THE HONEY TRAP

INVESTIGATION INTO THE BUSINESS OF ADULTERATION OF HONEY

- Amit Khurana, Arnab Pratim Dutta and Sonal Dhingra

Lab tests find that almost all honey we consume is adulterated with sugar syrup

Indian standards for honey purity cannot ‘catch’ this kind of adulteration

Chinese companies advertise that they have sugar syrups that can bypass Indian tests for honey

We tracked down 'all-pass' sugar syrup from China and India

We spiked honey with sugar syrup and it still passed the tests

We sent honey of 13 brands for advanced tests to Germany

The same samples that passed in India failed adulteration tests in Germany

Adulteration of this nature’s goodness with sugar is very bad for our health

It is also bad for the livelihood of beekeepers who are going out of business

Without bees we will lose our agro productivity; we lose life