10 out of 13 honey brands fail ‘purity test’, finds CSE investigation

The investigation also uncovered that Indian companies in the business of honey were importing synthetic sugar syrups from China for adulterating with honey.

Honey marketed by prominent brands failed a key test of purity, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has found in an investigation.

There are a range of purity tests to determine if the honey has been adulterated with sugar.

CSE food researchers selected 13 brands of raw and processed honey, including Dabur, Patanjali, Baidyanath and Zandu, and subjected them to tests that are required under India’s food regulatory laws to be labelled as honey.

Most of the brands passed muster but when subjected to a test, called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (that can ascertain the composition of a product at the molecular level) that was done at a lab in Germany, only three of the brands passed.

The NMR test is not required by Indian law but is required by Indian companies who want to export honey.

“What we found was shocking,” said Amit Khurana, programme director of CSE’s Food Safety and Toxins team. “It shows how the business of adulteration has evolved so that it can pass the stipulated tests in India…We have found that sugar syrups are designed so that they can go undetected.”

Sunita Narain, Director General, CSE said, “We are consuming honey — more of it to fight the pandemic. But honey adulterated with sugar will not make us well.”

The investigation also uncovered that Indian companies in the business of honey were importing synthetic sugar syrups from China for adulterating with honey. These syrups, said Dr. Narain, were capable of passing off adulterated honey — even upto half of which were mixed with sugar — as “pure honey.”

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