Microbiology and foodborne pathogens in honey

ABSTRACT

Honey has been considered a relatively safe foodstuff due to its compositional properties, with infant botulism caused by Clostridium botulinum being the most prominent health risk associated with it. Our review is focused on the honey microflora along the food chain and evaluates the pathogenic potential of those microorganisms found in honey. This product may contain a great variety of bacteria and, particularly, fungi that eventually entered the food chain at an early stage (e.g., via pollen). For many of these microorganisms, opportunistic infections in humans have been recorded (e.g., infections by Staphylococcus spp., Citrobacter spp., Escherichia coli, Hafnia alvei, Aspergillus spp., Fusarium spp., Trichoderma spp., Chaetomium spp.), although direct infections via honey were not registered.

KEYWORDS:

• Food safety
• microbiological criteria
• opportunistic pathogens
• fungi
• stramenopiles

Notes

1. Images: upper left: Bernd Kasper / pixelio.de, lower left: Lupo / pixelio.de, outer right: sparkie / pixelio.de, inner right: Lutz Stallknecht / pixelio.de

2. Images: background: Bernd Kasper / pixelio.de; from left to right and from upper to lower, upper row: Rainer Sturm / pixelio.de, Luc Viatour / www.Lucnix.be; middle row: Günter Havlena / pixelio.de, Dorothea Jacob / pixelio.de, böhringer friedrich / Creative Commons by-sa-3.0 de, kaemte/ pixelio.de, Sureshbup / Creative Commons by-sa-3.0 de, Thomas Bresson / Creative Commons by-sa-3.0 de, Monika Herkens / pixelio.de,, カンツバキの蜜 / Creative Commons by-sa-3.0 de, Axel Hindemith / Creative Commons by-sa-3.0 de (modified); lower row: Lutz Stallknecht / pixelio.de

3. Images: upper left: Bernd Kasper / pixelio.de, lower left: Lupo / pixelio.de, right: Walké / Creative Commons by-sa-3.0 de

4. Images: background: sparkie / pixelio.de, Lutz Stallknecht / pixelio.de; upper row: Bernd Kasper / pixelio.de; left to right and from upper to lower, middle row: Rasbak / Creative Commons by-sa-3.0 de, Robert Eichinger / pixelio.de, Lutz Stallknecht / pixelio.de, Waugsberg / Creative Commons by-sa-3.0 de (2×x); middle row: Wouter Hagens / Creative Commons by-sa-3.0 de, Lutz Stallknecht / pixelio.de, Pollinator / Creative Commons by-sa-3.0 de, Merdal / Creative Commons by-sa-3.0 de

5. Images: background: Lupo / pixelio.de; from left to right, upper row: Lutz Stallknecht / pixelio.de; 2^nd row: Lupo / pixelio.de, Maja Dumat / pixelio.de, 3^rd row: Luc Viatour / www.Lucnix.be (2×x); 4^th row: Maja Dumat / pixelio.de, Waugsberg / Creative Commons by-sa-3.0 de