Here honey is considered as food, and foodstuffs have bees set limits to how 
much forgein substances can be in. MRL = maximmum residue limit for antibiotics 
in honey is in EU zero. 

I am 100% in agreement with setting limits as to how much antibiotic is allowable in honey. But the zero tolerance level is based on paranoia and not sound science. So far as I know, nobody has ever experienced harm from legal levels of foreign substances in honey. The principal of Pure Food and Drug laws is to ensure that food is safe. 

Safe in fact, not safe in theory. The limits are very conservative and protective. I have confidence in the USDA to protect the food supply. Meanwhile, we are importing products from countries all over the world, and food poisoning outbreaks are not common when compared with how much food is actually consumed. 

And food poisoning due to chemicals is infinitesimal compared to the rate of food poisoning incurred by pathogens, the very things chemicals are there to help control. Often food poisoning occurs in "organic foods" because growers and distributors fail to implement the appropriate measures against food pathogens. 

Further, food poisoning due to chemicals is also exceeding rare compared to illness and fatality due to food allergies. Need I add that allergens are natural products, which regularly kill thousands of people? Whenever regulations are so extreme as to be unworkable (like bans on traces of GMO pollen) one should throw the regulations and the regulators out.

Pete

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