CSE finds 70% honey samples adulterated, Markfed clears test

DABUR, PATANJALI AND EMAMI SAID IN SEPARATE STATEMENTS THAT THEIR PRODUCTS WERE 100% SAFE

NEW DELHI: At a time when honey is being touted as an immunity booster against Covid-19, the New Delhi- based advocacy group Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) claimed on Wednesday that 77% of samples from 13 top honey brands in the country were found to have been adulterated with a modified syrup to beat safety tests.

Only three of 13 brands --Saffola, Markfed Sohna and Nature’s Nectar --- passed the internationally accepted Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) tests conducted by a German lab, considered the gold standard to detect modified syrup adulteration of honey, CSE’s director general Sunita Narain told reporters.

Narain, who released the findings of a four-month-long investigation, said honey samples of leading brands such as Dabur, Patanjali, Baidyanath, Zandu, Hitkary and Apis Himalaya failed the NMR tests.

The findings dovetail with practitioners of traditional Indian medicine recommending honey, turmeric, ginger, garlic, coriander, cumin and other foods for their immunity boosting properties as the coronavirus disease pandemic rages.

Narain said the findings of the NMR tests were worrying because such products could compromise human health in Covid-19 times.

CSE had 22 samples of the honey brands tested first at the Centre for Analysis and Learning in Livestock and Food (CALF) at the National Dairy

Development Board (NDDB) in Gujarat. Almost all the top brands passed the tests of purity; a few samples of the smaller brands failed the tests to detect cane sugar.

Narain said some Chinese companies had developed a syrup containing fructose, or fruit sugar, that can go undetected i n Indian tests.“The Indian tests failed to track the marker for sophisticated rice syrup, which has high sugar content, but was found through NMR,” Narain said, adding that CSE can provide test reports from the German lab to regulatory authorities if they wanted.

The syrup was also available on the Chinese website of e-commerce giant Alibaba and was sent to CSE through Hong Kong as a paint pigment to evade the import license conditions necessary to i mport syrup. Narain said the Chinese companies wrote to CSE reporter saying that 50-80% fructose adulteration can remain undetected i n food safety tests conducted i n India.

Around 11,000 million tonnes of fructose has been imported from Chinese firms since 2014-15, the CSE said. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, the regulatory body for food safety, has not prescribed NMR tests for honey. FSSAI acted as a whistleblower for the CSE’s investigation by writing to all states governments to look for adulteration of honey using golden sugar, invert sugar syrup and rice syrup, Narain claimed.

“It remains unclear how much does the food regulator really know about this murky business. The three imported sugar syrups named by FSSAI are either not imported in these names or are not indicted for adulteration,” she said.

Honey collectors of Punjab and Haryana said the adulteration was one reason for falling honey prices despite an increase in demand. “Increasing adulteration has now become a major challenge for the beekeepers as this has led a fall in prices,” said Gurbax Singh, a honey trader in Haryana’s Karnal, adding that beekeepers were unable to even recover cost of production.

A Dabur spokesperson said, “We assure our consumers that Dabur Honey is 100% pure. It is 100% indigenous... and packed with no added sugar or other adulterants,” adding that Dabur is the only company in India to have an NMR testing equipment in their own laboratory.

Acharya Balkrishna of Patanjali said the company sells 100% natural honey which complies with FSSAI standards. “It seems to be a plot to defame Indian natural honey industry to promote processed honey and promote German technology for testing.”

An Emami spokesperson said the company’s Zandu Pure Honey “conforms and adheres to all the protocols and quality norms/standards laid down by the Government of India.”