To Ron Bogansky and rest of the group,

On Dutch Gold:
I had a look at all the pages of the "Dutch Gold" Internet site, since I never heard of them yet but quickly had to come to the 
conclusion that it completely failes to declare what their honey actually contains and how it was produced. Any possible honey 
manipulation by the hands of the beekeeper or the Dutch Gold plants themselves seems to be carefully avoided. I have not seen 
written anywhere either how their honey is tested, by which methods and how often. So I for one would therefore never buy their 
honey, while knowing also how easy you Americans are about the application of chemicals in your hives against bee pests and 
diseases.
So seeing that so much important information is omitted on the internet site and labels, I presume that Dutch Gold is well aware how 
revealing and negative such information could be for them.

I am against manipulative ways to try and sell honey (or any other product for that matter). For me a label should be an honest 
representation for the product in the jar and then the product will surely sell! So no misleading expressions, but yes by all means 
use fine images. Some people are very good in drawing a nice picture that tells the whole story for the apiary where the honey comes 
from. Of course for a honey distribution center or reseller the personal touch on labels that individual apiaries can apply will be 
impossible.

To Ron B.and your fellow countrymen/women: If your observation is right that you in general go more on looks of the label than what 
is actually present in the jar, then I can't understand you people any longer. Then even more you would have to demand that the 
information given on labels is complete and includes a declaration of what it contains and by which methods it was produced, 
including information on added sugars to keep a certain viscosity.

While writing this to mainly you guys out there in the USA, I must admit that I also have objections to how a honey distributor in 
Sweden behaves. There too I would like to see more tests done on the honey, since it seems that they so far only rely on the results 
of  occasional tests performed by the Swedish food administration service. I other words, much honey is never tested. Futhermore, 
what do they actually test for? (I sent a request for more information on their testing, but so far no response!).
As I understood all imported honey undergoes stringent testing, honey taken from local Swedish beekeepers is only tested by the 
honey distributor for water content. I'd like to see more stringent tests done even on the Swedish produced honey!

Ron van Mierlo
Sweden 

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