Revised standard better manages tutin risk in honey

Work by the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA), with input from the honey industry, has seen a revision to a honey food standard that will better manage the risk of anyone suffering from tutin poisoning. Bees collecting honeydew from insects that feed on the tutu plant can contaminate honey with toxic tutin. The Food (Tutin in Honey) Standard 2010 replaces the one issued in 2008 and comes into effect on 1 January 2011. The risk period for tutin in honey is in late summer.

“The changes will ensure that consumers are better protected against getting sick from tutin-contaminated honey,” says NZFSA Principal Advisor (Animal Products) Jim Sim. “It also provides beekeepers and honey producers with better and more effective options for managing the problem and ensuring their honey and honey products are safe.”

The new standard will apply to a larger part of the South Island because more regions have been found to have tutu plants and the passion vine hoppers that feed on them, producing tutin-contaminated honeydew.

“Previously only the Marlborough Sounds was included, but data from NZFSA testing and research by Plant and Food Research indicated that the top of the South Island including the West Coast, Motueka and Takaka areas have some level of tutin risk. The standard now applies to all honey harvested above 42 degrees South to account for this.

“The new standard also changes some of the management options producers have, covering testing honey through to demonstrating that honey has been harvested in low-risk areas or only during low-risk periods. It also includes more options for comb honey, a higher-risk product because the tutin toxin can be concentrated in a few cells.”

NZFSA believes that the changes won’t have a significant impact on business compliance costs for those who already manage tutin risk, and they provide more practical options to ensure honey sold in New Zealand or exported is within limits. This will help prevent a reoccurrence of the toxic honey poisonings that occurred in Coromandel at Easter in 2008.