. (via relabeling or false labeling). Or were the Chinese manufacturers and their U.S./Canadian conspirators just falsifying import documents and labeling on their own.

But overall, what a MESS and a stain on the whole marketing and sales of honey that this kind of stuff creates. It leaves the consumer doubting the legitimacy of just where their honey came from and what exactly it's made from or been contaminated with.

BTW, in the Justice Department news release, there's absolutely no mention of lead or other heavy metal chemical contamination being alleged in the indictments. Neither does the NPR.org article that's linked as a source. The Business Insider report, later picked up by the BKK Post, talked about lead and heavy metals contamination and apparently wrongly attributed that to the Justice Department announcement.

Edited March 23, 2013 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[jackspratt]

The Brits seem to have a poor view of Chinese honey... Maybe the good stuff was sent to America??

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-101494/All-Chinese-honey-ordered-shelves.html

" Food watchdogs have ordered all Chinese-produced honey to be withdrawn from sale after trials found that much of it is contaminated by antibiotics.

Forty per cent of the honey sold in the UK comes from China.

Tests of 16 pots found that ten contained the powerful antibiotic chloramphenicol.

The chemical is a trigger for aplastic anaemia, a rare but serious blood disorder which affects up to 100 people in Britain each year. It has also been linked to leukaemia."

thats an over 10 years old news story.

where is your outrage that the questionable news source coconutz told you and untrue story?

where is your outrage that US honey packers relabeled china honey? where is your outrage that in case you want get the best price on the market there is an over 200 percent import tax on chinese honey to protect lazy us honey makers from fair global competition?

Wrong again zhouzhou/jackspratt..... Reread the link, that story is from today's paper. Fair global competition ??? Yeah I guess the US honey makers would have a tough time competing with Chinese honey workers getting a dollar a day, or what ever slave wages they are paid.. :-)

Everything seems to have gone quiet.

But I see that xenophobia is breaking out all over.