Brian,
You bring up a contentious topic - one that many beekeepers here in
Canada feel that they are subject to poor labelling - to their detriment.
Honey labelling and the grading of the pot's content appears to be lax.
Having produced for the French market (and to a smaller degree - the UK
market), I suggest that what is allowed over here would not pass over there.
Things might have changed since I had bees in France.
I remember that there was a big problem over this topic during the last
re-wording of the Codex A.
The European producers wished to protect the honey and its quality with
tight wording - but the Packers and large Importing countries were dead
against it as it would have restricted what went into the pots!
The latter won the case due to putting forward a veto proposition
stating that if the producers insisted on their point, then they (the
packers etc.) would veto it, causing the total collapse of the procedure
to get the new Codex in place.
This effectively would have meant that the old one would have stayed in
position - and that was considered to have been totally unacceptable.
In Canada, a rewording of labels and what they mean is being debated.
See:
http://www.honeycouncil.ca/users/Folder.asp?FolderID=4753&NewsID=491
Regards,
Peter
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