This super toxic and carcinogenic chemical called Glyphosate or Round Up is nearly everywhere and was also found in samples of honey in US, according to US National Library of Medicince and National Institutes of Health. This research was conducted in 2018  (PLoS One, v.13(7); 2018, PMC6040695)
It is interesting that New Zealand has now reported that Manuka Honey contains traces of this weed killer and super toxic chemical compound.
Let's remind ourselves that a few diseases caused by Round up
Source: Ata Regenarative

The manufacturer of this carcinogenic Round-up pushes hard the relevant EU authorities to increase the concentration level of contamination in honey for various reasons:
- Not loss of profit,
- probably suspecting that the beekeepers will flow to EU courts to prosecute them for contaminating their products,
- This carcinogenic substance can be found everywhere even in honey and manufacturer want  to protect themselves from being prosecuted from all sides of agriculture sectors.

Honey and Extra Olive oil have a few "good" things in common:

• single ingredient products, easy to consume as they are, no further cooking is required
  
• unique and complex flavour profiles, and
  
• a lot of health benefits.
  

 
Extra Virgin Olive oil flavours are so complex to the point where one might say their complexity resembles the ones from wine.
To understand the depth of complexity of such flavours, one can read the flavour description as it comes out from an international olive oil competition panel. Panelists experts on identifying the flavours descibe the flavour profile of an extra virgin olive oil. We quote one example from a competition in New York for Pamako organic extra virgin olive oil
''It has a fresh and fruity aroma, with strong spicy elements, and a soft, bitter taste''

This can be testified through the plethora of olive oil competitions in the world happening in various cities to name a few Athens, New York, Madrid and Tokyo. 

Both Honey and Extra Olive oil have been used in food frauds many times in the past. Companies such as Lidl, Filippo Berio and Bertolli had been fined for misinformation about the origin or the tasting quality of the extra virgin olive oil.
EU and UK authorities still allow honey and olive oil to have label which mentions in a very vague way the country of origin of the product. In many cases, one can see a label on a bottle or a jar reading: ''This is made of EU and non EU blends''.
In most of the cases, it is impossible to find the exact country of origin of these honeys due to a broken food traceability system. And that can be proved from the fact that European Food Safety Authority publishes data from most of the food fraud cases across the world where honey and olive oil products appear on the list more or less on every other month.

Why the supermarkets still sell products of honey with the label to read non EU blends of honey at only £3.20 per Kilo when the cost of producing honey for a beekeeper is at least £5.00
What is our action then you might wonder?

Do not buy any of these products: blends of various products, and to make sure this does not ahppen check the label.
When you see blends of EU and non EU blends, then immediately it is understood that this products is jarred or bottled using mixtures of various olive oil. Instead buy them from local delicatessen stores across the country where both olive oil and honey products come from one grower or beekeeper. Especially with honey, we recommend any purchase of honey products to be done from a beekeeper who packs their honey into jars by themselves. And remember all products must have a label on with all the legal information on: address, weight/volume, name of the product, best before date, country of origin (which in our case it should be one) and nutritional information (Honey is excepted)

What is so special about organic honey?
- In organic beekeeping, beehives are placed away from any conventional crop cultivation, at least 5 km, so the bees will not be travelling to collect nectar and pollen from such crops. Bee can travel up to 5 km to collect nectar and pollen (its food) from flowers.
- During beekeeping, the bees might acquire diseases and one of them is a parasite called varroa which can exterminate whole beehives.
In order to fight off varroa, conventional beekeeping uses super toxic chemicals such as armitraz while organic beekeeping uses oxalic acid which is an organic compound found in many plants.
- Certified organic honey does not contain GMO pollen as the beehives are not placed or used in countries where the GMO crops are cultivated. Certified organic beekeepers are checked/audited by the regulatory bodies on this strict requirement.

We found an interesting video to watch: Silence of the bees
​ 

rotecteWe all know that certain countries produce unique flavour products:
For example we all know where to find the best coffee beans or the best wine in the world.
Same applies to honey and its products. We select carefully honey products with unique flavours to bring them to London delicatessen market.
Thyme honey, chestnut honey, pine tree honey, fir honey, and oak honey are some of the selected honeys originated from Greece.
One the most unique flavours is the Greek vanilla fir honey which is the first Protected Designation Of origin, PDO, honey in the world.

You might wonder why Greek honey?
Simple reason: due to its incomparable flora with a huge variety of endemic plants and its unspoilt environment from heavy industrial activity.
We supply:
- the only Organic Thyme honey with 3 gold stars of Great Taste Awards,
- the only pine trees, oak trees and aromatic herbs honey with numbered jars in the world.
If you are a London deli shop or a distributor and would like to know more about floral flavours honey i.e the PDO Vanilla fir, please, fill the form in the ''contact us'' page, and we will contact you shortly.
Photo: courtesy of FB group Mani mana