Sunday, March 23, 2008

Chinese Royal Jelly and Propolis Contaminated, Mislabeled

Sticky Trail of Deceit Stings Beekeepers
Mark Russell, The Age (Australia), 3/23/2008

Chinese honey contaminated with a potentially deadly substance is being sold overseas as "Australian-made," putting our $80 million-a-year industry — and the health of unsuspecting consumers — at risk…

Under the scam — which may have been operating for more than eight years — the contaminated honey is imported into Australia, re-labelled "Made in Australia" and exported to Asia and Europe.

Council executive director Stephen Ware said the substance, chloramphenicol, recently had been detected overseas in royal jelly labelled Australian-made…

Mr Ware said quarantine officers were unable to check every batch of Chinese honey entering the country, which meant some unscrupulous Australian health food distributors were able to import contaminated royal jelly and propolis (a resinous substance that bees collect from trees) from China and re-label the products "Made in Australia" or "Product of Australia" for export...

He said some importers were foiling labelling laws by blending a filler, mainly wheat gluten, with royal jelly in Australia…

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