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Will consumers opt for honey after the purity scandal?

Honey is popular as an immunity booster, especially in winters, but can the purity scandal affect how consumers view the product? Will it still find takers? 2020 has been the year of sanitisers and immunity boosters. To fight the spread of the Coronavirus, Indians invested in taking multivitamins, exercising and following Ayurvedic practices to boost immunity – such as drinking lemon and honey tea. However, honey has recently come under the scanner. Major honey brands such as Dabur, Patanjali and Emami (Zandu Pure Honey) came under the scanner for having failed a purity test conducted by a German laboratory, said the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi-based public interest research and advocacy organisation, earlier this month (December). Out of the 13 honey brands that were tested, Marico’s Saffola Honey was the only big brand to pass all the tests. Sanjay Mishra, chief operating officer, India sales, and CEO, new business, Marico, said in an e-mailed statement that every batch of Saffola Honey is tested using NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) technology. It is one of the most advanced tests in the world, in the best in class laboratories, to ensure that it is 100 per cent pure, free from added sugar and any form of adulteration. “Saffola Honey is also compliant with each of the quality parameters mandated by the FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India). Since its launch in June this year, it has been widely accepted by consumers and appreciated by the trade for delivering on its promise of quality and purity. We will continue to communicate these attributes of Saffola Honey to our discerning consumers through our TVCs, digital media, advertisements on e-commerce platforms and our own DTC channel,” said Mishra. The NMR test is administered across the world to test honey for its purity. While the test is not a norm in India, it is mandatory for honey meant for export. During its investigation, the CSE tracked down Chinese trade portals, like Alibaba, which were advertising fructose syrup that can bypass tests. Amit Khurana, programme director of CSE’s food safety and toxins team, remarked, “It remains unclear how much does the food regulator really knows about this murky business.” In August, Saffola Honey had released its first ad, where it touted its purity and mentioned that it was tested using NMR, and was “free from any form of adulteration and with no added sugar.” It was also the first ad we (afaqs!) saw where a scientist in a lab coat examines honey's purity under a microscope.

Stinging Facts

The CSE study on contamination in honey is a wake-up call for a sector with potential A study of samples of select Indian brands of honey prima facie suggests that they are liberally adulterated with cheap sugar syrup, imported from China. The Centre of Science and Environment, which had tested the 13 honey samples using the German technique, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, claims that these very samples seemed fine after an analysis by a premier NDDB facility. Food regulator FSSAI has raised some questions over the tests, while the firms have denied these claims. The controversy raises quality concerns over a product that is widely used as an immunity booster and prophylactic, more so in the context of Covid-19. The process of beekeeping, from the farm to the processing stage, needs to be reformed, if India is serious about expanding the consumption and export of honey. Efforts to boost honey output through the ‘Sweet Kranti’ mission introduced in May 2017, are laudable. According to a June 2019 report on beekeeping by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, around four lakh people are involved in beekeeping, producing “90 to 95 thousand tonnes of honey” every year from 34 lakh bee colonies; the rest being harvested from rock bee colonies in open spaces. An entomological study points out that “Approximately 73 per cent of the world’s cultivated crops are pollinated by bees, 19 per cent by flies, 6.5 per cent by bats, 5 per cent by wasps, 5 per cent by beetles, 4 per cent by birds, and 4 per cent by butterflies and moths”. The EAC report says that oilseeds, orchard crops, legumes and vegetables benefit from apiculture, increasing crop yield to the “extent of 20- 80 per cent in most cultivated crops”. But India, with the second largest arable land area, can produce many times its existing output, and employ 21.5 million people from the poorer sections of the rural population, the report observes. Can growth in GST collections move into double-digits? Analysis of trends in tax collections of Centre and States shows that indirect tax collections were slowing even prior to 2017. . Unless the leakages are plugged, growth in GST is not expected to pick up Analysis of trends in tax collections of Centre and States shows that indirect tax collections were slowing even prior to 2017. . Unless the leakages are plugged, growth in GST is not expected to pick up While honey production has increased, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, from 51,000 tonnes in 2006-07 to 115,000 tonnes in 2018-19, India ranks eighth in the world (China being No 1) and fifth as an exporter. It, however, exports about half its output, fetching about ₹7,000 crore annually. In its potential to support incomes with low initial investment (10 bee boxes per beneficiary, each costing about ₹5,000, can yield an annual income of ₹30,000) apiculture is unique. All the more reason, then, to ensure that standards are maintained. Bees are contaminated not only by the use of sugar syrup in processing but also through pesticide and antibiotics use. The use of antibiotics such as terramycin and oxytetracycline to deal with bee-related disease has raised questions in European markets where residue standards are stringent. India must raise its bar on testing, apply the best technologies, and integrate beekeeping with organic farming initiatives, which will bolster the economic viability of the latter

