Universally, honey is believed to be a natural product. Regulations across the world say as much. The codex alimentarius commission is a global body set up jointly by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop food standards for international trade; it defines honey as “the natural sweet substance produced by honeybees from the nectar of plants or from secretions of living parts of plants or excretions of plant-sucking insects on the living parts of plants, which the bees collect, transform by combining with specific substances of their own, deposit, dehydrate, store and leave in the honeycomb to ripen and mature”.

This definition of honey is now threatened. In several countries, the beekeeping industry uses antibiotics to control outbreaks of diseases in honeybees, and as growth promoters to increase production. And these antibiotics are finding their way into that spoonful which reaches the house-holder’s table. So what is the world doing about it?

INTERNATIONAL REGULATIONS

Codex: Honey is an internationally traded commodity. Codex has set down standards for the quality of the honey which is traded. But it has nothing to say on the presence of antibiotics in honey.

European Union: EU regulates honey under the council directive 2001/110/EC. The standard for antibiotics in food (referred to as maximum residue limit or MRLs) is listed in Regulation (EU) No 37/2010—it stipulates that each antibiotic must have an MRL before it can be used on a food-producing species. But there are no MRLs for antibiotics in honey, which means EU does not allow the use of antibiotics for treatment of honeybees.

But EU member states do import honey. For regulating residues of antibiotics in this imported honey, the bloc has set what are called RPAs, or’ Reference points for action’. RPAs are residue concentrations which are technically feasible to detect by food control laboratories. When antibiotics are detected by a laboratory, the member state is obliged to reject the consignment. Till date, RPAs have been established in honey for substances such as chloramphenicol and nitrofurans. EU has also set a provisional MRL of 25 parts per billion (ppb) for oxytetracycline in honey.

USA: In the US, MRLs for antibiotics in food are set by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), and listed in Title 21, Part 556 . There are no limits for antibiotics in honey.

What does this mean? Are all kinds of antibiotics, in any amount, permitted in honey? Or are antibiotics ‘unauthorised’ substances in honey and therefore, ‘illegal’?

Regulators in the EU and the US opine that they are ‘unauthorised’ and therefore ‘illegal’, unless there is a standard regulating their levels. This is the reason why EU banned Indian honey from entering its shores—it was found contaminated with high amounts of antibiotics.

Which brings us to the honey consumed within India. Does it have any safety standards? Are there any regulations governing the presence of antibiotics in honey?

INDIAN REGULATIONS

In India, honey is currently regulated under three legislations:

    • FSSR-2011, a mandatory standard, implemented by the Food Safety and Standards Authority.

    • The voluntary Bureau of Indian standards  (BIS) norm for extracted honey under IS4941:1994. Brands wishing to obtain the ISI mark will have to follow it.

All three define honey as a “natural product” and lay down standards for its composition and quality (like sucrose content, total reducing sugars and moisture content)—but there are no standards for antibiotics in honey.

Indian regulators believe if there are no standards, they can’t regulate. But this perception undergoes a sea change when it comes to honey for export. Indian regulators take great care to ensure the honey exported from the country is safe. For this, an elaborate system of monitoring (called Residue Monitoring Plan or RMP) has been put in place, and the Export Inspection council  (EIC), under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industries, has been entrusted with the task of checking exports.

EIC standards: The EIC has set antibiotic standards for honey which is exported. This is referred to as ‘Level of Action (LOA)’—the limit beyond which a sample is deemed non-compliant and rejected for exports. These LOAs have been set for some antibiotics (see table: ‘Doomed by definition’).

None of this, however, applies to honey sold in the domestic market. There are hardly any reports on antibiotic contamination of honey consumed within the country. India also imports honey, but there is no standard to check its quality either. Having come up against this regulatory black hole,

The study

OXYTETRACYCLINE

Belonging to the common antibiotic class of Tetracyclines, this antibiotic is used by beekeepers against bacterial foul brood diseases. The BIS recommends it for the treatment of European foul brood disease.

HEALTH IMPACTS: Chronic exposure to oxytetracycline or OTC can lead to bloodrelated disorders, liver injury and delayed blood coagulation. It can damage calciumrich organs such as teeth and bones and may cause nasal cavities to erode. Children under seven years of age may develop a discoloration of the teeth; infants of mothers treated with OTC during pregnancy are prone to a similar discoloration. Some other chronic effects of OTC include increased sensitivity to the sun, wheezing and asthmatic attacks. Tetracyclines are not advised for use in treating pregnant or lactating women and children under 12, except in certain conditions.

CHLORAMPHENICOL

It is a broad-spectrum antibiotic. It has been banned from use in food-producing animals, in many countries.

HEALTH IMPACTS:  Studies on humans indicate that chloramphenicol could be a potential carcinogen and genotoxin. Repeated or prolonged exposure can lead to organ damage, bone marrow toxicity etc, while longterm exposure can cause aplastic anaemia, a condition where the bone marrow does not produce sufficient new cells to replenish blood cells. Aplastic anaemia is idiosyncratic (rare, unpredictable, and unrelated to dose), generally fatal and could be triggered by even small residues of chloramphenicol.

Several reports document human fatalities resulting from ophthalmic preparations containing minuscule doses of chloramphenicol. Increased exposure to chloramphenicol could mean an increased risk of childhood leukaemia as well.

AMPICILLIN

A Beta-lactam antibiotic, it is widely used in veterinary medicine for treatment and prevention of bacterial diseases. However, it is not recommended for use on honeybees.

HEALTH IMPACTS:

Repeated exposure may cause allergic reactions, asthmatic attacks and other disorders.

ERYTHROMYCIN It is a Macrolide-class antibiotic used for poultry, and is now reportedly being used to protect honeybees from bacterial diseases.

HEALTH IMPACTS: With chronic exposure, erythromycin can turn into a terratogen—a reproductive hazard. Cardiac malformation has been observed in infants of women who had taken this antibiotic in their early pregnancy. Exposure to erythromycin (especially long courses at antimicrobial doses, and also through breastfeeding) has been linked to an increased probability of pyloric stenosis (a condition affecting the gastro-intestinal tract, leading to severe vomiting) in young infants.

ENROFLOXACIN AND CIPROFLOXACIN

Enrofloxacin is a synthetic antibiotic belonging to the fluoroquinolone class, and is used to treat bacterial infections; it is used as a growth promoter in cattle. Repor tedly, beekeepers are now using it as well. Ciprofloxacin is a metabolite of enrofloxacin and is used in the poultry farming industry.

HEALTH IMPACTS: Tests done on rats and rabbits suggest these antibiotics may be terratogens and lethal for embryos. The US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine has proposed to withdraw approval for the use of fluoroquinolone anitibiotics in poultry, based not on the drugs’ direct toxicity but on its potential for increasing human pathogen resistance.

The methodology

The samples were analysed in triplicate (each sample was tested thrice and the results given as average of three tests) using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) with Diode Array Detector (DAD) and Fluorescence Detector (FLD). Internationally accepted published methods were used for analysis and validated by PML. The results were confirmed by spiking.