Central Beekeepers Alliance : Beekeeper Responds to Health Canada “Anti-Honey Campaign”

Beekeeper Responds to Health Canada “Anti-Honey Campaign”

Posted: 17 Mar 2011 10:11 AM PDT

In this submitted article, New Brunswick beekeeper Richard Duplain responds to recent warnings from Health Canada about infant botulism as an effect of toxins in honey, as well as an implied connection between honey and allergies due to pollen.

Health Canada advises against using Honey

Letter to the Editor or Commentary

Recently Health Canada embarked on a campaign it feels could protect infant children from clostridium botulinum in honey. Clostridium or C botulinum is a nerve toxin that in certain circumstances can cause severe paralytic illness. Beekeepers across Canada believe the campaign will only hurt their diminutive yet flourishing industry.

Beekeepers across Canada feel Health Canada has stung them where bee veils don't extend.

First we had colony collapse to deal with and now we have common sense collapse in Ottawa. Beekeepers across Canada feel Health Canada has stung them where bee veils don't extend.

Imagery and text in the campaign suggests honey is not a suitable product for consumers of all ages. It creates a sense of alarm in the consumer's mind and goes on to inflame the until proven otherwise concocted notion by mentioning recalls and allergy alerts. Beekeepers are worried this will result in a drop in demand for nature's perfect food and irreparable harm to the Canadian honey industry.

The Canadian Honey Council, the umbrella organization representing thousands of beekeepers across the country took the issue to both the department and minister but to no avail. As a result, the CHC initiated a letter writing campaign in a bid to put an end to Health Canada's anti-honey campaign.

Most recent statistics put the number of honey producing beekeepers in Canada in 2009 at 6,728. There were 575,676 honey producing bee hives and they produced 64 million pounds or 29,000 tonnes of honey worth more than $100 million.

In New Brunswick the same year there were 180 beekeepers with 2,700 colonies that produced 189,000 pounds or 86 tonnes of honey worth $378,000.

Together Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick contributed 874,000 lbs or 397 tonnes of honey worth $1,748,000 to the Canadian economy.

Displaying a honey bear bottle with a circle and slash through it with no valid explanation portrays Canadian honey consumers as naive and producers as uneducated incompetent members of society, few in number and an easy target as scapegoats for a department's capricious nature.

According to the government department less than five per cent of Canadian honey contains small amounts of C botulinum spores. However, even small amounts can cause infant botulism in a baby, which is why health professionals advise against giving honey to children under one year old.

Neither the Minister of Health nor Health Canada provides any supporting evidence to buttress the false contentions asserted or suggested in the campaign.

Health Canada says infant botulism is caused by a food-poisoning bacterium called C botulinum. When swallowed, spores of this bacterium grow and produce poison in an infant's intestines. C botulinum spores can be found in soil and dust. Honey is the only food linked to infant botulism in Canada.

Neither the Minister of Health nor Health Canada provides any supporting evidence to buttress the false contentions asserted or suggested in the campaign.

There are two primary types of honey on the Canadian market. The first and best is raw unpasteurized honey and the second is low-quality pasteurized honey. To understand the pasteurizing process is to understand how C botulinum spores can survive in some honey.

Normally honey destroys bacteria by drawing fluids from them by osmotic force and through its acidity. Strained or unstrained raw honey contains an enzyme – glucose oxidase which catalyses a reaction that produces hydrogen peroxide.

Hydrogen peroxide kills bacteria. Doctors and hospitals around the world are using honey dilutions as an effective antimicrobial and antibacterial agent. However, this enzyme is destroyed by heat like that used in the pasteurizing process. The very destruction of this enzyme may allow bacterial like C botulinum to flourish. Also killed in the pasteurizing process is up to 50 per cent of the honey's original vitamin content.

A cursory reading of modern and historical texts shows us that for hundreds and perhaps thousands of years raw honey was fed to infants. Honey helped the child digest calcium and retain magnesium.

More than 30 years ago the Scientific Board of the California Medical Association said the safety of honey for older persons with normal intestinal physiology remains unquestioned.

Health Canada implies a connection between honey and allergies. Honey is made by honeybees after gathering nectar. The nectar undergoes certain changes in the bee's hypopharyngeal glands. There enzymes convert the sucrose in the nectar to the simple easily assimilated sugars glucose and fructose. A fermentation period follows and what we know as honey with more than 80 vitamins and minerals and trace amounts of bee pollen is the result.

There are two types of pollen, anemophile or wind carried and the heavier entomophile. Anemophile pollens are the ones directly related to pollen allergies. Honey bees collect the heavier entomophile pollens. They do not cause allergic reactions and in fact are used to treat a number of allergy conditions.

Canadian beekeepers want to see the research studies… Until such time as this evidence is produced, we respectfully request the current anti-honey campaign be discontinued.

Canadian beekeepers want to see the research studies that Health Canada says less than five per cent of Canadian honey contains small amounts of C botulinum spores. We want to see the research evidence that honey is not a healthy food for seniors and babies and we want to see the research evidence that honey is the only food linked to infant botulism in Canada. Until such time as this evidence is produced, we respectfully request the current anti-honey campaign be discontinued.

Richard Duplain
70 Mary Ellen Drive, Hanwell, N.B. E3E 2G4
1-506-450-2129

If you’d like to weigh in on this discussion, we’ve opened a thread in “The Buzz” section of the Bee Talk Forum for the topic – or you’re welcome to respond in the comments section on this post, below.

Beekeeper Responds to Health Canada “Anti-Honey Campaign” was written and published by the Central Beekeepers Alliance - Honey Bees & Beekeeping in New Brunswick, Canada. For more information, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com.