This week in FMCG industry: Burger King's IPO, adulterated honey controversy and the demise of MDH's Dharampal Gulati

Controversy And The Demise Of MDH's Dharampal Gulati The week that went by had a mix of good and bad news. Read this weekly wrap to get hold of the top stories in the FMCG industry: The week that went by witnessed a mix of both good and bad news within the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) space. Among the good news, the initial public offering of Burger King, one of the fastest growing quick-service restaurant chains in India with 268 outlets turned out to be the third issue in the calendar year 2020 to cross the subscription mark of 150 times. The IPO was open from Dec 2-4. Burger King IPO At 156.6 times, Burger King has received the second-highest subscription in the current year after Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders. Burger King India targets to open 700 restaurants by December 2026. The Rs 810-crore IPO was subscribed 156.6 times overall during December 2-4 as it received bids for 1,166 crore equity shares against an offer size of 7.44 crore equity shares (excluding anchor book portion). The strong interest in the issue was owing to attractive valuations, strong brand positioning, healthy financial prospects, expected robust store expansion plans of the quick-service restaurant industry in India. The state-owned defence company, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders' Rs 443-crore IPO had seen the highest subscription in 2020 at 157.4 times. The issue opened during September 29-October 1. The third IPO that received a strong subscription was Happiest Minds Technologies, the digital transformation IT consulting & services company founded by Ashok Soota in 2011. The 700-crore public issue witnessed 150.98 times subscription during September 7-9. Burger King was the fourteenth IPO this year and more than Rs 30,000 crore has been raised by fourteen companies through IPOs. Honey Adulteration Controversy Within not so good news in the FMCG industry was the honey adulteration controversy that surfaced last week. A new study by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), indicated that honey, which is a natural product from bees, is mixed with sugar syrup acquired from rice, corn, beetroot, and sugarcane and sold as pure honey. The CSE food researchers took 13 bigger and smaller brands of processed and raw honey that are sold in India to check their purity. The study found that 77 percent of the honey samples were adulterated with sugar syrup. Only 3 out of the 13 brands Marico’s Saffola, MarkfedSohna and Nature's Nectar (one out of two samples) -- passed all the tests. Brands that failed the purity test for honey include Dabur, Patanjali, Baidyanath, Zandu, Hitkari and Apis Himalaya. Dabur and Patanjali have refuted the findings of a a study that said the honey sold by the companies is adulterated with sugar syrup. The companies said they have fully adhered to the norms on testing honey set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Emami which sells honey under the brand Zandu said that its Zandu Pure Honey conforms and adheres to all the protocols and quality norms/standards laid down by the Government of India and its authorised entities such as FSSAI. Lost A Legend Mahashay Dharampal Gulati, the owner, and face of masala brand MDH Spices passed away on December 3. He was 97 years old. Gulati was undergoing treatment at a hospital in New Delhi where he suffered a cardiac arrest on December 3 morning. Gulati was born in Sialkot in undivided India on March 27, 1923 and later migrated to India after the partition. He dropped out of school and set up a small business in 1937 with the help of his father Mahashay Chunni Lal Gulati, before joining the family business of spices. Often referred to as the 'King of Spices', Gulati appeared in several advertisements of MDH products. But he was also known for his work towards improving the quality of education and was associated with a number of educational institutions. In 2019, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award

The Hindu Explains | Is there anything called ‘pure honey’, and how is honey tested?

