Bee Aware of Your Honey
<editor's note> From the FoodWatch website http://www.edcanada.org/foodwatch/know/honey.htm</editor's note>
In 1998/99, 2% of domestic honey and 12% of imported honey had residues of phenol (agricultural chemical) and 2% had residues of sulfonamides (veterinary drug); 43% of the honey imported from the United States exceeded safety standards for phenol. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) have regularly found tetracycline, sulphathiazole (both veterinary drugs) and phenol (agricultural chemical) in honey. The CFIA has stated that lack of, or inadequate testing of, product batches could result in products with excessive sulphathiazole and/or phenol. Nine of twelve samples in Ontario contained sulphathiazole residues. Tetracycline is an antibiotic that has been used extensively for the past forty years by beekeepers in the U.S. and Canada to prevent and control American and European foulbrood, a common disease of the bee larvae. The hives are usually treated with tetracycline supplements early in the spring before the warm weather population explosion and in the fall to insure that the generation of bees raised for the overwintering of the colony is healthy. Oxytetracycline is licenced for use in the bee industry in Canada; however, there is no official withdrawal period (to avoid contamination, when using certain production aids, farmers must stop using the production aid for a designated period before sending the food product to market). To date, Health Canada has not set a Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) or safety standard for tetracycline residues in honey, therefore no amount of tetracycline residue in honey is acceptable under the current policy. CFIA classified phenol among materials in raw honey that can be considered as chemical hazards. According to provincial apiarist Douglas McCrory, phenol is neither registered nor legal to use in honeybees. However, some beekeepers continue to use this chemical for driving out bees, removing honey, and for re-queening. Any detection of the phenol residues in honey usually results in detention of the product, negative publicity and losses in the market place. Find out what else has been discovered in your honey.