Hello,
 
> John Day wrote:
>
> > i remember some time ago when spearmint, wintergreen and other
> > oils were being embraced by the beekeeping community, with little
> > or no argument about them showing up in honey.  why now is there
> > such a concern over food grade mineral oil?  i must admit this is
> > a bit perplexing to me when i read all the criticisms.
>
> Barry Birkley wrote:
>
> As far as I know, the essential oils were NOT being used in the hive when supers and a flow
> were on. The mineral oil IS being applied while supers and a flow is on. Not having used this
> method, I could be wrong.
 
'Essential oils' is perhaps a bit of a misnomer because they are not
'oils' in the generally accepted sense,  they are not lipids and nor
are they essential to the plant.  As these plant essences are much
more volatile than mineral oil,  contamination of hive products is
likely to occur in different ways.  Whatever treatment is placed into
a hive must come out by some route apart from that absorbed by the
hive furniture.
 
A Bee World article from Switzerland showed that after Apilife VAR
was used in 9 apiaries for 7 weeks,  thymol levels in honey were
found to be in the range 0.05-0.5mg/kg of honey.  The World Health
Organisation apparently accepts that anything below 50mg/kg is safe
as a foodstuff.
 
Joe Hemmens