I was permanently banned from the Reddit sub without recourse for posting this despite not breaking any rules. I’m slowly making the migration over thanks to such encouragement.

  • CeeBee@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    At least the ingredients are being honest. It’s a massive problem around the world. They even have insanely sophisticated testing machines that are even fooled sometimes.

        • HeartyBeast@kbin.social
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          9 months ago

          UK regulations state that ingredients must be listed in order of weight, with the main ingredient first according to the amounts that were used to make the food - the percentages are by weight

    • SexWithDogs@infosec.pubOP
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      9 months ago

      The issue is often a result of companies paying off those 3rd party testers to use outdated equipment that can’t detect the counterfeiting methods being used, or so I’ve heard.

    • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      At least they label it so you can avoid it.

      But they call it honey blend, which implies it’s a blend of honey from different sources.
      This would absolutely be deemed misleading advertising here.

      • snooggums@midwest.social
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        9 months ago

        It sucks in the US where misleading labeling gets a free pass for being technically corrent if you squint hard enough is not considered misleading.

        • Asafum@feddit.nl
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          9 months ago

          If they were Really Smart™ they would just lable it as a dietary supplement, then all regulation goes out the window and it’s a free-for-all!

      • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Pretty much the same thing as the “juice cocktails” they have in the juice isle that are fruit juice and sugar water. “Made with real fruit juice!” (like ten percent).

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I’ve been buying fruit juice recently after staying away from all that sugar for a lot of years, and I’m sad to find out that most fruit juice in my grocery is corn syrup. Even with being willing to pay more, it can be difficult to find sweetened with fruit juice or even sugar

          • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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            9 months ago

            How bout thems glass bottles that’re straight juice? Often organic, and expensive. Can dilute with water and put on ice… and sweeten yourself if needed.

            • AA5B@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              I’ve gotten those a few times as well. Very expensive. I’m willing to pay more but those are a lot more. It doesn’t help the they seem to want to outdo each other on how “different” the juice can be. Some of the combination are truly awful (but they’re all “superfoods”, why shouldn’t we put them together?)

          • VonReposti@feddit.dk
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            9 months ago

            At least in Denmark it’s illegal to use the word ‘juice’ if there’s any sugar water in it. If I see a juice on the self I can be certain it is 100% juice (maybe made from concentrate but that must be written somewhere). If it’s not then it is “nektar”

          • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Yeah, have to stay away from the “cocktails” and stick with 100% juice. On the other hand, even most of those have a lot of apple, pear, and grape juice added, which are all very, very sweet. There’s more sugar in apple juice than in soda, it’s just the kind of sugar that’s different.

            • AA5B@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              For me, I have a weight problem so sugar is sugar: I don’t need empty calories. However my kid does not, so I care what kind of sugar he gets his calories from

        • Euphorazine@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I always squint at meat products that claim something like “made with 100% real chicken.” Yeah okay, there is chicken in there, but how much of the food consists of that 100% real chicken?

        • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          The FDA should get a hell of a lot stricter in general, but decades of political fuckery has made it simultaneously rife with corruption, permanently understaffed and critically underfunded.

          The FDA is pretty much in exactly the condition that Republicans want for all regulatory agencies.

      • Leeker@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        But they call it honey blend

        That is illegal as the must label it with what the Honey is blended with. So in this case you’d need to have it labeled “Blended Honey with Corn Syrup” or some variation of that.

        • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I’m not a lawyer, but it looks like you are wrong:

          4: If a food consists of honey and a sweetener, such as sugar or corn syrup, can I label the food as only “honey”?
          No. A product consisting of honey and a sweetener cannot be labeled with the common or usual name “honey” because “[t]he common or usual name of a food . . . shall accurately identify or describe . . . the basic nature of the food or its characterizing properties or ingredients” (21 CFR 102.5(a)). Identifying a blend or a mixture of honey and another sweetener only as “honey” does not properly identify the basic nature of the food. You must sufficiently describe the name of the food on the label to distinguish it from simply “honey” (21 CFR 102.5(a)).

          However they are only exempt from the declaration if it’s pure honey, so the part about not having that is clearly against the guidelines. The header on page 1 says: “Contains Nonbinding Recommendations” So it’s very fuzzy to a layman like me.

