Fake honey in Northeast China

60-70 percent of the honey in Jinan, which is a north-eastern Chinese city with seven million inhabitants can be fake – according to a local newspaper, the phenomenon is specific in the whole country.

The local Jinan Zipao newspaper claims that honey adulteration in China is an “open secret” within the industry. The article writers began to find out what is the truth and started to research the local conditions. In the course of their investigation, at the markets of Jinan the traders in many cases confessed that they sold large amounts of sugar syrup to the honey manufacturers, who mix the sugar syrup to their products, thus producing fake honey. The sugar syrup honey is much cheaper than the “one hundred percent honey” so the traders can gain substantial benefits.    (Szerencsi Ágnes, MTI)