With the creation of manufactured or synthetic honey very close we need Congress to pass the HIVE Act now so the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will be required to establish a Standard of Identity (SOI) for honey. This is something ABF has advocated for decades but the FDA as refused all requests and petitions to establish a standard for honey.
The agency has a long list of reasons they have not established a SOI for honey. Only through a change in legislation will they do what is need -defining exactly what honey is and what it is not. Manufactured “honey” is syrup plain and simple and should never be labeled as honey. It looks, tastes, granulates, and cooks like natural honey but neither a bee nor flower has contributed to its creation. The consequences of this manufactured product being called “honey” is real honey will be replaced with this synthetic product based on price resulting in two-thirds of real honey usage being displaced by this manufactured product.
Congressman Kelly Armstrong from North Dakota has introduced legislation this summer which address many of the concerns our industry has had for many years. The bill is the Honey Integrity and Verification Enforcement Act (H.R. 4764). Passage of the HIVE ACT is very important to all U.S. honey producers both large and small.
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