CAIRO: A recent study conducted by the National Institute for Medical Surveillance and Research revealed that 100 percent of the honey produced in Egypt is infected with “Cloramfenicol, which causes alpastic anemia and bone marrow suppression.
The study conducted by professors Zeinab El Sherif and Inas Saad at the National Research Center tested more than 30 samples from 20 governorates and discovered that they all contain the same chemical substance.
“When bees get infected with a certain disease, owners give them antibiotics in sugar water which contaminates the honey forming Cloramfenicol, El Sherif told Daily News Egypt.
According to El Sherif, this method of treating bees was banned by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1984 because of its proven harmful effects.
“In 2005, a new and cheap alternative became available in the Egyptian market; however, owners don’t use it, El Sherif said
El Sherif told Daily News Egypt that she decided to conduct this research because she heard of an international company that is banning honey imports from Egypt because they are contaminated.
“With the devices we have in our labs that are of poor condition, I expected all the samples to test negative for antibiotics. I was planning on saying in my research that it only existed with a certain concentration. But to my surprise the results came back positive, El Sherif said.
El Sherif said that because of the simple techniques used in local laboratories to test the honey, the results usually come back negative and the honey is passed as safe when it is not.
On the other hand, bee farm owners deny adding any chemicals to their honey, arguing that their products are safe.
“I assure you that our honey is harmless and there are no chemicals in it, Mohamed Soleiman, an official at Shahd El Malika, a company that produces honey, told Daily News Egypt. According to El Sherif, bee farm workers add these antibiotics due to the lack of awareness and do not contaminate the honey intentionally. In an attempt to raise awareness about the issue, El Sherif will print a brochure including information about diseases that infect bees and ways to treat them with the help of the Agricultural Research Center to be distributed among farm owners.
The brochures will also include information about the new drug and how to use it.
