Did you know that much of mass produced honey has been filtered to remove pollen, and thus isn't really honey at all? That's why it is important to by raw, unfiltered honey like the kind sold at Cee Bee's Citrus! All our honey is cultivated right on the grove and is never filtered or processed!

Tests Show Most Store Honey Isn’t Honey

Ultra-filtering Removes Pollen, Hides Honey Origins

BY ANDREW SCHNEIDER | NOVEMBER 7, 2011

More than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores isn’t exactly what the bees produce, according to testing done exclusively for Food Safety News.

The results show that the pollen frequently has been filtered out of products labeled “honey.”

The removal of these microscopic particles from deep within a flower would make the nectar flunk the quality standards set by most of the world’s food safety agencies.

In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration says that any product that’s been ultra-filtered and no longer contains pollen isn’t honey. However, the FDA isn’t checking honey sold here to see if it contains pollen.

Ultra filtering is a high-tech procedure where honey is heated, sometimes watered down and then forced at high pressure through extremely small filters to remove pollen, which is the only foolproof sign identifying the source of the honey. It is a spin-off of a technique refined by the Chinese, who have illegally dumped tons of their honey – some containing illegal antibiotics – on the U.S. market for years.

Food Safety News decided to test honey sold in various outlets after its earlier investigation found U.S. groceries flooded with Indian honey banned in Europe as unsafe because of contamination with antibiotics, heavy metal and a total lack of pollen which prevented tracking its origin.

Food Safety News purchased more than 60 jars, jugs and plastic bears of honey in 10 states and the District of Columbia.

The contents were analyzed for pollen by Vaughn Bryant, a professor at Texas A&M University and one of the nation’s premier melissopalynologists, or investigators of pollen in honey.

Bryant, who is director of the Palynology Research Laboratory, found that among the containers of honey provided by Food Safety News:

•76 percent of samples bought at groceries had all the pollen removed, These were stores like TOP Food, Safeway, Giant Eagle, QFC, Kroger, Metro Market, Harris Teeter, A&P, Stop & Shop and King Soopers.

•100 percent of the honey sampled from drugstores like Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS Pharmacy had no pollen.

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Local Raw Honey is a valuable commodity. As many of our customers know, eating local raw honey will help reduce your allergy symptoms. But unfortunately many people don't know the difference between raw honey and processed honey, which has had most of the pollen removed. This helpful article explains the difference:

Food Safety Watch disagrees, and says removing all of the pollen from honey removes any way to test for its geographic origins, doesn't improve shelf-life, negates the possible health benefits of pollen, and is actually being used to cover up the import of unregulated and often contaminated honey from China through another country like India and finally into the US.

We harvest honey on our grove, not only for our customers, but also because the bees offer natural pollination of the trees. If you're looking for raw honey in the Tampa Bay area stop by our grove store, or check out our local shopping page for a list of retailers.

Here's a neat article in The Rome News-Tribune about the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables. We found this passage particulaly interesting:

Citrus Fruits: Phytochemicals in oranges, tangerines and grapefruits may help the body resist cancer-causing chemicals (carcinogens), prevent harmful blood clotting and avoid eye problems.

So satisfy your craving for delicious fruit and do something good for yourself, all with one little click.

The Citrus Growers’ Association of South Africa have issued a new report showing that, among other things, people who eat grapefruit regularly have more energy and better concentration.

 "Four out of five women asked to eat a grapefruit a day for a fortnight said their concentration was excellent or very good in comparison to before the trial period.

 Two thirds reported higher energy levels, 81 per cent said their hair improved while 58.5 per cent said they had lost weight."

The report also shows that grapefruit consumption in much of the world has declined because the white grapefruit available in many parts of the globe is sour and requires additional sugar that negates the health benefits. Our customers don't have that problem because all Cee Bee's Citrus Grapefruit, including our signature Duncan White Grapefruit, our sweet and juicy. So do yourself a favor and order some today!

For years Lipitor users have been warned to avoid grapefruit because on the possibility of a dangerous interaction. In a new study by Watson Clinic published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, cardiologists Patrick J. Reddy, MD, and Kevin F. Browne, Jr., MD call this myth into question. Their research indicates that typical consumption of grapefruit juice is safe with Lipitor and there is no necessity for reducing the dosage of Lipitor when consuming grapefruit juice.

“As a cardiologist and prescribing physician, a number of my patients have asked me about grapefruit-drug interactions with statins, and atorvastatin in particular,” says Dr. Reddy. “But until now, we have not known the effects of consuming typical amounts of grapefruit juice on the efficacy and safety of atorvastatin in patients requiring treatment. While there is a potential grapefruit-statin interaction with other statins (for example, simvastatin and lovastatin), this interaction does not appear to be significant with grapefruit and atorvastatin.”