Florida has banned all honey that is not 100% natural honey. Of course, honey producers think that the existence of less “pure” honey is terrible and must be taken care of (Could it be because the less pure honey represents competition? Nah… these farmers have your needs at heart.)

The legislators see all sorts of bogeymen in impure honey, and this includes the threat to public safety, of course. Honey that is watered down, has added sugar or HFCS, or other flavor additives is not pure, which equals contaminated, which equals a serious public health threat in the mind of legislators. In my world, contamination usually means that something is present that is not intended to be there, not an intentional additive that appears on the ingredients label.

The legislators are also relieved that now honey will be true to its advertising. Again – there’s a label on honey so 100% natural honey could say exactly that and the ingredients list would have one item. Less pure honey has a longer ingredient list and, unless there exists an Orwellian FDA standard to the contrary (actually I wouldn’t be surprised) it can not say 100% natural honey on the label. So, where is the false advertising?

But these guys are not content with limiting this initiative to Florida. They hope that more states will copy them and that the FDA will step up and do its duty to protect us all from honey that is not 100% natural.

The Best of Kathryn Muratore