Herbal Supplements

[Clodfobble]

We have laws similar to the one above as well. But we also have a law stating that "incidental" or "trace amounts" (which the FDA specifically chooses not to define) that "have no functional or technical effect" in the finished product don't have to be declared. So legal precedent is really all you have to go on. Historically, if it's over 2%, it's pretty automatically assumed to be important just based on volume. And if it's under 2%, and you add it yourself, it's usually (though not in every case that's been challenged) assumed to be important, because you went to the trouble of adding it. The kicker is when it's an ingredient-of-an-ingredient, they almost always get away with asserting that it wasn't important. So if you add "apple juice from concentrate," and your concentrate supplier added 1.9% corn syrup, it's not an important ingredient to you because you in theory could have used a concentrate that didn't use that syrup and you wouldn't care (except of course you do care, otherwise you would have used a concentrate that didn't add the syrup, but you didn't because it would be less tasty and more expensive.)

So then you get companies creating shell companies, so they can be the concentrate supplier that adds the corn syrup, and then sell the concentrate to themselves and not have to declare the corn syrup because the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

Or even more often, that shit comes from Argentina or another country where the regulations are a joke, and everyone fucking knows there's corn syrup in it, but the Argentinian company promises cross-their-heart that it doesn't, so the American company gets to claim it doesn't.

[Clodfobble]

Here, for example, is a great article explaining why your honey is almost never made of honey.

[xoxoxoBruce]

But if they don't take the pollen out, people with hay fever would be sneezing that shit all over when they snort it.

I think I posted the honey problem once before when we were talking about bee keeping or maybe in the links or charts threads.

The packers of Silverbow Honey added: “The grocery stores want processed honey as it lasts longer on the shelves.”

Silverbow seems to have missed the memo, natural honey is the ONLY food that NEVER spoils, EVER. Fucking criminals.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Silverbow seems to have missed the memo, natural honey is the ONLY food that NEVER spoils, EVER. Fucking criminals.

Exactly. Archaeologists found honey in excavated Egyptian tombs and ate some and it was still good.

[glatt]

I knew supermarket honey was not very good compared to farmer's market honey, but that article is depressing.

Odds are that any container of honey you get in a supermarket came from China, and therefore may be tainted.

[Happy Monkey]

It doesn't spoil, but it can crystalize, and customers might not want that.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

It doesn't spoil, but it can crystalize, and customers might not want that.

Will it do that in sealed jars that haven't been opened since packing?

[Undertoad]

As long as the pollen and bee parts are less than 2% of the honey, it should be fine.

[Clodfobble]

Sometimes, but it's reversible--all you have to do is warm it gently and flip it back and forth a bit.

[Clodfobble]

Real salt without dextrose can crystallize too. All I have to do is shake the canister once or twice. People are so lazy.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I knew crystalized honey can be easily transmogrified back, but on the store shelves most people are likely to pass on it. But I was wondering if it would crystalize in an unopened container.

[Clodfobble]

My unopened bottles sometimes have the tiniest bit of crystallization up near the top where the sliver of air is. But they're cloudy with pollen too, so it's hard to distinguish.