The story so far: The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) last week released results of an investigation it had conducted into the quality of honey being produced in India. It reported that products by many popular brands were not honey, and, in fact, had been spiked with added sugar. Therefore, they ought not to be branded and sold as honey. The CSE also showed that adulteration technology had become sophisticated and there were commercial products available which are designed to cheat the tests that Indian food testing laboratories conduct to ascertain the purity of honey. Is there anything called ‘pure honey’? Over millennia, ‘honey’ was what bees made from plant nectar and people only just squeezed out the contents of honey combs, scrubbed it clean of bees, pollen and other visible residues. This is honey that is either sourced from wild bees or domesticated bees in apiaries. However, none of this constitutes ‘pure honey’, because it is a marketing term and a superficial phrase that masks the complexity that is ‘honey’. India’s food regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), in July published a new set of regulations — the third in three years — called the ‘Revised Standards of Honey’. Nowhere does one find the term ‘pure honey’ in it. However, given that the adulteration of honey with added sugar is a global problem, the regulations listed the chemical contents, i.e., tolerable limits of ‘impurities’ that must be detected by specific tests for a batch of honey presented by a company for labelling to earn the right to market its product as honey. ‘Honey’ is then classified as either ‘Blossom’ or ‘Nectar Honey’, which is what comes from nectar of plants, or ‘Honeydew’, which comes mainly from excretions of plant-sucking insects (Hemiptera) on the living parts of plants. The honey that is ultimately made available can be a combination of these and can differ widely in ‘honey profiles’. There are at least 300 recognised types of honey. How is honey tested? Honey is primarily a complex of the fructose, glucose and sucrose sugars. It has a relatively high fructose content, which is why it is sweeter than commercial sugar, which is heavier on sucrose. The latter also breaks down less easily. Laboratory tests determine acceptable ratios of these sugars and tolerance limits. There is also a tolerance for ‘ash’ content and HMF (hydroxymethylfurfural), which forms when honey is heated. HMF is actually toxic for bees. The reason a wide range of chemical variety is allowed is because different flowers have varying characteristics of nectar and express different chemical compounds that are sensitive to light, temperature and geography. Therefore, it is possible to have raw honey that may be less sweet or high on sucrose, or is lighter or darker. Researchers in New Zealand have reported that raw honey from the manuka tree, which is believed to have medicinal qualities, is known to fail a standard test called the C4 test. Then, there are minimal levels of pollen count and foreign oligosaccharides that a quantity of honey must have. All of these have a broad tolerance range and are also influenced by the laboratory tests employed to detect them. Apiaries are known to feed beehives with sugar (sucrose) to stimulate production, and this, too, can influence the honey profile. But whether this makes the honey ‘raw’ is an open question. In all, there are 18 parameters for a product to be certified as honey. The most common are the so-called C4 and C3 tests, that determine if sugar from corn, sugarcane or rice was used to adulterate honey. Why does spiked honey matter? Honey typifies ‘natural sweetness’. The enzymes that bees use to make honey out of plant nectar render it rich in antioxidants, amino acids and other products that give honey its medicinal properties. This is why honey is part of traditional medicine and has been promoted as an immune system stimulant, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The addition of artificial sugar syrups reduces the concentration of these elements per gram of honey. As a sweetener, honey is digested more easily than sucrose-heavy sugars, but it spikes blood sugar levels the same way commercial sugar does. Therefore, responsibly sourced honey poses similar risks to diabetics as ordinary sugar. What did the CSE probe find? The CSE investigation examined 13 popular brands of honey. Four of them failed the tests that are required by Indian law—Apis Himalaya Honey, Dadev Honey, Hi Honey and Societe Naturelle Honey. The testing was done at the Centre for Analysis and Learning in Livestock and Food, Gujarat. However, the CSE sent the samples to a lab in Germany that specialises in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. This technology has evolved from taking MRIs of the brain and is increasingly being applied in food chemistry to unravel the chemical structure of food and detect the presence of additives more efficiently than routine, lab-based chemical tests. The NMR test is not mandatory in India, but it is necessary for export purposes. By this metric, ten of the 13 brands failed, with only three brands — Saffola Honey, Nature’s Nectar Honey and Markfed Sohna Honey passing. The NMR method relies on establishing a reference database of honey profiles — characteristics of sugar, pollen, oligosaccharides, pollen, etc.— from different geographic profiles. Major deviations from this are labelled suspect. The NMR investigation did not reveal what exactly was being used to spike the sugar syrup. These details were not revealed by CSE as it chose to keep the name of the testing lab secret. The CSE established that sugar syrups from China were availabe that could cheat the C4, C3 and oligosaccharides tests, but it is not known why exactly the ten brands failed the NMR test. Dabur claims that its own NMR tests in July done by Bruker labs Germany showed no spectroscopy anomalies.

