75 Percent of Honey Sold in Stores Not Actually Honey

By Brooke Edwards

October 3, 2019

Last Updated: November 11, 2011

Participants of a Heifer beekeeping
project in Tennessee examine their hives.

Did you hear about this? According to testing by Food Safety News, more than 75 percent of the honey sold in grocery stores in the United States isn't true honey. What's missing? The pollen. From the article:

The food safety divisions of the World Health Organization, the European Commission and dozens of others also have ruled that without pollen there is no way to determine whether the honey came from legitimate and safe sources.

In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration says that any product that's been ultra-filtered and no longer contains pollen isn't honey. However, the FDA isn't checking honey sold here to see if it contains honey.

Read the full article for a list of honey brands tested and failed.

Want to make sure your honey is honey? Buy local, directly from the beekeeper if you can, organic if you can't. Look for "raw" on the label.