Health certificates for selling?

protheroe · Aug 14, 2019

Does anyone know if there's ever been a case of botulism in the uk from eating honey

Karol · Aug 14, 2019

Yes. I posted this link earlier:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3448763/

thorn · Aug 14, 2019

pargyle said:
It's just the way the world is going these days .. we are better off than in the USA where you can be sued for just about anything ... and the sad part is that the Courts over there seem inclined to favour the 'injured' party.

Common sense and personal responsibility are still judged by the UK legal framework to be considered as a requirement before any claims for negligence can be accommodated. If you sell anything in a commercial sense you do have a duty of care to your customers .. but they too have a duty to act in a reasonable and responsible manner to protect themselves. It's that word 'reasonable' upon which a successful claim lives or dies.

Although your honey does not say it should not be used as an eye wash .. the customer would be deemed to have acted irresponsibly if they used it as an eye wash and suffered a loss or damage - common sense and reasonable behaviour will trump a lack of a warning in that instance.

It's a thin line on the botulism issue as to whether a court would construe not knowing that feeding honey to an infant was a duty attributed to the buyer or the seller .. A simple sign at point of sale to say that honey should not be fed to children under 1 year of age would probably absolve you from any chance of losing a case brought against you .. but the danger comes from a court who decide in your favour but decline to award you costs ~ and the legal costs of defending a negligence claim could be substantial. Insurance against legal action is often covered by your domestic insurance .. check your policy as to how far the cover extends.

Whilst my labels don't currently carry the caveat regarding infants I think, for what little effort and cost is involved, when I reprint I will add it in - in very small print. There is then incontrevertible evidence that you have considered a risk to the consumer and issued a warning ... Clearly, if your honey is so bad that it's stuffed full of botulism and kills an adult you could still be in the deep and smelly but .. just about ANYTHING that passes your lips could kill you in one way or another.

It's all about managing risk and cost is never considered by a Court to be a justifiable excuse for not exercising your duty of care.

Good post. Well said.

For want of a better word · Aug 14, 2019

protheroe said:
Does anyone know if there's ever been a case of botulism in the uk from eating honey

Vary rare.... as Karol link to BMJ article about an Asian infant, who fortunately made a full recovery.

There are more cases of food poisoning due to eating reheated rice in the UK and USA than is popularly believed.
https://www.livescience.com/65374-bacillus-cereus-fried-rice-syndrome.html

Back in the last century when I trained in Bacteriology at St Hellier Hospital Carshalton Surrey, the consultant Bacteriologist said that there was an unacceptable level of cases of infant tummy bugs due to patents giving their infants dirty dummies to suck...... despite warning printed on the packaging!!!

It is not the bug but the toxin it releases that kills!

Chons da

bontbee · Aug 15, 2019

Karol said:
Yes. I posted this link earlier:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3448763/

I have just (quickly, he hastens to add), read the article and it doesn't seem to indicate where the honey originated....I know it's still a case of infant botulism linked to honey, and I'm not suggesting that UK honey is exempt from botulism, but it might be interesting to know where the honey was from in these cases.

pargyle · Aug 15, 2019

bontbee said:
I have just (quickly, he hastens to add), read the article and it doesn't seem to indicate where the honey originated....I know it's still a case of infant botulism linked to honey, and I'm not suggesting that UK honey is exempt from botulism, but it might be interesting to know where the honey was from in these cases.

It would only matter where it came from if it was your honey that was bought and harmed an infant !