After clearing purity test, Markfed sees rush of queries for its ‘Sohna’ honey

With several big companies having failed the ‘honey purity’ test conducted by New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) through a laboratory in Germany, Punjab’s Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation Limited, which is popularly known as Markfed, has been flooded with demand queries from local as well as overseas market for its honey that cleared the purity test. Markfed’s Sohna honey was among the brands that cleared the purity test among 13 brands tested. Markfed insiders said that the government agency managed to maintain quality standards thanks to SOPs like proper registration of farmers (beekeepers), providing them honey collecting buckets with unique bar-codes, preliminary testing, proper batching, and final testing before packing in its honey at processing plant. In the purity test it was found that all the major brands of India, which have big names in the honey market, were selling honey laced with modified sugar syrup. Markfed, which is one of the Asia’s largest marketing cooperative federation is in the field of honey’s marketing for the past two decades, has been procuring its honey directly from the farmers (beekeepers) and had set up a state-of-the-art honey processing plant in 2016 in Markfed Cannery, which had increased its production three-fold compared to its old unit. “We have been getting a lot of queries across India and from overseas about the supply of our product following the passing of the purity test by Markfed,” said Managing Director (MD) Markfed Varun Roojam, adding that our main focus is on the quality not the quantity and we are increasing the production too. “We have registered farmers from across the Punjab mainly from Kandi area (sub-mountainous range of Shivalik hills) in Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr, Ropar and Mohali areas and several other districts of the state and every record of these beekeepers is kept at the plant for quality purpose,” said MD Roojam, adding that even to collect the honey, Markfed provides unique bar-coding number buckets to the bee keepers to avoid any adulteration at the time of collection and then two preliminary tests are conducted before sealed honey in the buckets reaches processing plant so that adulteration, if any, can be tested at the beginning only and such honey can be stopped from reaching the plant. After processing, another in-house purity test is conducted, informed the MD. Earlier, Markfed had received SKOCH award, which is highest civilian award, in 2017 for introducing barcode technology for honey procurement. “I have been supplying 10 to 20 tonnes of honey to Markfed annually as per their demand since 2016 and its quality testing system is very appreciable as their staff come and take the sample of our collected honey in the buckets provided by them and buckets are sealed by them and after testing in the advanced laboratories we get the nod to supply those sealed buckets to the plant where we get the payment within 36 hours of our supply,” said farmers, Dharminder Singh (49) from Dharamgarh Village in Mohal District, adding that being a beekeeper he himself demands NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) test for honey so that only pure honey could be available in the market rather having these sugar laced syrups. Singh is in beekeeping occupation for the past 25 years and owns 600 boxes of bees which he keeps across the state, in Shivalik ranges, and outside the Himachal, Rajasthan as per availability of the flowers with the changing seasons. He also runs a group of 100 beekeepers who own 30,000 bee-boxes and supply honey to the exporters. He said that the best part of the Markfed is that there it not only maintains the quality but also a fair dealing takes place here with the farmers. “Farmers have an agreement with Markfed to supply the honey,” he said, adding that from single box 3 to 5 kg unprocessed honey is procured in a week to 10 days if the flowering season is on, but in the rainy season there is hardly any production for 3-4 months. Another beekeeper, Simarjeet Billa, who also supplies honey to Markfed, shared similar views. “We had 200 to 300 registered beekeepers and the honey plant has a capacity to process 300 tonnes of honey per day and currently around 60 metric tonnes of honey is being processed and sold annually by Markfed and the expansion is taking place gradually,” said Jaswinder Singh, Senior Marketing Manager, Markfed. He added that being a government body our main motive is not to make big profits but to supply pure eatables to the consumer. Apart from honey, Markfed Cannery plant is equipped to produce 66 lakh cans and 48 lakh pouches of ‘Ready to Eat’ food per annum. In addition, it has the capacity to produce 5.60 lakh cans of fruit in syrup and 18 lakh bottles of ketchup and jam every year. Likewise, the spices grinding line produces 11 lakh pouches of various spices every year. “Markfed products are globally popular. Around, 10 to 15 containers of the Sohna products per month and couple of millions of can of ‘saag’ are exported annually to developed nations such as the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Europe and Gulf countries,” said MD Roojam, adding that Markfed has engaged several 100 farmers to produce ‘sarson’ to make ‘sarson da saag’, basmati, wheat flour, jaggery (in this season) including organic products, and all these are very popular among Punjabis settled abroad. To meet the huge demand of Markfed Sohna products a large number of employed both men and women, who are specialists in cooking and selecting saag from the fields, are employed along with farmers who supply them raw material

