Countless litres of Chinese honey already consumed in South Africa over the past four years were contaminated with a dangerous antibiotic suspected of causing liver cancer and a potentially fatal rare blood disorder, SA beekeepers have warned.
The possible side effects of the antibiotic chloramphenicol — which was found in German, then British imports of Chinese honey in 2002 — are so serious that it is usually prescribed by doctors only for severe infections and typhoid fever, the Saturday Star reported.
The antibiotic is used to treat bees for diseases like European foulbrood — similar to diarrhoea, which kills bees through body-fluid loss — but many Chinese producers are believed to overdose even healthy hives as a preventative measure, leaving potentially toxic traces in the honey harvest.
The discovery of antibiotic residues in Chinese honey led to a two-year European Union ban on the importation of the honey in 2002, but SA began testing for antibiotics in honey only three years later, in 2005.
Of concern to consumers is that the South African Bee Industry Organisation (Sabio) has claimed that after the ban, China tried to sell its shipments to various Latin American countries, but it was rejected on health grounds — before finally finding a market in South Africa in 2002.
Dries Pretorius, director of food control at the health department, told the Saturday paper that ”We believe that all contaminated honey has already been consumed”.
He added that his directorate, together with all nine provincial health departments would now conduct a national sampling for antibiotic-contaminated honey. – Sapa