That gourmet luxury blend...
That gourmet luxury blend...
I was permanently banned from the Reddit sub without recourse for posting this despite not breaking any rules. I'm slowly making the migration over thanks to such encouragement.
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Only in America.
OK maybe not, but at least here it's illegal to label it honey if it isn't 100% pure honey. that goes for all of EU, where it's illegal to add sugar, according to the EU honey directive.
The result is that you buy either Honey or Syrup, you know what you get, and you get what you pay for.Edit:
Apparently it's illegal in USA too, whether adding the word "blend" makes it legal IDK. It is sort of a warning sign but still misleading.
Over here in the Netherlands, where Big Farma has more power than Big Oil, I've seen milk in standard milk cartons being labeled as "milk drink" because they retroactively added some vitamins. There are protected food labels, for sure, but adding the right keyword that indicates that you're not buying what you'd expect from the packaging is a legal solution.
Same with the "vegetarian butcher", a fake meat company that uses misspellings of meat cuts ("kipstuckjes" meaning something like "chicken byts") getting away with using real meat names because the label "vegatarian" that's part of their brand image is supposed to tell you that it's not real meat.
I would've expected EU food regulations to block this stuff but in practice companies get away with it in practice.
Ugh, Kraft singles (individually wrapped pieces of "cheese") are labeled something like "dairy product" because they use vegetable oil.
And make sure you're buying "ice cream" and not "frozen dairy product". Ice Cream has a minimum cream/milk requirement that some brands fall below. Might as well call it "ice milk, etc.".
Or "iced dessert". <25% milkfat is the line, I think.
That just reminded me that there's something in the store here in the US sold as Chicken Wyngz, because they don't contain any chicken wing meat.
The result is that you buy either Honey or Syrup, you know what you get, and you get what you pay for.
You would think so, but the EU did an investigation back in 2022 and found that almost half of all honey imported into the EU is (illegally) blended with sugar syrup. If you're buying honey labeled as a blend of EU and non-EU honey (which is almost all honey available on supermarket shelves) there's a large chance you're buying a sugar blend.
Current officially sanctioned honey tests are not capable of detecting fake honey. New testing methodology has been agreed upon as a result, but it will take a few years until those are internationally recognised.
If you want to be certain that what you're buying is real honey, the only real option is to buy directly from a local producer.
Where I am in all supermarkets I know of, honey at least used to be labeled by country of origin, usually Poland or Hungary, maybe it's not the case anymore, it's been a while since I checked.
Still there's a difference between the legality in USA of selling Honey and Sirup labeled as Honey blend, which is clearly illegal in EU. If there is any amount of sugar added, it is sirup. It can only LEGALLY be called honey if it's actually pure honey.
You have to label the honey with the ingredients it is blended with as well in the US. So for this it would need to be "Blend of Honey and High Fructose Corn Syrup".
You have to label the honey with the ingredients it is blended with as well in the US.
Nonono, that's a huge difference, in EU it's ILLEGAL to call it honey at all, you cannot call it honey blend either. And it's not enough to label that there is sugar added. If you add any amount of sugar it's not honey but sirup.
This reminds me of the dumbness of the Germans I know calling bread "toast" even though toast has to be toasted and white toastie bread has enough sugar to be a cake per eu regulations but it's not toast because it's not been toasted.
Good for y'all.
It doesn’t have to be in the name, just in the ingredients list. In this case it is, so it’s perfectly above-board for the US.
Shh mate you’re going to ruin the Euro circlejerk.
I doubt the Europeans will abandon their circlejerk that easily.
I just got done watching a video called European Circlejerk on xvideos.
It's recommended to label it as "Honey with corn syrup" (PDF: https://www.fda.gov/files/food/published/PDF---Guidance-for-Industry--Proper-Labeling-of-Honey-and-Honey-Products.pdf) but that's just a recommendation, not a law. I think labeling it as "Honey blend" and "made with real honey" (which implies that it's not 100% honey) is legal today.
The USA usually has fairly strict rules about labelling of food packages, specifically around the common name of the product. Some things that are legal in my home country of Australia aren't legal in the USA.
Yup we have the fun loopholes of adding something like "blend" means it can be 1% honey and it's legal. Same things with why things at our stores say "cheesy" or "chocolatey". Neither one of those need to have cheese or chocolate. It's a marketing game for them. Come up with a name that sounds like it's fun for the consumer but really is a massive loophole they can jump through.
Yes I've often seen that clearly misleading advertising is perfectly legal in USA.