Unbelievable, but true—the majority of honey sold in India by reputed companies is adulterated with sugar syrup or Fake Honey.
It’s weird about Fake Honey . Why would one kill a goose that lays golden eggs? But then the story of adulteration of honey is not much different—it reveals a clever, but short-sighted ploy that plays havoc with nature’s biodiversity. As a consequence, it impacts not just the health of individuals, but beekeepers’ livelihoods and the food ecosystem.
Endowed with rich medicinal benefits, the raw honey carries an array of plant chemicals that function as antioxidants, which aid in protecting one’s body from cell damage due to free radicals. Honey has higher fructose than glucose. What differentiates it from other “sugars” is that it also has a range of excellent enzymes, which decompose the sugars efficiently. These enzymes come from the plant or from the bees.
The ratio between fructose and glucose alters depending on the origin of the honey—which plant and also if, it is multi-floral (many flowers) or mono-floral (one plant/flower). Therefore, on its own, the ratio is not the determinant of adulteration.
Love for honey is widespread. Indians have a long history of consuming honey as a food. That fine balance of mutual trust that existed for ages between the honey processors and consumers, unfortunately, has been shattered.
Some of the reputed honey processing companies in India were adulterating honey with sugar syrup procured from China, which is now also manufactured in India, says the investigation report by Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). The report revealed how sugar syrups were being added to honey to pass all the adulteration tests that were listed in the 2020 standards by the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
For some time, Narinder Singh, president of, Progressive Beekeeper’s Association, Punjab, has been advocating the traceability of honey and testing the honey sold in the domestic market with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, like it is done for honey that is exported. Hardly that made any impact. The investigation at CSE began sheer out of curiosity when it was observed that the income of beekeepers across several states in India is declining while the consumption of honey in urban India is increasing manifold. Six years ago, the cost of a kg of pure honey was Rs 150. It has declined now to Rs 60-70 per kg.
The economics, as a result, favors the adulterant. It is cheaper to use—Rs 60 per kg of honey as compared to the cost of pure honey—Rs 120 per kg, which is the cost that beekeepers require to meet their basic needs. The syrup can be bought in bulk and deployed—much easier than the work required to enhance the supply chain for pure honey.
Production of pure honey would require engagement with beekeepers who would in turn work with the supply of nectar from seasonal flowers. The beekeepers go place to place in search of the flowers that the bees suck.
Beginning March 2020, the consumption of honey went up on the premise that it is an immunity booster and therefore, its regular consumption could help prevent Covid 19. Sadly, in the guise of honey, Indians began consuming more sugar—thereby, adversely affecting their health—unknowingly. The quantum of adulteration with sugar syrup in a honey bottle could be 50 percent or above.
The adverse impact, as a consequence, is unavoidable. The adipose tissue—the fat in human bodies—is now understood to be biologically active and encourages low-intensity chronic inflammation in the body, even without an infection. Consequently, it makes humans more immune suppressed and more vulnerable to coronavirus diseases.
Besides, there is the trouble of abdominal obesity, which adds stress to the lungs. Studies point that the epidemic of obesity and COVID-19 can be viewed as a syndemic, as they negatively interact with one another to aggravate the course of diseases.
Consuming honey laced with sugar will drive Indians slowly into the obesity trap. Sadly, Indians already have a massive burden of obesity on their hands. Obesity is known as the primary trigger for hypertension, type-2 diabetes, and many chronic ailments. About one-third of the population in urban India is overweight and or obese.
The impact of adulterated honey on the environment is much deeper and wider. The bees are crucial for productivity as they pollinate plants. It is widely accepted that 90 percent of flowering plants require bees to spread their pollen. The majority of the crops people eat require bees—from oilseeds like mustard to apple and citrus and many legumes.
The ‘industrialization’ of agriculture has played its bit. The rise in the use of pesticides over the years, it has slashed the production of natural honey. Besides, the increased use of hybrid seeds has reduced the flowering period. As a consequence, there has been a decline in nectar.
The contribution that the bees make to the ecosystem is immense. They warn humans of the toxicity and overuse of pesticides. The collapse of a bee colony is now widely believed to be the consequence of neonicotinoid (neonics) pesticides—a class of toxins that have been designed to strike the nerve cells of insects.
Saving America’s Pollinators is legislation introduced in the US Congress. In May 2020, the United States Environmental Protection Agency banned 12 types of neonics products. But other classes of toxins still continue to be used and bees are the indicator species—they point how the humans are poisoning food and the environment.
The modern beekeeping is an industrial-scale activity. The prime issue is the biodiversity of bees. The European Union (EU) —a champion of biodiversity conservation in the world—defines its honey as produced by Apis mellifera. As a result, no other bee can produce the honey that is sold as honey in the EU. From that perspective, the counterpart in India should be Apis cerana (Indian honeybee) or Apis dorsata (rock bee). But it is also pertinent to ask, if the honey of these cannot be harvested, if these species are not upbeat, and, do not thrive, what then?
In majority of cases, honey is ‘processed’—it is heated and vacuum-dried — to remove pathogens and to extend shelf life. The safety and purity standards are made to work for this type of processed honey.
What hurts beekeepers the most is that their honey has to compete with cheap, sugar-laden syrups devoid of the medicinal benefits that honey has. Besides, myths are created among consumers about the purity of honey—the big brands have advertised that if honey crystallises, it is not pure. The fact is pure honey does crystallize.
The quality standards are developed to ensure the interest of the consumer and producer. For honey, it remained static for close to six decades. In December 2014 FSSAI added antibiotic limits to standards for honey after CSE published its 2010 report on antibiotic residues in honey-based on laboratory tests of popular honey brands that found residues of antibiotics in honey bottles. CSE also pointed out that there were no standards for antibiotic limits in honey that would be sold for domestic consumption—unlike what existed for export.
In 2010, FSSAI issued an advisory to clarify that pesticide and antibiotic residues were not allowed in honey. In 2014, the honey standard was amended to include tolerance limits for antibiotics—how much or how little the residue must be in honey to pass quality standards.
Consequently, the beekeepers and honey producers were compelled to ensure they did not use antibiotics for disease control. This is necessary as there is growing concern about how bacteria-causing infections in our bodies are becoming resistant to antibiotics.
The FSSAI 2014 standards appear to have made the honey processing industry rethink and find ingenious ways to avoid the prescribed regulatory tests. It could be the starting of the ‘intelligent use of sugar syrup.
The adulteration business globally has evolved with the sole motive to pass laboratory tests. The standards, therefore, should be evaluated often and then strengthened to defy every new method of adulteration. And every whistle-blower should be taken genuinely by the authorities to monitor and address the adulteration before it is too late.
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