Beyond The Hive: New line of food "pigments"

Remember when nature made all the flavors and colors of food we consumed? Sensient Technologies, a global manufacturer and marketer of colors, flavors and fragrances, has come up with a new "pigment range" to provide food with a more natural appearance. According to the company website, when they are not manufacturing food colors and flavors, they make cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and printing ink.

Beyond The Hive: If it looks like propaganda about high fructose corn syrup, and smells like propaganda ...

The Corn Refiners Association has put out a series of graphs that show how certain (unnamed) products dropped in sales after high fructose corn syrup was removed as an ingredient. There's so much wrong with these charts, which the ill-educated could take as gospel. First, they might have substituted the wrong sweetener, artificial or othewise, to take the place of HFCS. More important, it's hard to think of products that did not experience declines in sales over the last couple of years during the recession. Finally, we don't know what other factors might have contributed to the decline, such as recalls, rises in prices that turned off consumers, poor distribution, or maybe the TV commercials sucked.

Authorities in Oregon seize counterfeit honey

Authorities found 10,000 gallons of counterfeit honey from a warehouse in Salem, Oregon.

Utah, New York, Nebraska eye honey standards

There's an interesting trend developing here, with lawmakers in Utah, New York and Nebraska all considering measures to set honey ID standards.

USDA releases honey data: Production up 20% in last year

The newest report from the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Services shows that honey production in the United States was up 20 percent in 2010 over the previous year, and that prices rose to a record high of $1.60.3 per pound. Full details here, and I'll have more next week, as I have a chance to review the data.

National Honey Report

Just came across this report, from about a week ago, the monthly National Honey Report for January 2011.

Another suspected 'honey launderer' busted

Federal authorities have charged another foreigner with trying to evade duties by masking Chinese honey as that from other countries.