Extended with sugar syrup, honey from China unbalances the market. Tests are improving to detect deception, but efforts are still poorly coordinated to stem the phenomenon.
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Chinese honey sells for between $ 1,500 and $ 2,000 per tonne, which is $ 1,000 to $ 1,500 below the break-even point for small producers in Latin America (Photo illustration).
Unsplash / Arwin Neil Baichoo
Riddle: it has the color of honey, its softness, sometimes even its taste, but it is not honey. In any case, not totally. Won! You came across a honey from China, that is to say lengthened with sugar syrup. We then speak of “adulterated” or “adulterated” honey, in a more familiar language.
A specialty in practice, particularly in Zhejiang province (south of Shanghai), reports a recent survey by the scientific journal “Nature”. There, many factories take turns making rice or corn sugar, intended to be added to honey. A sleight of hand that is by no means clandestine: Alibaba, the main Chinese online market, is full of advertisements extolling the merits of “fructose syrup for honey”, at very, very affordable prices, around 90 cents per kilo.
