The expert told why natural honey became unavailable: sheer chemistry

– The authors of the new bill claim that 70% of honey sold in Russia is not honey, that it is a fake that has nothing to do with beekeeping, and it was created not by bees, but by unscrupulous people with the help of ordinary sugar, food additives and flavor enhancers. Is the situation with honey so neglected?

– The fact that the fake honey market exists is a fact. And the fact that he is big is also a fact. The question is what to call fake honey. Whether it is diluted sugar syrup with honey wort or conditional honey produced from sugar syrup by bees. This also happens if you feed the bees with sugar, as many beekeepers do.

– But there is a classic definition of honey.

– Honey is a product of the vital activity of bees, which is obtained in the process of collecting nectar. Nectar is only vegetable – there is no other. In 95% of cases it is floral and about 5% is coniferous, as with the variant of honeydew honey, which bees collect in the hot season in the absence of a flower bribe, coniferous trees secrete sugars through needles, and bees collect them? making wonderful black honey.

– That is, bees should not eat sugar syrup?

– Should not.

– Nevertheless, such a practice exists in beekeeping?

– Unfortunately yes. It has been preserved since Soviet times, and it is practiced, as a rule, in large farms, when all the honey that they brought during the season is taken from the bees, then in winter or in the free season they are fed with sugar syrup or honey full so that the bee colony does not die . But I must note that this negatively affects the health of the entire bee family. Many beekeepers, refusing sugar, switch to candy – this is a sugar-honey dough, which allows them to feed the family, but the bees will not make honey from candy. Ideally, of course, in our region, leave about 10–12 kg of honey for each bee colony for the winter.

– The authors of the new bill argue that the amendments to the law “On beekeeping” should prevent honey processors from diluting a quality product. But, according to you, it turns out that the beekeepers themselves do not always work honestly. Does this mean that fake honey comes from apiaries?

– Not only that, processors also often practice different ways to fake real honey, for example, they dilute it with sugar, and with the help of pumpkin syrup and a small amount of honey, you can make a product that looks like honey. Of course, it differs in its qualities, but it is still called honey. So, if legislators introduce a clear definition of honey, which will allow you to separate a quality product from its fakes, that will be great. He will protect honest beekeepers.

– The deputies also propose that honey be labeled according to quality, so that cheaper varieties of honey are not passed off as expensive ones.

– This is the right decision, but the problem is that almost all honeys are polyfloral.

– What does it mean?

– Polyfloral honey is obtained from various honey plants.

– But we see buckwheat, linden honey, chestnut honey on the shelves.

– Monofloral honeys are very rare, there are very few of them. Imagine this picture: usually a worker bee that flies for bribes (collects nectar) flies at a distance of 3 kilometers from its hive. The maximum distance that a foraging bee can travel is no more than 9 kilometers. But at the same time, she will collect practically nothing, and will lose more of her resources than she will bring nectar in her stomach. Such desperate forced marches are ventured by bees only when there is no bribe around the apiary, or if the bee family decided to change their place of residence (bee rally).

– How then do you get homogeneous honey, for example, linden?

– Let’s say we have a farm that sowed 10 hectares with rapeseed. During the flowering period, plants are taken there by beehives, and in Russia there are a large number of nomadic, mobile, apiaries. Bees collect nectar in this field, thus getting monofloral honey. The same thing happens during the flowering of sunflower, buckwheat. But if there are huge fields, 200-300 hectares, sown with buckwheat, then it is quite difficult to imagine such an area of ​​\u200b\u200bforest where only linden or chestnut grows. Beekeepers, getting linden or chestnut honey, are more guided by the flowering period of these trees. However, such monofloral honeys still exist on sale. Here the question already arises to the manufacturers, how did they get them in such volumes?

– Indeed, I have not heard about chestnut groves in Russia. And you can’t order a bee: collect nectar only from lindens and nowhere else. I’m afraid that we, the buyers, are too gullible and do not think about where such a quantity of linden or chestnut honey comes from. It’s easy to guess though. Isn’t that the most expensive honey?

