The adulteration of honey is an ongoing issue, with roots in the far past.
Honey, in the 1800s, was considered adulterated in two ways: if it was mixed with, or replaced by, non-honey ingredients, such as glucose, or, if the bees who made it were fed sugar, rather than collecting nectar.
Worry about adulterated honey started at least as early as the 1810s and intensified by the 1870s. At first, beekeepers seemed to most worry that the very mention of the possibility of adulteration would cast doubt on the quality of own their natural honey in the marketplace. And it surprised some that it was an issue at all.
“It would naturally seem that the very last article of consumption that would be adulterated is honey, an article which is so plentiful in this State [California] that many times beekeepers can find no market for their crops of honey.2)San Francisco Chronicle, July 2, 1877, p. 2.
But they soon decided that it would be a better defense of their product to denounce adulteration. All this is while other honey producers routinely adulterated their honey for economic reasons, usually by cutting it with cheap glucose.
Charles Muth (1834–1898), the “Honey King of Cincinnatti,” for whom the Muth honey jar is named, wrote:
“It is a pity that adulterated honey cannot be told more readily. It will seriously damage the honey business as consumers will become suspicious. … I should be an object to every bee keeper, and especially to the editors of every bee journal, to post everybody in regard to the matter.”4)quoting C. F. Muth, writing in the Bee Journal, The Southern Plantation (Montgomery, Alabama), October 14, 1875, p. 7.
Beekeepers learned to explain to people that a sure sign of real, unadulterated honey was granulation.
“we must be teachers, showing how much better the pure article is than the adulterated, even when the latter has the advantage of cheapness to recommend it.”5)citing Moon’s Bee World in The Southern Plantation (Montgomery, Alabama), October 21, 1875, p. 7.
Beekeepers began to seek laws making adulteration of honey illegal by the 1870s. It was a state-by-state effort.
In 1898, beekeepers in western Maryland formed the Beekeepers’ Association of Western Maryland, electing a slate of officers. At their formation session, they immediately chose a board member to draft a bill asking the state legislature to prohibit the sale of adulterated honey unless the honey was label as such. Their purpose for organizing was to press for laws against adulteration.6)The Baltimore Sun, March 10, 1898.
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