Now, even the humble honey has been declared as impure.

After taking on colas and toys, New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment has now tested several popular Indian brands of honey to find that they are ‘contaminated with high levels of antibiotics’ fed to bees. Beekeepers use antibiotics to prevent diseases in honeybees, and as growth promoters.

In a release, the centre named at least five leading brands as having two to four antibiotics in their products, much above the stipulated standards. They also tested two brands from Australia and Switzerland and reported high levels of antibiotics in them. The Centre’s pollution monitoring laboratory found six antibiotics — oxytetracycline, chloramphenicol, ampicillin, erythromycin, eurofloxacin and ciprofloxacin — in ‘almost all brands sold in the market’.

Chronic exposure to antibiotics can lead to a variety of health problems such as blood-related disorders and liver injury. Add to it the challenge of large-scale antibiotic resistance.

The lack of standards for Indian food products has come to question again. According to CSE, though honey is currently regulated under three legislations — Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Rules, 1955; Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and Honey Grading and Marking Rules, 2008 under the Agricultural Produce (Grading and Marking) Act, 1937 (AGMARK) — they only lay down standards for its composition and quality. There are no standards for antibiotics or other contaminants in honey.

Interestingly, in June 2010, the EU had banned Indian honey from entering any of its 27 member countries because the consignments were contaminated with antibiotics and heavy metals.