A little more to feed your Chinese skepticism

[kerk]

"..The Honey Launderers: Uncovering the Largest Food Fraud in U.S. History..".

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-honey-launderers--uncovering-the-largest-food-fraud-in-u-s--history-171454285.html

"..Chinese honey was often harvested early and dried by machine rather than bees. This allowed the bees to produce more honey, but the honey often had an odor and taste similar to sauerkraut. Fan was told to mix sugar and syrup into the honey in Taiwan to dull the pungent flavor...".

"..Testing revealed one container was contaminated with chloramphenicol, an antibiotic the U.S. bans from food. Chinese beekeepers use chloramphenicol to prevent Foulbrood disease, which is widespread and destructive..".

Long piece, but interesting.

[joe2003]

This article had very little to do with the Chinese and everything to do with a

greedy German business and at least 1 if not more greedy U.S businesses.

While Chinese QC is always a bit suspect,all they did in this instance was to

sell a product to an authorized buyer,who then used shady tactics and broke

several laws in the redistribution of that product.

As to the banned antibiotic in the honey every country has different regs for

additives so the Chinese aren't culpable for selling it here since they didn't

sell it to a U.S. company.

Chinese bashing is popular all over the net and in many cases it's well deserved

BUT ecig users need to remember and be thankful that if it weren't for the Chinese

we wouldn't have ecigs at all!

And as far as the juice debate that seems to be constantly ongoing there are

a lot of people who would rather put their trust into a reputable Chinese company

than some U.S. homebrew specialist who doesn't even have a decent clean

room to work in.

Personally I like and use both Chinese and U.S. ecig stuff,especially batts since

it's damn near impossible to find Li-Ion batts manufactured anywhere else.

just my .02,.02..02..02 lol

Edited September 25, 2013 by joe2003

[kerk]

"..This article had very little to do with the Chinese.."? Really? "..Fan was told to mix sugar and syrup into the honey in Taiwan to dull the pungent flavor..". If nothing else was written, 'that' would be enough.

Maybe 'very little' IYO, but it's another piece of info, on top of lead painted toys and poisen dog food, that re-enforces my resistance to putting anything from China in my body.

If you don't mind eating Chinese canned vegetables, or drinking Chinese wine, have at it.

Do we buy 'hardware' from them? Of course, but I hardly consider 'hardware' as an 'ingestable'.

And as for 'a reputable Chinese company', I'm not sure how you determine if they are, other than by a Chinese review, but what I do know is that if you suffer injury or illness.......you are sheet out of luck, be they 'reputable' or not.

The stateside guy (with the assumed dirty kitchen), for what it's worth, at least I can sue him, and he knows it.

Pros and cons to both.

[joe2003]

The broker, a small-time businessman from Taiwan named Michael Fan, had already received advice from ALW about how to get Chinese honey into the U.S. ALW executives had told him to ship his honey in black drums since the Chinese usually used green ones. And they had reminded him that the “taste should be better than regular mainland material.” Chinese honey was often harvested early and dried by machine rather than bees. This allowed the bees to produce more honey, but the honey often had an odor and taste similar to sauerkraut. Fan was told to mix sugar and syrup into the honey in Taiwan to dull the pungent flavor.

For those that have trouble distinguishing:

The Chinese sold it to an authorized buyer. Fan from Taiwan adulterated it at the instruction of ALW of Germany

That is all.