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Comment by staunch | Hacker News Reader

Clearly the FDA and state agencies are either incompetent or corrupt here.

It's surprisingly that some private organization (Consumer Reports?) hasn't come along to do this kind of testing for oils, honey, spices, etc.

I'd pay more for food with certification of purity that I could really trust. It's sad that even a "Product of USA" isn't good enough in these cases.

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In the case of honey, it's actually very simple: if it's viscous outside of summer, it's not honey. Natural honey crystalizes into (near-)solid form quite quickly.

I have pounds of honey from my parents hives that isn’t crystallized even after sitting in my cold basement when it’s sub zero out.

Has it been treated in any way? I've been working with bees for over 20 years now, and I haven't seen honey keep the viscosity for more than a couple of weeks past harvesting, at room temperature. The duration varies based on the blossoms of course, with some such as rape going solid in 10 days while clover can last 4-6 weeks, but in the end, it always crystalizes.

Huh, not that I know of, I’ll ask. They’ve been keeping bees for several years and I’ve never seen the honey crystallized.

Idk real honey from my beehive still hasn’t crystallized since august . Really depends on what the bees are eating

That's true, but how "quickly" depends on the kind of honey. Acacia honey and other honeys with high amounts of fructose and low amounts of glucose can take decades to crystallize, normal forest honey or dandelion honey can crystallize in under a day.

Maybe at a particular temperature is a better yardstick, summer and not summer are not the same everywhere.

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