- A report from the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) states that most of the big Indian brands, including Dabur, Patanjali and Emami, are selling
adulterated honey . And that these brands did not pass an adulteration test conducted by a foreign laboratory. - 10 of the 13 brands of honey failed the purity test, the CSE investigation reveals.
- However, the companies have refuted these accusations. In an email statement sent to Business Insider, Dabur said that “recent reports seem motivated and aim to smear our brand.”
- Indian billionaire businessman Acharya Balkrishan of Patanjali also called the report “a plot to smear the Indian natural honey industry.” And he added that it could be a way to promote German technology in India.
Major brand-name honey producers in India, including Dabur, Patanjali and Emami, allegedly sell honey adulterated with a modified sugar, according to a report from the Center for Science and Environment (CSE). It claims that the big brands failed a tampering test conducted by a foreign laboratory.
However, major Indian brands have denied these reports calling them malicious and baseless; and that they comply with the guidelines set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
In an emailed statement to Business Insider, Dabur said recent reports “appear motivated and intended to smear our brand. We assure our consumers that
Zandu Pure Honey maker Emami also said that their “honey complies with and adheres to all protocols and norms / quality standards set by the Government of India and its authorized entities such as FSSAI”.
Indian billionaire businessman Acharya Balkrishan of Patanjali has called the report “a plot to smear the Indian natural honey industry.” He also added that it could be a way to promote German technology in India.
CSE investigates how brands adulterated honey
CSE’s investigation reveals that the companies mixed honey obtained naturally from bees with sugar syrup obtained from rice, corn, beets and sugar cane and passed them off as cigars. He also added that almost all brands of honey sold in Indian markets are adulterated with sugar syrup.
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The organization said that the repeated use of the terms fructose and glucose on Chinese websites led them to look at their imports from China, and when they checked the export import database of the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the two of the FSSAIs named syrups – rice syrup and golden syrup – could not be found. However, the “invert sugar” had an HS code but limited shipments.
These are the findings:
The adulterated honey passed purity tests when it was first tested at the Center for Analysis and Learning in Livestock and Food (CALF) at the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in Gujarat.
However, when the same brands were tested using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) laboratory testing, which is currently used globally to verify such modified sugar syrups, almost all brands large and small failed, according to the report.
- 77% of the samples were found to be adulterated with the addition of sugar syrup.
- Of the 22 samples tested, only five passed all the tests.
- Honey samples from leading brands such as Dabur, Patanjali, Baidyanath, Zandu, Hitkari and Apis Himalaya did not pass the MRI test.
- Only 3 of the 13 brands, Saffola, Markfed Sohna and Nature’s Nectar (one in two samples), passed all the tests.
CSE raises the red flag
Center for Science and Environment (CSE) CEO Sunita Narain said: “This is a more infamous and more sophisticated food fraud than what we found in our 2003 and 2006 research on soft drinks; more damaging to our health than perhaps anything we’ve encountered so far, considering the fact that we’re still fighting a deadly COVID-19 pandemic with our backs to the wall. This excessive use of sugar in our diet will make it worse. ”
The CSE also claimed that the Indian government might be aware of this adulteration and is not interested in digging. “We filed an application under the Right to Information Act (RTI) We filed an application under the Right to Information Act (RTI) with the FSSAI Imports Division. FSSAI has said that it has forwarded the RTI request to another division, but has not minded saying which one So FSSAI knows what is happening and is not telling us, the consumers, or is investigating to see if it can find the fraud of honey and stop it, ”the report added.
Business Insider reviewed the labels of
Dismantling the myths of ‘pure honey’
Pure honey is pasteurized but contains no added ingredients.
Myth: You can’t taste the purity of honey
Done: To test for adulteration in honey, you can add a teaspoon of honey to a full glass of water. Adulterated honey will dissolve quickly in water, while pure honey with a denser texture will settle to the bottom in lumps.
However, the CSE claims that it even tampered with the first security check at the CSE, so you can easily fool home tests.
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