Fact Check: 'SaffolaFraud' trends after Honeygate; company says each batch faces NMR test

A new twist emerged in the honey adulteration fiasco after social media posts claimed that Saffola - one of the brands that passed the stringent NMR test - sources its honey from Apis, which failed the same purity test. Shortly after, posts emerged that such claims were claims and Saffola doesn't source its honey from Apis. A recent report by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) showed that only three honey brands - Saffola, MarkfedSohna and Nature's Nectar - out of 13 passed the stringent NMR test for testing the purity of their product. It claimed that household names including Dabur, Patanjali, Baidyanath, Zandu, Hitkari and Apis were adulterating their honey with a modified sugar imported from China, which can bypass domestic standard tests. Notably, NMR test has been made mandatory for honey being exported to other countries, but not for sale in India. With #SaffolaFraud trending on Twitter, users were divided on whether to believe the brand or not. It all began with a Twitter post that stated: "SHOCKING to see a brand like Saffola fooling their customers here is a video where you can clearly see that Saffola takes its honey, from APIS. APIS honey has failed the NMR test then how come @SaffolaHoney has passed the test? This should be brought to light. #SaffolaFraud"

Oh honey, this tastes bitter!

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has sure bombed us with its findings that most of our honey brands are not just adulterated but done so with a type of sugar syrup. Some of the big names include Dabur, Patanjali and Zandu. This adulteration is so fine that it could bypass some of the basic tests used to detect adulteration in honey. Of course, these companies denied it and claimed that their products meet the regulatory requirements laid down by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. The Director General of CSE, Sunita Narain, stated that the organisation launched an investigation when beekeepers in North India reported reduced profits despite a spike in honey sales during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Major brand Homey are adulterated Sugar syrup, Centre for Science and Environment CSE

he Honey sold by several major brands in India has been found adulterated with sugar syrup, the environment watchdog CSE claimed on Wednesday. Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) food researchers shortlisted 13 top as well as smaller brands of processed and raw honey available in Indian market to check their purity. To everyone's shock CSE found that 77 per cent of the samples were adulterated with the addition of sugar syrup. Out of the 22 samples checked, only five passed all the tests. “Dabur, Patanjali, Baidyanath, Zandu, Hitkari and Apis Himalaya, all failed the NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) test,” the study said. The samples of the shortlisted brands were first tested at the Centre for Analysis and Learning in Livestock and Food (CALF) at the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in Gujarat. The CSE reported almost all the top brands passed the tests of purity while a few smaller brands failed the tests to detect C4 sugar or basic adulteration using cane sugar.

The bee, not the brand — India needs to bet its money on the right honey