      • Unsmooth7439@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I think that interpretation cuts both ways, where the ‘blend’ could also imply that the honey is blended with something other than honey.

    • SexWithDogs@infosec.pubOP
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      9 months ago

      I heard about that. I wouldn’t even buy beeswax from Amazon because I heard all the horror stories of even some of the highly rated products being cut with Paraffin, which gives me headaches. I could give you a list.

      • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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        9 months ago

        Depending on where you live, i would recommend checking out the local farmers market in the weekends. I bought iver a gallon of local honey for about $50 last summer and i am only just starting to finish it off.

      • arglebargle@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        And trying to get pure maple syrup and olive oil these days is also a pain, when it shouldn’t be.

        Maple is often blended, and olive and avacado is straight up fraud most often.

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Only in America.
    OK maybe not, but at least here it’s illegal to label it honey if it isn’t 100% pure honey. that goes for all of EU, where it’s illegal to add sugar, according to the EU honey directive.
    The result is that you buy either Honey or Syrup, you know what you get, and you get what you pay for.

    Edit:

    Apparently it’s illegal in USA too, whether adding the word “blend” makes it legal IDK. It is sort of a warning sign but still misleading.

      • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        It doesn’t have to be in the name, just in the ingredients list. In this case it is, so it’s perfectly above-board for the US.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        You have to label the honey with the ingredients it is blended with as well in the US.

        Nonono, that’s a huge difference, in EU it’s ILLEGAL to call it honey at all, you cannot call it honey blend either. And it’s not enough to label that there is sugar added. If you add any amount of sugar it’s not honey but sirup.

        • snugglesthefalse@sh.itjust.works
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          9 months ago

          This reminds me of the dumbness of the Germans I know calling bread “toast” even though toast has to be toasted and white toastie bread has enough sugar to be a cake per eu regulations but it’s not toast because it’s not been toasted.

    • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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      9 months ago

      Yup we have the fun loopholes of adding something like “blend” means it can be 1% honey and it’s legal. Same things with why things at our stores say “cheesy” or “chocolatey”. Neither one of those need to have cheese or chocolate. It’s a marketing game for them. Come up with a name that sounds like it’s fun for the consumer but really is a massive loophole they can jump through.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Yes I’ve often seen that clearly misleading advertising is perfectly legal in USA.

      • shyguyblue@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Ugh, Kraft singles (individually wrapped pieces of “cheese”) are labeled something like “dairy product” because they use vegetable oil.

        And make sure you’re buying “ice cream” and not “frozen dairy product”. Ice Cream has a minimum cream/milk requirement that some brands fall below. Might as well call it “ice milk, etc.”.

      • jballs@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        That just reminded me that there’s something in the store here in the US sold as Chicken Wyngz, because they don’t contain any chicken wing meat.

    • sushibowl@feddit.nl
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      9 months ago

      The result is that you buy either Honey or Syrup, you know what you get, and you get what you pay for.

      You would think so, but the EU did an investigation back in 2022 and found that almost half of all honey imported into the EU is (illegally) blended with sugar syrup. If you’re buying honey labeled as a blend of EU and non-EU honey (which is almost all honey available on supermarket shelves) there’s a large chance you’re buying a sugar blend.

      Current officially sanctioned honey tests are not capable of detecting fake honey. New testing methodology has been agreed upon as a result, but it will take a few years until those are internationally recognised.

      If you want to be certain that what you’re buying is real honey, the only real option is to buy directly from a local producer.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Where I am in all supermarkets I know of, honey at least used to be labeled by country of origin, usually Poland or Hungary, maybe it’s not the case anymore, it’s been a while since I checked.
        Still there’s a difference between the legality in USA of selling Honey and Sirup labeled as Honey blend, which is clearly illegal in EU. If there is any amount of sugar added, it is sirup. It can only LEGALLY be called honey if it’s actually pure honey.

  • Aatube@kbin.melroy.org
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    9 months ago

    I’m seeing the nutritional value thing, but I don’t see what the other comments are talking about…

  • tygerprints@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    I get it, I was banned from Reddit for saying that being progressive was a good thing. That was just dandy. I consider it a badge of honor to have pissed them off so royally.

  • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    They say on the bottle that it’s a blend so I don’t think this is that infuriating. Though if I saw “Texas Honey Blend” I’d assume it’s cut with crude oil.

    Welcome to the Fediverse!

    • TragicNotCute@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Plus, it says “made with real honey”. That plus it being a blend should have raised an eyebrow to investigate further.

    • SexWithDogs@infosec.pubOP
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      9 months ago

      Maybe just me personally, but if they’re gonna put “blend” on the bottle I’d be more inclined to assume it’s intended as a selling point rather than a begrudging legal requirement.

      Many thanks.

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        If they’re gonna put “blend” on the bottle I’d assume it was honey from different kinds of flowers mixed together, not honey mixed with something else!

    • TK420@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      It’s a blend of honey and high fructose corn syrup, what in the ever living fuck is high fructose corn syrup doing in honey? Oh, making more profits by cutting it.

      Death to high fructose corn syrup

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        9 months ago

        Hot take, but it’s not a bad technology. It’s just heavily overused because US farm subsidies.

        • Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca
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          9 months ago

          Eh, too much fructose and your body stops processing it. Fructose doesn’t actually trigger your body to use it, and if you don’t have enough other sugars present, it causes problems. Not an issue in moderation, but high-fructose syrup is used in so many things that it’s a real concern.

          • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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            9 months ago

            TIL. It sounds like there’s some debate about the severity of that, from what I can see, but it is a thing.

            • Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca
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              9 months ago

              Yeah, just about any diet will have enough other carbs to work, but if all you eat is white bread and pepsi, that will be another issue with your diet.

      • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        I can see it being useful if you’re making candy. Different sugars crystallize differently, so it’s not uncommon to mix corn syrup and sugar to get the right ratio.

        But they’re also making “pancake syrup” that is corn syrup dyed and flavored to approximate maple syrup which is a crime against nature.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I can see it being useful if you’re making candy. Different sugars crystallize differently, so it’s not uncommon to mix corn syrup and sugar to get the right ratio.

          Nobody making candy would every use this pre-blended product; they’d want to combine the two different sugars themselves so they could control the ratio.

          • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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            9 months ago

            Yeah, I was commenting on the notion of mixing honey with corn syrup generally, not this shit.

            Though I’m sure there’s a bunch of old ladies in Texas who have recipes on old, yellowed card stock that call for this.

        • chetradley@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Even brands like log cabin who claim to use “no high fructose corn syrup” are just corn syrup and sugar. There are people who go their entire lives eating pancake syrup and table syrup on their pancakes, and die never having tasted actual maple syrup.

        • decerian@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          If you’re mixing things up in the kitchen, typically you try to be somewhat precise with ratios.

          The difference in this case being that because the actual ratio of the blend is unknown, you don’t actually know how it would crystallize. Technically they could even change up the ratio week to week based on the price of high-fructose corn syrup so you wouldn’t even get consistency from it.

    • abracaDavid@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      What in the hell? You think this is ok? A honey blend implies a blend of…wait for it… different HONEY.

      Not a blend of super cheap and super unhealthy syrup.

      • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        If it was a bunch of different honeys they would have listed the types on the front of the bottle, I’m sure. The word “Texas” heavily implies that it’s made out of something terrible.

      • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        It seems not to be as well known as I thought, but most commercial honey sold in the US is not actually honey:

        But the honey industry is hiding a secret. There’s a high chance that your store-bought honey is fake. While fake honey usually includes some amount of real honey, it is often mixed with other corn, rice, or sugar cane syrup to reduce its cost. These fillers are far cheaper than raw honey and are used to produce more honey, quicker. In fact, up to 76% of honey sold in the US is not really honey, at least not entirely.

        There were a bunch of stories about this several years ago after a minor controversy, but it didn’t stay in the news long, so I guess it fell out of public consciousness.

        If you want real honey, you’ll want to buy from small, local dealers.

      • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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        9 months ago

        I have news for you if you think there is a health difference between a teaspoon of corn syrup and a teaspoon of honey. They are both packed full of sugar

          • KISSmyOS@feddit.de
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            9 months ago

            I prefer honey cause I’m no goddamn liberal hippie, so it’s important to me that animals were killed for my food.

