Capilano under fire for selling ‘fake’ honey to Aussie customers

Major food company Capilano has been accused of selling ‘fake’ honey at Aussie supermarkets after evidence suggested the product had been meddled with.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, researchers at a leading international scientific lab uncovered other substances in almost half of the samples of the honey taken from supermarket shelves.

While the product is marketed as 100 per cent honey, the researchers found Capilano’s Allowrie branded Mixed Blossom Honey had actually been mixed with rice syrup, beet syrup and other unidentified substances.

There is big money in honey and according to the newspaper, it isn’t uncommon for international fraudsters to produce and sell fake honey for bucket loads of cash and this is why the new data is so interesting.

“By and large (the impurity) is some kind of syrup that’s been converted to look like honey, it tastes like honey. Everything about it seems to be honey when in fact it’s just sugar syrup or something else… Consumers don’t realise what they are buying and eating isn’t honey,” International Federation of Beekeepers’ Association president Phil McCabe told The Sydney Morning Herald.

Read more: Kiwis launch big-money battle against Aussies over manuka honey

However, Capilano has denied any wrong doing, claiming in a statement that they have full confidence the specific product contains only pure honey and instead pointed an accusing finger at the Nuclear Magnetic Resolution testing undertaken.

“While we have full confidence that Allowrie Honey contains only pure honey, we also recognise that there is no consensus view from across the industry about the reliability of the NMR test that has led to the reports in the media,” Capilano Honey Managing Director Dr Ben McKee said.

“We call on the industry to work to prove up the NMR test so that is matches the robustness of results from other testing currently relied on internationally.”

McKee went on to say how the method used by the researchers is flawed and the European laboratory needs to update their database of honeys from the region to obtain accurate results.

“It is essential for consumers to have confidence in that they are buying 100 per cent pure honey. We cannot have one test saying one thing and another saying honey is 100 per cent pure. That is where we find ourselves today,” he explained.

“We stand by our Allowrie honey as being 100 per cent pure honey and the testing we employ on every batch.”

Unfortunately for Capilano this isn’t the first time their honey has made headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Back in 2016 the company was accused of using toxic honey from overseas and passing it off as Australian, Choice reports.

However, Capilano also denied these claims and in a statement confirmed their none of their products were “adulterated” in any form.

What do you think of these findings? Do you buy Capilano Honey?