In 1974, ABBA sang, “Honey honey, don’t conceal it, a-ha, honey honey”. Many decades later, Indian media discovered what was really concealed in the honey — Chinese sugar. The Centre for Science and Environment or CSE food researchers have found that most honey sold in the Indian market is adulterated. Some have called this India’s ‘Honeygate’. Dabur, Patanjali, Baidyanath, Zandu have all reportedly failed the purity test. This comes at a time when India is using copious amounts of honey and concoctions made with it to ward off the novel coronavirus. But something else ticked off the CSE to launch an investigation — why were honey farmers in north India reporting a massive dip in profits when the sales of honey had hit the roof? The CSE has alleged that Indian honey companies had designed their products to pass the regulations laid down by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), but it was a German lab that saw through the tinkering with sugar syrup. The brands have rejected the findings and called it an attempt to malign them. What’s more, even the bees are not having it easy as the world desperately tries to keep several species from going extinct. If bees go out of business, a part of our food chain collapses. And that’s why honey, the golden liquid, is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week. India is ‘honey trapped’ ‘Immunity’ — that’s the word that saw a 350 per cent increase in Google searches during the lockdown. And when Indians think of immunity, honey features in the top hits. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi batted for the AYUSH ministry’s home remedies in coronavirus season, which included honey-pepper. But what if we are consuming sugar in the name of honey? ‘Nuclear Magnetic Resonance’ — that’s the phrase that not many in India are googling. It’s what reportedly caught the honey adulteration that passed through undetected in Indian tests. It identifies modified sugar syrups. Out of the 13 brands tested, only three — Saffola, MarkfedSohna and Nature’s Nectar — passed this test done by the German lab. Now, many will say the test of purity is when honey doesn’t freeze or crystallise in the fridge or in winter. Frankly, most of the honey in my kitchen cupboard have crystals. So, how did the brands pass the FSSAI tests called C3 and C4? China has created several sugar syrups that go undetected in tests. You could buy them off Alibaba and other sites, and import them to India, some labelled as ‘paint’ to go under the radar. In Indian markets, these sugars were called ‘All Pass’. Read this deep dive in Down To Earth. The decade before this was crowded with stories of what really goes into bottles of Coca-Cola and Pepsi. That led the CSE to blink. Reports of pesticides in the Indian drinks and more toxins than in the beverages of the developed world were heaped on the cola giants. In 2012, Ramdev accused the drinks of being ‘toilet cleaners’ — a story that stuck. Now Patanjali and its honey are on the CSE’s radar. “It is a food fraud more nefarious and more sophisticated than what we found in our 2003 and 2006 investigations into soft drinks; more damaging to our health than perhaps anything that we have found till now — keeping in mind the fact that we are still fighting against a killer Covid-19 pandemic with our backs to the wall. This overuse of sugar in our diet will make it worse,” CSE’s Sunita Narain told Business Today. The CSE realised that raw honey adulterated to even 50 per cent of the content passed the Indian tests. On 1 August this year, India made the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance test mandatory for all honey exports — surely something was up. “The recent reports seem motivated and aimed at maligning our brand. We assure our consumers that Dabur Honey is 100% Pure. It is 100% indigenous, collected naturally from Indian sources and packed with no added sugar or other adulterants,” a Dabur spokesperson told ThePrint. Dabur has also said that its honey sample had indeed passed an earlier NMR test. Others said it was an attempt to lower market share of Indian honey. The Indian Express reported that according to data from the National Bee Board, India exported 1.05 lakh metric tonnes of honey in 2017-18, a 200 per cent jump in 12 years. The government also gives a considerable sum to bee farming. Honey is one of the most adulterated food products in the world. But it’s time to put our money where the honey’s at. Because buzz of adulteration won’t sit well with honey consumers. And consume we have, since time immemorial.