– Yes, although the most useful in its qualities is not monofloral, but, on the contrary, polyfloral honey obtained by bees in the process of collecting nectar from wild plants, among herbs where there are no fields treated with herbicides and pesticides. For example, our apiary in the Lotoshinsky district, which is considered the most environmentally friendly in the Moscow region, is located in just such a place: there are two forest reserves nearby, and no farmland processed with chemistry within a radius of 9 kilometers. And our land areas, which are already more than 30 hectares, we specially sow only perennial honey-bearing medicinal herbs, shrubs and trees. Although it is also impossible to completely abandon monofloral honeys, they are beautiful in their own way, and they have their connoisseurs. In addition, bees, in addition to honey production, are the main pollinators in agriculture, they increase crop yields.

– I heard that acacia honey is very useful and expensive.

– Yes, because it is very low in sugars, and it is considered dietary, which can be consumed even by diabetics. But I do not presume to judge what is sold under his guise. I think that it is quite difficult to get it in its pure form, given that we do not have acacia plantations in our country. Yes, and it should be very expensive, if only because one acacia seedling costs 2.5 thousand rubles, and bees can get only 600 to 800 kilograms of honey per hectare per season.

– So, monofloral honey is just a marketing ploy, and ordinary buyers overpay, without knowing why. So how do you choose the right honey?

– As I said, the most useful honeys are polyfloral, obtained from herbs. It is also important that the apiary is located in an ecologically clean place, away from farmland. That is why Bashkir or Altai honey is so valued, there are many such places. However, I talked with Bashkir beekeepers, and they admitted that they have only 5–7 days a year for honey collection from wild plants. During this time, each bee colony is able to bring 100-120 kilograms of honey to the hive. But, given how much Bashkir honey is sold in Moscow, I have doubts that it all comes from there.

– It turns out that the law is still needed?

– The law is certainly needed, and it is also necessary to introduce a definition of honey, another question is how in practice the origin of honey and its quality will be monitored.

And how much will this cost.

– That’s it. If we have to take honey for an additional check, which will be paid, pay the cost of certificates, licenses, then all this will fall on the cost of honey. But it is necessary to separate honey from fakes, as it is now happening with milk. After all dairy products began to be labeled, fakes using palm oil became less.

– Can you independently determine what percentage of sugar is in honey?

– There are devices that allow you to determine both sugar and moisture, but what will it give you? The percentage of sugars depends on the nectar of which plant this honey is obtained. The largest sugars are found in rapeseed, so this honey is quickly sugared.

– Well, is it bad or normal honey?

– In Europe, he is appreciated and loved very much. This, by the way, is quite understandable, every piece of land is cultivated there, and they cannot afford to leave a large area under forbs, so they have practically no honey from wild plants.

– But, if rapeseed honey is valued in Europe, but we don’t use it, maybe it makes sense to send it for export?

– I agree, at least it will be more honest than mixing it with other honeys and passing it off as a more valuable kind.

– You emphasize that the apiary should be located away from farmland, why?

“Chemicals used to treat fields for pests and weeds can end up in honey and wax along with the nectar that bees collect on these farmlands. This leads to mass death of bees. In theory, farmers and agrocomplexes should warn beekeepers every time they are going to cultivate their land, but this is not always the case. As a result, the bees fly to the cultivated fields, become infected and bring poison to the hive, and not only this family dies, but even the one that gets the wax from this poisoned hive, since bee larvae can grow in poisoned combs, but this weakens their immunity . This is such a chain reaction. Well, honey, of course, into which chemicals get into, can no longer be called useful. In the mass death of bees, not only farmers are to blame, but also the beekeepers themselves, who, in order to save time and money, use chemicals to treat bee colonies from varrotosis and other diseases. Refusing natural preparations, they thereby violate the technology, and as a result, chemistry gets into honey and wax.

What kind of honey is considered the most useful?

– Honey on white (young) combs is the highest quality and most expensive product. It cannot be faked or diluted. But you can only buy it privately. Such honey is not sold in stores, because online trading requires a certificate, and for this, honey must first be pumped out, and then some part of it must be sent for examination. Only with these papers the beekeeper can supply his products to the trading network.