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posted by mrpg on Sunday August 12 2018, @04:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the sweet dept.

Australian honey, produced from domesticated European honey bees mostly foraging in native vegetation, is unique. Under the microscope, most Australian honey samples can be distinguished from honey produced in other countries.

That's the conclusion of our study, the first systematic examination of pollen contained within Australian honey.

We collaborated with two major honey retailers to survey the pollen content of a large number of unprocessed honey samples. We found that a unique mix of native flora gives Australian honey a distinctive pollen signature.

As fears grow about "counterfeit" or adulterated food, especially high-value foods like olive oil, coffee, saffron and honey, there's enormous benefit in preserving Australia's international reputation for high-quality products.


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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 12 2018, @07:31PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 12 2018, @07:31PM (#720656)

    Honey is *very* easy to mix around with other sugars and get a similar taste. It is almost chemically basically sugar with some 'extra'. In the states the big issue is companies adding HFC or corn syrup. As the taste is rather similar in the sweet levels but does not distract from the honey flavoring. Olive oil has similar issues with companies blending it down with corn or canola.

    Most people can not tell the difference. It really is not much of a difference with honey. With olive oil you can usually tell the taste and how well it cooks (olive oil is a low heat oil). Once you have tried real olive oil you know the taste. Good luck finding it. I think pretty much all of the manufactures are doing it at this point. Until the FDA steps in, no one will care. They had to do that with milk and butter because lots of companies were cutting it with water or 'other'.

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by archfeld on Sunday August 12 2018, @07:43PM (3 children)

    by archfeld (4650) <treboreel@live.com> on Sunday August 12 2018, @07:43PM (#720659) Journal

    I guess I am just spoiled by the farmers' market. I get local honey, fresh milk, butter and eggs as well as local porcine and beef products. There doesn't seem to be as much cheese here in the Imperial valley as there was in Northern California though, and far far less in the way of brewed products than there was in the Bay Area, and Sacramento Valley.

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    • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Sunday August 12 2018, @07:59PM

      by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Sunday August 12 2018, @07:59PM (#720667) Journal

      I guess I am just spoiled by the farmers' market. I get local honey, fresh milk, butter

      Well, maybe, maybe not.

    • (Score: 2) by legont on Sunday August 12 2018, @11:09PM (1 child)

      by legont (4179) on Sunday August 12 2018, @11:09PM (#720717)

      Unfortunately so called honey is produced somewhere (probably China) and traded by cisterns in Singapore. It is extremely difficult to test. Your local honey maker most likely just adds say 10% of local honey (to defeat testing) to that commodity.

      It's going on for a long time but lately similar ideas are introduced into other agricultural products.

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      • (Score: 3, Informative) by archfeld on Monday August 13 2018, @01:23AM

        by archfeld (4650) <treboreel@live.com> on Monday August 13 2018, @01:23AM (#720776) Journal

        Nah my local honey maker has their own hives and lives about 15 miles from here. I take the GF's kid out in their fields to shoot the .22's on the weekends. We also get lamb and chicken from them.

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  • (Score: 2) by boltronics on Tuesday August 14 2018, @03:09AM

    by boltronics (580) on Tuesday August 14 2018, @03:09AM (#721214) Homepage Journal

    Indeed. Take a look at the Rotten episode Layers, Guns & Honey [netflix.com] on Netflix. It's amazing how much work goes into creating fakes and detecting them.

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