Scare over Chinese/Thailand food products (antibiotic contamination)

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Date 23:55 Jul 13

Subject PRO/AH/EDR> Chloramphenicol in honey - USA (Louisiana): Alert

 

CHLORAMPHENICOL IN HONEY - USA (LOUISIANA): ALERT

*********************

 

Agricultural agency seeking honey tainted with antibiotic

-------------------------

The state's Agriculture Department will be hitting the honey today,

checking for a restricted antibiotic. Their search could stretch beyond the

basic jars to any product with a sprinkling of honey.

 

Agriculture inspectors will initially go into stores looking for honey

imported from China or Thailand to make sure it has been tested for the

antibiotic, and to tell sellers to get it tested if it has not been. A

sample has been found containing the banned drug in a Baton Rouge,

Louisiana store.

 

In the coming weeks, all products containing honey sold in Louisiana will

need either proof that they didn't come from China or Thailand or a clean

bill of health for the antibiotic chloramphenicol, state Agriculture

Commissioner Bob Odom said. If they don't have it, they can't be sold. That

could affect the sale of products such as granola bars, cereal, and snack

crackers flavored with honey, he said. " When we look at everything that's a

possibility, it's just mind-boggling, " Odom said.

 

The antibiotic is the same one that Odom has had his agents checking for in

Chinese crawfish and shrimp this spring, citing consumer safety fears, and

honey regulations are about the same as the crawfish and shrimp rules. A

New Orleans doctor, however, questions whether the trace amounts of the

antibiotic in question pose any real threat to consumers.

 

Spurred by a recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration bulletin, Odom has

issued an emergency regulation requiring that all honey imported from China

and Thailand be sampled and tested for chloramphenicol before it can be

sold. That includes honey from producers that mix domestic and imported

honey. Odom's testers have already found a honey sample in Baton Rouge that

tested positive for chloramphenicol, one of 8 jars sampled, and that

prompted the emergency regulation.

 

They tracked it back to the producer that packaged it, and found the 2

55-gallon drums of Thailand honey they tested contained chloramphenicol.

The name of the store where the tainted honey sample was found was not

released.

 

The FDA recently issued a bulletin calling on its district offices to

consider sampling honey -- primarily from China, but also from Argentina,

India, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam.

 

The FDA has prohibited chloramphenicol use in producing food in the USA,

because of concerns about the potential for serious blood disorders in

humans. The bulletin notes that the incidence of bad reactions to the

antibiotic is low, even in the rare cases where it is used as medication

for humans. The amounts of the antibiotic found in food have been in levels

far lower than would be used in medication, but no minimum dosage level for

adverse reactions has been set.

 

The FDA has set a zero-tolerance policy for foods containing

chloramphenicol, which effectively translates into a maximum level of 1

part per billion.

 

Chloramphenicol is used in some countries to control disease in shrimp,

crawfish, and bees. The state Agriculture Lab has found concentrations in

shrimp and crawfish ranging up to 20 parts per billion. The Agriculture

Department this spring held about 2 million pounds of crawfish and shrimp

off the market for testing, but has released all but 300 000 pounds for

sale.

 

Odom said he does not want to stop the sale of honey or honey products in

the state, but he has to be able to use that threat to make sure companies

using Chinese or Thai honey comply with testing rules. The highest

concentration the lab found in the 3 honey samples was 5.46 parts per

billion.

 

New Orleans Dr. Brobson Lutz saw the initial regulation dealing with

chloramphenicol in shrimp and crawfish as a good idea, but not for the

reasons Odom has cited. Trying to zero in on such minute amounts of

chloramphenicol and claim a health risk is not an accurate stance to take,

and hurts Odom's credibility in trying to restrict the products, Lutz said.

 

Lutz said that chloramphenicol has been shown to have an adverse effect on

1 in 20 000 humans taking it at full prescription strength. He said

concentrations in the parts-per-billion range represent no threat to

humans. Lutz said pushing other countries to stop using chloramphenicol in

animal feed is important to stop the unintentional development of diseases

resistant to antibiotics. That's the real danger, not humans getting blood

diseases from trace amounts of chloramphenicol, Lutz said.

 

[byline: Patrick Courreges]

 

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ProMED-mail

<promed

 

[Chloramphenicol was a commonly used antibacterial agent in the 1950s and,

like other antimicrobials in use today, was not uncommonly used in

situations where no specific antibiotic is required (such as in a viral

respiratory infection). Bone marrow toxicity was recognized to be

associated with chloramphenicol in 2 ways: (1) a dose-dependent reversible

marrow depression that disappears when the drug is stopped and (2) an

idiosyncratic reaction that causes irreversible marrow failure (albeit

quite rarely) that it is not dose-dependent and may occur at quite low drug

levels. It is the latter form that is of concern in this scenario. In my

mind, since chloramphenicol is rarely used currently in the US, the

development of resistance to it is basically moot. It should be noted that

cases of the idiosyncratic reaction have been described following the use

of chloramphenicol eye drops. It is interesting to speculate how the drug

came to contaminate the honey. - Mod.LL]

 

[in January 2002, chloramphenicol was detected in animal feed in Europe

(see ProMED-mail postings listed below). This contamination was traced to

fish/seafood products coming from the far east. There is a commentary from

the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture on the " Draft Report for the Residue

control in Live Animals and Animal Products

by EC Inspection Mission to China " at

<http://www.agri.gov.cn/english/e02.htm>. In this it mentions that

chloromycetin was discontinued from the Chinese Veterinary Pharmarcopoeia

in 2000. An investigation into the contamination of the shrimp revealed

" The prawn peeling workers had not worn protective gloves in the past,

causing an itchy symptoms on their hands, so some of the workers used

chloromycetin (chloramphenicol) to treat their hands in order to avoid the

itching, and as a result, the prawns were polluted. " While testing of

apiaries was mentioned, there was no discussion on contamination of the

honey.

 

In February 2002, the UK Food Standards Agency identified streptomycin and

later chloramphenicol in honey from China.

<http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/enforcement/alerts/chinhoneyfhw>. This

was also covered in a BBC article on 19 February 2002

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1829000/1829926.stm>.

 

In April 2002, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) issued a series

of alerts on chloramphenicol contaminated food products. The list of

potentially contaminated products can be found at:

<http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/corpaffr/recarapp/2002/honprode.shtml>

 

(the first alert issued was on 18 April 2002 and can be found

at:

<http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/corpaffr/recarapp/2002/20020418e.shtml>

,

 

additional alerts and foods were added to the list including an alert on 27

April 2002 identifying honey as the contaminated product

<http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/corpaffr/recarapp/2002/20020427be.shtml

>.

 

 

By May 2002, the EU and Canada had banned honey imports from China due to

the chloramphenicol contamination (it had been identified in Germany).

 

To date, this is the first alert we have come across with respect to the

chloramphenicol contamination of honey imported in the USA. There is an

FDA bulletin <http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/fpshrimp.html> released on 14

Jun 2002 discussing increased testing for chloramphenicol contamination of

shrimp from China, but one related to testing of honey for chloramphenicol

contamination could not be found. - Mod.MPP]

 

[see also:

Chloramphenicol in animal feed - Europe 20020121.3342

Chloramphenicol, animal feed - Europe (02) 20020125.3385

..................................mpp/ll/pg/mpp

 

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