The antibiotic, chloramphenicol is used by veterinarians and is sometimes given to bees to protect them from disease.  China has moved into being the number one country for producing honey, giving our US manufacturers some very stiff competition.  image

If you go back a few years there was the case of the “honey laundering” where honey from China was first sent to Australia and then exported to the US basically at the time to avoid trade barriers.  With transparency we certainly are finding out what is in the food that comes from China and we can all remember back to the melamine incident with mile and dried milk products.  The FDA has banned chloramphenicol for use in any food products and even big companies like Sue Bee are importing honey from China and they have their own internal testing for the drug and are still finding it in their samples in their lab.  When Sue Bee returns the product there’s no word on how it may or may not get back into the pipeline by potentially being sold to someone else. 

Argentina, Vietnam and Canada are also big exported of honey to the US as bee colonies in the US continue to dwindle.  BD

Honey imported from China has been seized by the FDA in Philadelphia. The honey contained a potentially fatal ingredient that is not approved for use in food products by US regulators. The ingredient chloramphenicol is actually an antibiotic that fights certain bacteria. However, it can cause aplastic anemia, leukemia and a number of other serious conditions. The powerful antibiotic is only used in cases where a person has not responded to any other treatment methods.

Agents seized 64 drums of the tainted honey valued at 32 thousand dollars. The honey was imported by the California based company Sweet Works. The California company got the honey from the Chinese honey manufacturer Cheng Du Wai Yuan Bee Products and then sent it on to the Delaware Avenue Distribution Center in Philadelphia. The honey was only stored in the warehouse after Alfred Wolff of Chicago purchased the bulk supply. The FDA and US Marshals are investigating the matter further.

Chinese Honey Seized by FDA » Tech Jackal

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