Aleksandar Mihajlovski wrote

 > No, the microbiologist was categoric and clear about activation, not
> deactivation. (Or we all would be dead long ago!)
>
> My point is that is not scinetifically justified to put "NOT for infants"
> label on honey!


First of all, I must apologise for not reading carefully enough. Aleksandar wrote in his first mail about activation of the spore, and answered about deactivating it.

But, I still feel there is a good reason to believe that the spores can activate also in low temperatures. Norway has had within 5 years 2 - 3 cases which all have been connected to honey.  The spores of same bacteria were found in the honey as found in the sick baby. In my eyes the documentation was quite credible. The honey by the way was imported, not local. Also the warning labels could not have helped as at least two of the mothers were immigrants and not literate in  Norwegian. At least one was from Pakistan.

Like Aleksadar wrote
< In some Istern countries (according to
> Mladenov) in fact, honey is regularly used - on breast, when babyes refuse
> to feed from their mothers breasts.

Not all honey contain spores, and even when it does they do not always germinate and start producing the toxin in the gut. Therefore only very small amount of children get sick when fed with honey.

I agree with Aleksandar that there is many other ways for infants to get botulism than honey. Most likely great majority of the cases come from something else than honey. The spores are everywhere. Infant botulism is more common in dry areas where there is lots of dust. As far as I know for example in the USA more in  southern states than in the north. As the spores are common in the earth, they are quite common on  carrots etc.

But young children whose bacterial flora is not well developed are not fed much carrots, and if are not raw. Honey is - unfortunate to the beekeepers -  the only foodstuff to be linked to carry the spores that cause the illness to young children. And this is the reasoning why some heath officials demand the warning in label. As far as I  know it must be on the label in Norway and Finland and it is recommended (?) in England. EU had some group looking in to this few years ago, but they did not come up with demand to put it on the label for all EU countries.

Ari

Finland

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and  other info ---
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::