Food Safety

FDA seizes Chinese honey laced with potent antibiotic

July 8, 2010

At the request of FDA, federal marshals seized 64 drums of imported bee’s honey from a Philadelphia, PA distribution center because it contained a potent antibiotic that could have led to serious illness or death. The seizure occurred at the DelawareAvenueDistributionCenter.

The bulk honey was imported by Sweet Works Inc. of Monterey Park, CA from Cheng Du Wai Yuan Bee Products Company Ltd. of Chengdu, China. It was subsequently sold to Alfred L. Wolf Inc. of Chicago, which placed it in storage.

FDA estimates the value of the 64 drums of honey to be more than $32,000. According to FDA, the honey is adulterated with chloramphenicol, which is not approved for use in food, animal feed or food-producing animals in the

. Chloramphenicol is a potent antibiotic that is approved only for use in humans with serious infections when other less toxic drugs won’t work. People who are sensitive to this drug can develop aplastic anemia, which can be fatal.

Did you enjoy this article? Click here to subscribe to Food Engineering Magazine.

Podcasts

Burns & McDonnell Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)-certified corporate sustainability reporting (CSR) specialists discuss:

What is a CSR?
What is the GRI and the Food Processing Sector Supplement?
Why are companies producing CSRs?
What are latest CSR trends?

More at www.burnsmcd.com/csr.

Listen

More Podcasts

This text provides critical tools and data needed to augment routine food analysis and enhance food safety by aiding in the detection of counterfeit, and potentially deleterious, foods.

Most Popular Stories

Most Emailed Stories

Recent Discussions

Sierra Nevada - HMI/SCADA simplifies brewing process

Quality & Safety Joined at Hip - Metal detection: Quality or safety?

New MRSA / Staph treatment by Microbiologist, Michelle Moore - Whole genome sequencing confirms livestock-human MRSA transmission

- The journey to continuous improvement

- Green, by the way

FDA seizes Chinese honey laced with potent antibiotic

Related Articles

Related Products

Report Abusive Comment

Multimedia

Videos

Image Galleries

Podcasts

Plant sanitation

THE MAGAZINE

Clear Seas Research

Food Master

STAY CONNECTED