Bitter honey

The claim by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) about top honey brands being adulterated with sugar syrup in the country needs scrutiny. Food adulteration is common, with local producers who use various cheap additives getting caught, especially during the festival season. But that as innocuous a product as honey, used as a food supplement, should fall prey to adulteration on an industrial scale is a cause for concern. One aspect of the finding is related to health, with the CSE fearing that adulteration of honey intended to bypass purity tests can have massive implications for the bodily system amid the Covid-19 pandemic by increasing the sugar intake.

The other is the China angle to the business, with the CSE claiming that it tracked down Chinese trade portals advertising fructose syrups that can bypass tests to check purity. It found that the same Chinese companies that advertised the syrup also exported it to India. With leading brands refuting the charge, the adulteration angle needs to be probed and stringent checks adopted against the agencies involved so as to curb the practice.

Those in the apiary business take up beekeeping as an ancillary work to diversify agricultural practices as also to supplement income. Adulteration with sugar syrup prevents beekeepers from getting remunerative prices for genuine products, rendering the business unprofitable and making some of them quit the profession. While regular testing and sampling are needed to check adulteration, unfair trade practices help those wishing to cut corners. The guidelines issued by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India need to be enforced to check malpractices. During the lockdown, farmers found it difficult to sell honey because of the restrictions and had to resort to keeping honey in cold storages which meant additional financial burden. The National Bee Board, which promotes scientific beekeeping, needs to reinforce its role by keeping tabs on unscrupulous traders and looking into the demand and supply side of the problem.