A honey badging service called HoneyBadgers is getting the axe after nearly a decade of operation.
The service, which was launched in January 2017, was used to help consumers find out if they were buying honey online.
HoneyBadgers launched with the help of $1.5 million raised from an angel investor and is now being discontinued, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
“We have seen that our service has become a source of confusion for consumers.
We have heard from numerous consumers that they have been misdirected into buying honey that has been produced using fake honey,” HoneyBadges CEO and founder, James Lee, said in the statement.
Lee said the company will continue to work to remove the content of fake honey and replace it with the real stuff.
The company is seeking regulatory approval for its business model and will no longer be offering its service.
A honey badgeman, left, and a honey badged honeybee are seen on a farm in New Jersey, Monday, Sept. 23, 2018.
In September, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected HoneyBadged’s application for an exemption from a ban on honey-derived products that were made with genetically modified organisms.
The FDA said the use of GMOs in honey production posed risks to human health.
It also rejected a similar application from HoneyBadging that was based on honey bees that had been bred using genetic modification, as well as the use to make honey by adding sugar to honey and honeycomb.