Dabur, Patanjali reject CSE report claiming sugar syrup found in honey

Dabur has put up a tweet, "World's No. 1 Dabur Honey is 100% Pure & Safe! We are NMR profiled. We are 22 FSSAI tests compliant. Dabur Honey clears all FSSAI tests and has the first corporate-owned NMR machine in India to ensure 100% purity."  

The CSE report has been rejected by Patanjali spokesperson, The Print reported.

Investigations by New Delhi-based CSE  with laboratory studies in India and Germany revealed rampant adulteration in honey sold by major brands in India, the non-profit research and advocacy group said.

It claimed that  77 per cent of samples found adulterated with sugar syrup with only three out of 13 brands passing the internationally accepted Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) test.

“It is a food fraud more nefarious and more sophisticated than what we found in our 2003 and 2006 investigations into soft drinks; more damaging to our health than perhaps anything that we have found till now– keeping in mind the fact that we are still fighting against a killer COVID-19 pandemic with our backs to the wall. This overuse of sugar in our diet will make it worse,” said Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) director general Sunita Narain today, while releasing a new CSE investigation into honey adulteration.

The study has found that almost all brands of honey being sold in Indian markets are adulterated with sugar syrup.

“This is immensely worrying, as it will further compromise health in the troubled times of COVID-19. We know that households today are consuming more honey because of its intrinsic goodness – antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties.

"Our research has found that most of the honey sold in the market is adulterated with sugar syrup. Therefore, instead of honey, people are eating more sugar, which will add to the risk of COVID-19. Sugar ingestion is directly linked to obesity, and obese people are more vulnerable to life-threatening infections,” added Narain.