When people ask me, where can I buy bee pollen, I ask them to think about the environment where it is collected. The interesting fact is that lots of bee pollen capsules and other bee products never reveal exactly where they are sourced from.
There is now alarm about the honey as well, as the pollen is filtered out of this. This applies to the honey imported into the USA. This is in violation of US FDA regulations because the pollen in the honey is the only way that we can verify its purity.
Alarmingly, a recent report in the Food Safety News estimates that up to 70% of the honey sold in stores and supermarkets across the USA contains no pollen. According to the FDA definition, that means that it is simply not honey, by their standards and according to the laws.
This is just one alarming aspect of the whole bee production scenario. That is why when people ask me, where can I buy bee pollen, I recommend that they do their homework first. Here are the things that I recommend they check out:-
• if you buy it in granules from your local farmers market, check that it is harvested in a pollution free environment.
• there is no way that we can be absolutely sure though that GM microbes and other nasty contaminants are not carried by winds and thereby it may well be polluted
• ask about the drying procedures and how the granules are stored immediately after collection.
• check if the beekeepers are regulated or controlled in any way
• some beekeepers overuse antibiotics to fight disease in the hives. Others feed their bees with fructose so that they produce more.
As we have seen, there are so many question marks about the purity of this marvellous supplement and the environment where it is gathered, that you cannot really be sure about anything at all, except trust your local beekeepers presuming that they are doing it all according to the book.
So, the question, where can I buy bee pollen, has no simple straightforward answer. Actually one solution, which I use personally is to ensure that you use bee pollen capsules.
Once you are sure about the company and above all the source which is as uncontaminated as you can get, then you can be certain that you are getting a pure product. The best areas now that are safe for bee foraging and harvesting are some areas of Canada and also New Zealand. It really does pay to do your homework on this one.
