Honey importer arrested for allegedly conspiring to evade US import duties for Chicago office of German food distributor

CHICAGO - A Taiwanese executive of several honey import companies was arrested in Los Angeles Wednesday night on federal charges filed in Chicago for allegedly conspiring to illegally import honey that was falsely identified to avoid U.S. anti-dumping duties.
Hung Ta Fan, 41, was arrested without incident when he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on a flight from Taiwan, announced Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Gary J. Hartwig, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Chicago.
Fan, also known as "Michael Fan," of Taiwan, is president of Blue Action Enterprise Inc., a California-based honey import company. He was also an executive of other similar companies, including 7 Tiger Enterprises Inc., Honey World Enterprise Inc., both of which are now defunct, and Kashaka USA Inc., all of which he allegedly used to import Chinese honey into the United States. Fan was charged with conspiracy to illegally import honey in a criminal complaint and was expected to appear on April 1 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1004/100401chicago.htm

Tests Show Most Store Honey Isn't Honey

Ultra-filtering Removes Pollen, Hides Honey Origins

by Andrew Schneider | Nov 07, 2011

More than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores isn't exactly what the bees produce, according to testing done exclusively for Food Safety News.

The results show that the pollen frequently has been filtered out of products labeled "honey."

The removal of these microscopic particles from deep within a flower would make the nectar flunk the quality standards set by most of the world's food safety agencies.

The food safety divisions of the  World Health Organization, the European Commission and dozens of others also have ruled that without pollen there is no way to determine whether the honey came from legitimate and safe sources.

carpenter bee (known by the black spot on their backs) in my garden on a jade plant flower

zarafa's bee-hive mind redux

Action - not research - is needed to save our pollinators

Scientists already know why our pollinators are dying out. We need action now on pesticides and farming, not more money for research

• Bee decline could be down to chemical cocktail

Guardian article also see zarafa's bee-hive mind