New Delhi: At a time when honey is being touted as an immunity booster towards Covid-19, the New Delh- based mostly advocacy group Centre for Science and Setting (CSE) claimed on Wednesday that 77% of samples from 13 prime honey manufacturers within the nation have been discovered to have been adulterated with a modified syrup to beat security checks.
Solely three of 13 manufacturers — Saffola, Markfed Sohna and Nature’s Nectar — handed the internationally accepted Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) checks carried out by a German lab, thought-about the gold customary to detect modified syrup adulteration of honey, CSE’s director common Sunita Narain informed reporters.
Narain, who launched the findings of a four-month-long investigation, mentioned honey samples of main manufacturers similar to Dabur, Patanjali, Baidyanath, Zandu, Hitkary and Apis Himalaya failed the NMR checks.
Three of those corporations — Dabur, Patanjali and Emami — mentioned in separate statements that the honey they produce and market complies with all meals security necessities and their merchandise have been 100% secure. A Dabur spokesperson termed the CSE’s report “malicious.” Patanjali mentioned the report was aimed toward selling processed honey. The others didn’t reply.
The findings dovetail with practitioners of conventional Indian medication recommending honey, turmeric, ginger, garlic, coriander, cumin and different meals for his or her immunity boosting properties because the coronavirus illness pandemic rages.
Narain mentioned the findings of the NMR checks have been worrying as a result of such merchandise may compromise human well being in Covid-19 instances.
“We all know that the households are consuming extra honey due to its intrinsic goodness — antimicrobial and anti inflammatory properties. Our analysis has discovered honey is adulterated with sugar, which may add to danger of Covid-19. Sugar ingestion is linked to weight problems and overweight persons are extra weak to life-threatening ailments,” she mentioned.
CSE had 22 samples of the honey manufacturers examined first on the Centre for Evaluation and Studying in Livestock and Meals (CALF) on the Nationwide Dairy Improvement Board (NDDB) in Gujarat. Nearly all the highest manufacturers handed the checks of purity; just a few samples of the smaller manufacturers failed the checks to detect cane sugar.
Narain mentioned some Chinese language corporations had developed a syrup containing fructose, or fruit sugar, that may go undetected in Indian checks for the purity of honey.
“The Indian checks failed to trace the marker for classy rice syrup, which has excessive sugar content material, however was discovered by means of NMR,” Narain mentioned, including that CEC can present take a look at reviews from the German lab to regulatory authorities in the event that they needed.
The rice syrup may very well be product of fructose which, the CSE discovered, was being produced by an organization in Uttarkhand’s Jaspur city and offered at Rs 60 to Rs 68 per kilogram. The syrup was additionally obtainable for import by Chinese language corporations, which claimed that it could actually beat meals security checks in India.
The syrup was additionally obtainable on the Chinese language web site of e-commerce large Alibaba and was despatched to CSE by means of Hong Kong as a paint pigment to evade the import license situations essential to import syrup. Narain mentioned the Chinese language corporations wrote to a CSE worker saying that 50-80% fructose adulteration can stay undetected in meals security checks carried out in India.
To check the declare, CSE bought pure honey combined with fructose examined at NDDB. Honey combined with as much as 50% fructose remained undetected. “Uncooked honey adulterated with 75% fructose was detected by NDDB, exhibiting how simple it was to adulterate honey with the Chinese language product,” Narain mentioned.
Round 11,000 million tonnes of fructose has been imported into India from Chinese language companies since 2014-15, the CSE mentioned. In keeping with the Nationwide Bee Board, which oversees and coordinates bee-keeping, honey manufacturing in India elevated to 105,000 tonnes in 2017-18 from 35,000 tonnes in 2005-06. Honey exports year-on-year elevated by 13% in 2019-20; Punjab, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have been the main honey producers, the board mentioned.
The Meals Security and Requirements Authority of India (FSSAI), the regulatory physique for meals security in India, has not prescribed NMR checks for honey. FSSAI acted as a whistleblower for the CSE’s investigation by writing to all states governments to search for adulteration of honey utilizing golden sugar, invert sugar syrup and rice syrup, Narain claimed.
“Fructose is developed in a approach to escape Indian checks which appears to be like for sugar syrup,” she mentioned. “It stays unclear how a lot does the meals regulator actually find out about this murky enterprise. The three imported sugar syrups named by FSSAI in its directive – golden syrup, invert sugar syrup and rice syrup — are both not imported in these names or should not indicted for adulteration. As a substitute, Chinese language corporations are largely exporting this syrup as fructose to India. So, why did FSSAI put out what’s clearly an faulty order? We aren’t sure,” she mentioned.
A spokesperson for FSSAI mentioned the regulator was ready for the publication of the outcomes of the checks and would “present our response accordingly.”
Dr Rommel Tickoo, affiliate director of inside medication at Max Hospital in Delhi, mentioned: “If it’s solely sugar syrup that’s being added to honey, it’s not dangerous as such. But when diabetic sufferers are taking it unknowingly, then it’s a trigger for concern as sugar ranges will shoot up. It will probably additionally result in weight acquire if persons are consuming {adulterated honey} recurrently. Extra importantly ,the aim of constructing immunity with pure honey just isn’t served if its sugar syrup,” he mentioned.
Narain mentioned that due to the adulteration the costs of uncooked honey has fallen from Rs 150 per kilogram a yr in the past to Rs 60 per kilogram and the enterprise of honey assortment was changing into unsustainable although the Central authorities has pumped in Rs 500 crore to enhance their livelihood lately. “Most honey collectors in Punjab and Haryana say there are not any consumers as producers are getting Chinese language honey, not figuring out precisely what it was,” she mentioned.
Honey collectors of Punjab and Haryana mentioned the adulteration was one cause for falling honey costs regardless of a rise in demand.
“Growing adulteration has now grow to be a serious problem for the beekeepers as this has led a fall in costs,” mentioned Gurbax Singh, a honey dealer in Haryana’s Karnal, including that beekeepers have been unable to even get better price of manufacturing.
A Dabur spokesperson mentioned the report appeared motivated and aimed toward maligning the corporate’s model. “We guarantee our shoppers that Dabur Honey is 100% pure. It’s 100% indigenous, collected naturally from Indian sources and full of no added sugar or different adulterants,” the spokesperson mentioned, including that Dabur is the one firm in India to have an NMR testing gear in its personal laboratory.
Acharya Balkrishna of Patanjali mentioned the corporate sells 100% pure honey which complies with FSSAI requirements. “It appears to be a plot to defame Indian pure honey business and producers in a bid to advertise processed honey and promote German know-how for testing. “ he mentioned.
An Emami spokesperson mentioned the corporate’s Zandu Pure Honey “conforms and adheres to all of the protocols and high quality norms/requirements laid down by the Authorities of India and its authorised entities similar to FSSAI.”
(With inputs from Neeraj Mohan in Karnal and Aneesha Bedi in Ludhiana)
