Daniel Lubetzky

Given all the bad publicity that Chinese companies have gotten for the lax standards and unethical practices employed by the food industry there, resulting in numerous deaths due to consumption of poisoned milk, honey, baby formula, and other food products, it is not surprising that Chinese manufacturers and importers of Chinese food products would not want to publicize the origin of the source of their products.

But it doesn’t make it less ethical.

And the FDA, US Customs and other US agencies do not do nearly enough to protect consumers against these deceptive and dangerous practices.

People often get surprised when they learn that some of the food they may be eating may be manufactured in China, because the manufacturers go very far to try to hide this.  The labels of Mrs. Mays products hide their “Made in China” claim with tiny print on the far side under the wrapper foil. I learned this when analyzing their packaging after they tried (unsuccessfully) to copy our products’ packaging, names, and features.

But the challenge can be even more elusive with the import of raw materials – like honey or peanuts.  And the challenge is no less critical to manufacturers, because of the high incidences of contamination of raw materials in these products from China.

Now a great website, TrueSourceHoney.com, aims to help consumers and food manufacturers trace where honey comes from.  As reported in Food Business News countries like “Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines and Mongolia raise few bees and have no history of producing honey in commercial quantities, yet have recently exported large amounts of honey to the United States,” much of it counterfeit from China. 

WASHINGTON — The web site www.TrueSourceHoney.com provides information about where honey comes from and ways consumers, honey companies, food manufacturers and retailers may take action to eliminate illegally imported honey. Four North American honey marketing companies and importers — Golden Heritage Foods, L.L.C., Burleson’s Inc., Odem International and Dutch Gold Honey — launched the initiative earlier this year. The name True Source Honey has been trademarked.

“When honey is imported illegally, no one can be confident of its true source and quality,” said Jill Clark of Dutch Gold Honey, Lancaster, Pa. “We’re asking people who buy and love honey to find out more about how the honey they enjoy is sourced. By raising awareness of unfair trade practices and taking the True Source Honey pledge, we hope to protect consumers and manufacturers who use honey, and to preserve the fair honey trade.”

She added, “We estimate that millions of lbs of Chinese honey continue to enter the U.S. from countries that do not have commercial honey businesses. For example, countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines and Mongolia raise few bees and have no history of producing honey in commercial quantities, yet have recently exported large amounts of honey to the United States.”

On Sept. 1, an investigation being conducted by the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Office of Homeland Security Investigations led to the indictment of 11 people and six corporations on federal charges for allegedly participating in a plan to import honey illegally from China. Between 2002 and 2009, the defendants allegedly conspired to import illegally more than $40 million of Chinese-origin honey to avoid anti-dumping duties totaling nearly $80 million.