Honeygate! Only Saffola, MarkfedSohna, Nature's Nectar among 13 brands pass sugar syrup test, claims CSE

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR In Good CompanyHealthy Office Space Key pointers Out of the 13 brands tested, only three pass the NMR test These three include Saffola, MarkfedSohna and Nature's Nectar 77% of samples found adulterated with sugar Only 5 out of 22 samples pass all tests Indian tests can't detect honey adulteration Alibaba advertises fructose syrups that may go undetected in tests Such samples can bypass Indian standard tests, alleges CSE Indians today are consuming more honey than ever because of its immunity booster properties to protect themselves against COVID-19. But, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has found that almost all brands of honey being sold in Indian markets are adulterated with sugar syrup. Investigations by CSE with laboratory studies in India and Germany found 77 per cent of samples adulterated with sugar syrup. Out of 22 samples tested, only five passed all the tests. CSE had selected 13 top and smaller brands of processed and raw honey being sold in India. Samples of these brands were first tested 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 (except Apis Himalaya) passed the tests of purity, while a few smaller brands failed the tests to detect C4 sugar - call it basic adulteration using cane sugar. But when the same brands were tested using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) - laboratory tests currently being used globally to check for such modified sugar syrups - almost all big and small brands failed. Out of the 13 brands tested, only three passed the NMR test, which was done by a specialised laboratory in Germany. Honey samples from leading brands such as Dabur, Patanjali, Baidyanath, Zandu, Hitkari and Apis Himalaya, all failed the NMR test. Only 3 out of the 13 brands - Saffola, MarkfedSohna and Nature's Nectar (one out of two samples) -- passed all the tests. The German lab that conducted the tests has chosen to stay anonymous. Dabur has refused this allegation. The company's statement said that Dabur is the only company in India to have an NMR testing equipment in our own laboratory, and the same is used to regularly test our Honey being sold in the Indian market. The statement also had NMR test reports from Germany-based Bruker BioSpin GmbH dated July 16, 2020, stating that Dabur Honey had passed the NMR Test. The business of adulteration has become sophisticated and the Indian standards cannot detect adulteration. This is because Chinese companies have designed sugar syrups to bypass these standards. As of August 1, 2020, NMR tests have been made mandatory in India for honey that is meant for export, suggesting that the Indian government is aware of this adulteration business and the need for more advanced tests. Emami Spokesperson said that its Zandu Pure Honey conforms and adheres to all the protocols and quality norms/standards laid down by the Government of India and its authorised entities such as FSSAI. It did not make any comment on the NMR test, which is the global standard. Apis spokesperson replied that they will not comment immediately but will plan a press conference, date of which is yet to be announced. "What we found was shocking," says 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. Our concern is not just that the honey we eat is adulterated, but that this adulteration is difficult to catch. In fact, we have found that sugar syrups are designed so that they can go undetected."

