An Island honey company has had its products pulled from grocery store shelves on the recommendation of the Tisbury health department.

Maura Valley, the town health agent and inspector, confirmed Tuesday that she had confiscated several bottles, jars and tubs of honey from a space in a building near Five Corners previously rented by James Kozak, owner of The Martha’s Vineyard Honey Company. Ms. Valley said, following conversations with the state Department of Public Health, Cronig’s Markets, Healthy Additions and Vineyard Grocer have removed the products from their shelves.

“We agreed since the product is quite possibly adulterated, it’s prudent not to have it sold for consumption,” the health agent said.

On Oct. 16, Ms. Valley was contacted by the landlord at 13 Beach street extension with concerns about honey left in a unit in the building previously rented by Mr. Kozak. After visiting the space, Ms. Valley said the company owner appeared to have been processing honey and infusing it with essential oils, botanicals and other unknown substances.

“What it comes down to, it appears it was bulk honey being repackaged and infused without any type of license and without a commercial kitchen,” Ms. Valley said. She returned on Oct. 19 and confiscated the honey, which is in storage.

At the time of her visit, Ms. Valley said the conditions of the unit were unsanitary and there were a large number of fruit flies. She said since Mr. Kosak had recently been evicted from the space, she did not know the conditions when he was still a tenant. Ms. Valley said the landlord had an acknowledgement signed by Mr. Kozak that anything left behind in the unit would be deemed abandoned.

Speaking to the Gazette by phone Tuesday, Mr. Kozak denied signing away his rights to the items and said the confiscation was an illegal search and seizure of his private property.

“It was a warrantless search without probable cause with no imminent health emergency,” he said. “It was built on speculation and conjecture.”

Mr. Kozak said the honey that was confiscated was for personal experiments and would not have been sold.

“That’s my own personal property, my own experiments” he said. “There has never been a single jar of infused honey sold on the shelves of Tisbury.”

He also denied he needed a license to process the honey.

“I don’t need a license as a farmer to produce and bottle my own raw wildflower honey, I am exempt from such standards, it couldn’t be clearer,” he said.

Ms. Valley served Mr. Kozak a letter through the police informing him of the confiscation and his right to a hearing. A hearing before the board of health is scheduled for Nov. 14.