Beware of antibiotics in your honey!

The study claimed to have detected high level of antibiotics in some leading brands of honey, including those manufactured by international firms, sold in Delhi warning they can have serious health effects.

"The test for six antibiotics was conducted on 12 branded samples including ten Indian brands brought randomly from various markets in Delhi in July last year. Eleven were found to be contaminated with antibiotics," says the study.

The six antibiotics that the environmental NGO looked for were oxytetracycline, chloramphenicol, ampicillin, erythromycin, eurofloxacin and ciprofloxacin and it claimed that their long exposure leads to adverse health effects. "We have found high content of these antibiotics in honey. For instance, oxytetracycline or OTC was found in 50 per cent of the samples in the range of 27 to 250 microgram per kg (µg/kg).

"This is almost 3 to 25 times higher than the 10 µg/kg standard fixed by the government's Export Inspection Council (EIC) for exported honey," Chandra Bhushan, Deputy Director, CSE, told reporters here.

Sharing the finding of the study he said chloramphenicol, banned by EU, was found in 25 per cent of the samples with its levels 9 to 15 times higher than the 0.3

µg/kg standard fixed by the EIC. Seeking strict regulatory measures, Chandra said EU had banned Indian honey from entering any of its 27 member-countries because the consignments were contaminated with antibiotics and

... contd.