Honeygate: CSE provides details of honey adulteration investigation to FSSAI

Environment watchdog CSE said it has shared details of its investigation into the “well-organised” honey adulterating business with food regulator FSSAI. The Centre for Science and Environment recently came out with an investigation, which claimed that top brands in the country were selling honey adulterated with sugar syrup. CSE also added that any claim by these companies of meeting all Indian standards “holds limited value” and is “jugglery” of language. It may be noted that Dabur had released a statement yesterday, rejecting the investigation. Others like Emani and Patanjali have denied the findings of the investigation as well. CSE Director General Sunita Narain stated that the investigations have uncovered how honey adulteration business, though sophisticated, is designed to bypass the purity and quality standards laid down by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). In a statement released today, the environment watchdog said it has presented details of the case to FSSAI officials, including chairperson Rita Teotia and CEO Arun Singhal. The details of the investigation including all key findings have been shared, said Narain. "CSE also showed how Chinese companies were openly advertising products to bypass standards on their website; how it had contacted these companies; and how it had procured the sample," it said. CSE informed that FSSAI officials asked about the specific names under which adulterants were being imported to India. CSE said in its investigation how Honeygate has a China connection.

‘Sohna' honey successfully qualifies purity test conducted by CSE

Punjab Markfed, asia's largest cooperative has once again reposed unflinching trust of consumers as its SOHNA honey has successfully withstood the tests of purity conducted by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) successfully. Congratulating the entire team of Markfed on this rare feat, the Punjab Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said it is a matter of great pride that out of 13 top brands available in the country, Markfed was only amongst the three brands Markfed SOHNA, Safola and Nature’s Nectar which passed all the key tests in line with International Standards. Punjab Markfed manufacturing and marketing quality food products viz Basmati rice, Whole Wheat Atta, whole/grounded spices, Amla Murabba & Candy’s, Amla & Aloevera Juice, Gur & Shakkar etc.

Waste management: Why Delhi's Bhalswa could be a pointer

NEW DELHI: The capital’s Bhalswa landfill has effectively used biomining and bioremediation to reduce the height of its waste mountain by 11-12 metres in a year, a study carried out by Centre for Science and Environment has said. According to Clean it Right — Dumpsite Management in India, which has identified the best management practices at the 3,159 dumpsites across the country, bioremediation and biomining are some of the best possible solutions to reduce the height of landfills, with some already recording a drop in their overall height by processing legacy waste. Bhalswa landfill, which receives around 2,400 metric tonnes (MT) of waste every day, is now processing 4,200MT of waste daily through 15 trommel machines, which, till August 18, 2020, had removed around 6,61,454MT legacy waste, the study states.

CSE alleges Dabur, Zandu, Baidyanath among honey brands failed quality test; Dabur rejects report

KEY HIGHLIGHTS 10 out of 13 honey brands --Dabur, Zandu, Baidyanath, Patanjali, Apis Himalaya, and more -- flunk stringent NMR tests Only three brands-Saffola, Markfed Sohna and Nature's Nectar -- passed the test 17 of the 22 samples tested by CSE in German lab failed 77% of the samples found to be adulterated with sugar syrup Indian regulations do not mandate NMR tests for domestic market but they are compulsory for exports In a major expose on rampant adulteration of packaged honey sold in the Indian market, 10 of the 13 brands flunked the stringent Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) test considered as the global gold standard for honey as part of an investigation conducted by a Delhi-based NGO Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). The brands whose samples flunked the test include household names like Dabur, yoga guru Ramdev Baba's Patanjali, Zandu, Baidyanath, Apis Himalaya and Hitkari. Three brands -Saffola, Markfed Sohna and Nature's Nectar passed the test. Meanwhile, Dabur has countered the findings of the test saying its honey has passed NMR tests as well. A detailed response is awaited. Emami Spokesperson too said that its Zandu Pure Honey conforms and adheres to all the protocols and quality norms/standards laid down by the Government of India and its authorised entities such as FSSAI. It did not make any comment on the NMR test, which is the global standard. Apis spokesperson replied that they will not comment immediately but will plan a press conference, date of which is yet to be announced.