        • SmoothLiquidation@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          You are being downvoted but HFCS and honey are almost exactly chemically identical. They have to inspect honey farms to make sure it comes from bees since looking at the final product you can’t tell the difference.

          • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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            9 months ago

            Yeah they are both concentrated sugar extracts. Just because one is made by bees doesn’t make it suddenly not a heaping tablespoon of sugar you’ve just ingested. I eat plenty of honey and molasses but I don’t lie to myself and claim that they are any healthier than corn syrup or simple syrup. They are all just super concentrated fructose and glucose solutions.

            • kofe@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              I thought the “benefits” to honey were kinda more for kids >1 so they can be exposed to different types of pollen. I dunno if it actually helps with immunity to allergies in the same way, but iirc it’s similar with peanuts. Kids exposed to them young are much less likely to develop allergies to them

              • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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                9 months ago

                That makes sense at first glance, but it’s not true when you think about it for a bit. People have allergic reactto grasses and trees that broadcast spawn their pollen all over the place. Bees collect nectar from flowering plants and spread pollen around that way. Plants only choose one over the other since they are both very resource intensive mating strategies. No one is allergic to lillac, but plenty of people are allergic to ragweed.

          • Deebster@lemmy.ml
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            9 months ago

            I liked when the US National Honey Board funded a study that compared honey, cane sugar, and HFCS and found they’re all about the same (and all raised a key blood fat, a marker for heart disease).

            Of course, the truth is that sugar’s sugar and you should have limited amounts of it, but when it’s as cheap as HFCS is in the States, they can stick it in everything.

  • citrusface@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Welcome to Lemmy, you don’t need to go back to reddit. It gets better here everyday.

    Also - do I just put a letter with Kelly Honey Farms in the mail and hope it gets there? A full address would be nice.

  • its_the_new_style@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    I live near by this area. I also buy honey from Kelley’s regularly, but have never seen this abomination. The honey they sell around here is 100% grade a raw unfiltered. It also has nutrition information on the bottle.

    • LiveLM@lemmy.zip
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      9 months ago

      Wait, why can’t you feed it to Children under one?
      Some type of bacteria they’re not ready to handle yet?

      • PaintedSnail@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Correct. Infant botulism can result from bacteria in raw honey that is otherwise harmless to anyone with a developed immune system.

        • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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          9 months ago

          At first I was like “yeah doesn’t everyone know that?” And then I realized that I didn’t know that until I had kids.

            • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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              9 months ago

              Our pedi was over the top with reminding us. With both kids, actually.

              He probably has some history that led him to stress that so much to patients.

          • HonorableScythe@lemm.ee
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            9 months ago

            I don’t have kids and I know it. When I was a kid, my parents would make us banana smoothies as a treat. It’s just banana, milk, ice, and honey. They mentioned a few times that they were excited for us to turn a year old so we could have them because of the honey.

      • stoly@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        There are bacterial spores that are no danger to nearly all adults but will absolutely end your baby.

          • stoly@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Not sure why you were down voted because it’s true. Honey has very low water activity and essentially remains in good condition over tens of thousands of years. It’s been used to treat wounds throughout history by helping create an environment inhospitable to microbes.

    • Deebster@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      Apart from OP’s picture missing the 's on Kelley’s, it seems genuine due to the matching inconsistent use of capitalisation.

  • MrJameGumb@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Look at that, it’s a product that is entirely dependent on the idea that no one ever actually reads the label… Sadly this unscrupulous company has probably made a fortune this way

  • athos77@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    Adulterated honey is a massive issue around the world; at least these people are being honest about it.

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    I’m okay with the product itself existing. I mean blah blah Americans put corn syrup in everything sure, you’re allowed to buy honey and you’re allowed to buy corn syrup, you’re allowed to mix them in your own kitchen, I’m okay with this substance being allowed on the store shelf.

    “Honey Blend” strikes me as one of those FDA required weasel phrases like “processed whey product” or “beef-related substance”. You don’t usually see the word “blend” on a honey bear bottle, says something’s up.

    The ingredients are plainly listed.

    The nutrition facts are not; you’d have to lick a stamp to learn them, which I hope isn’t legal.