13 febbraio 2007

Contaminated honey

Since the beginning of the year, EC service RASFF is reporting every week contaminations of honey matrix.
In details, reports were the following:
- Germany has notified 3 times to have found unhautorised substances (trimetoprim, sulphamethoxazole and triadimenol) in honey coming from China
- UK has notified honey coming from Argentina exceeding threshold level for antibiotic tylosin and an Australian honey holding 1,4-dichlorobenzene (environmental pollutant)
- Latvia has notified an Ukrain honey contaminated with AOZ (antibiotic's furazolidone metabolite) and with another nitrofuran
EU banned, with Regulation 2377/90 and its upgrades, a bunch of substances in honey matrix; between them antibiotics (tetracycline, cloramphenicol, tylosin, sulphonamides), piretroids, PCB and dioxin-like compounds, organophosphate pesticides and heavy metals such as lid and cadmium.
Considering that 50% of honey handled in EU is extraeuropean, producers have to perform effective in-house screening on raw materials to protect consumers and offer a quality product.
Warranty that local producers certify absence of unallowed substances could become the drawing force of European native honey.

To test honey matrix Tecna offers ELISA kits for:
tylosin (AB620, AB621, AB625)
cloramphenicol (AB630)