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Two of the 19 samples of honey collected earlier for examination for antibiotics were found to contain trace amounts of chloramphenicol, a spokesman for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department's Centre for Food Safety (CFS) said today (September 7).
The tests were taken following a survey of 34 honey samples conducted by the Consumer Council in which six samples tested positive for chloramphenicol.
Chloramphenicol is an antibiotic used for treatment of different bacterial infections, including eye infection in human. But its presence in food is prohibited under the laws of Hong Kong.
The two samples found to contain chloramphenicol are a brand of honey product produced in Jiangxi (under batch number 20060424, with "best before" date 24.4.2008) and another brand produced in Zhuhai (with "best before" date 30.6.2008).
"The CFS has asked the retailers and suppliers concerned to stop selling the affected honey products containing chloramphenicol. It has also informed the Mainland authorities about the test results," said the spokesman.
Trace amounts of other antibiotics, namely streptomycin, sulfamethoxazole (a kind of sulfonamides) and ciprofloxacin (a kind of quinolones), were also found in three samples of our survey, including one with chloramphenicol detected, he added.
These antibiotics can be used in food animals. The residual levels of these antibiotics are allowed in the tissues of certain food animals.
The spokesman stressed that based on the very low level of antibiotics found in the samples, normal consumption of honey products should not pose any adverse health effects.
He added that 41 samples of honey had been taken for antibiotics tests since 2004 under the Department's food surveillance programme. Only the two latest samples were found to contain low level of chloramphenicol and the remaining results were all satisfactory.
Ends/Thursday, September 7, 2006
Issued at HKT 14:22
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