Honey Don't!

I get a lot of mail from different agricultural groups, but the one that I am presently bonding with is the news letters from the National Honey Board. One cause they have been championing is how companies can use the word Honey when advertising and marketing products, yet some products that do so don’t even have any honey in the product. The National Honey Board has a goal to make it so in order to use the word Honey in packaging, honey must be the primary sweetener used in the product.

When you go to the market you will see so many products with Honey in the product name. Sometimes the word “Honey” is larger than the product name itself. Read the labels and you will be surprised. The primary sweetener in Honey Nut is sugar. Honey is #2 down the list. Here’s a good one, Honey Made Graham Crackers are first sweetened with sugar and then high fructose corn syrup and then sweetened more with normal corn syrup and then with molasses and finally the fifth sweetener is honey.

I like that the NHB is trying to flex their muscle, especially seeing how the maple industry totally lost control of the use of the word “Maple.” There is now more artificial maple flavoring out there now than there is real maple products.

I do understand that some of these products are dietary institutions, and I’m not suggesting you abandon buying these tasty treats, but I do want you to realize the corporate manipulation that is going on and how you are being duped.

I challenge you to read the labels on honey ham, honey roasted nuts and anything that has the word “Honey” on the label as a selling point. Let me know if you ever find anything where honey is the primary sweetener.