By Justin Goulet

Honeypot

Federal government blocks nearly 12,800 kg of adulterated honey from entering Canadian market

Jul 10, 2019 | 10:47 AM

OTTAWA, ON – Close to 12,800 kilograms of adulterated honey has been blocked from entering the Canadian market.

The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, who serves as federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food made the announcement Wednesday following enforcement actions and surveillance by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). The adulterated honey was valued at around $77,000.

Under law in Canada, honey cannot contain added sugars. If it is, it is considered adulterated and is not allowed to be sold as authentic honey across the country.

Testing done by the CFIA last year concluded that 78 percent of the 240 samples inspected, collected from across Canada, were authentic honey. 100 percent of the Canadian honey sampled was genuine.

The remaining samples contained added sugars. All of the samples were from imported honey but, the CFIA did not list which countries them were imported from.

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A government release states that the findings are not necessarily a representation of the amount of honey adulteration in the marketplace overall, because the sampling was targeted to focus on risk areas. Those areas include establishments with a history of non-compliance and unusual trading patterns.

Regular testing done by the CFIA searches for the presence of sugar cane and corn syrup. Last year’s testing also included looking for rice syrup and beet sugar syrup in honey.

A report detailing the findings can be found through the federal government’s website here.

In the 2019 Budget, the Government of Canada introduced the Food Policy for Canada. That provides $24.4 million over five years to the CFIA, starting in the 2019-2020 year. It also includes $5.2 million ongoing, to crack down on food fraud, which is the mislabeling and mishandling of food products.