Detection of Clostridium botulinum in natural sweetening

Various sugar products were examined for contamination with C. botulinum spores. Type A, B and C spores were detected in three of 56 samples of sugar for apiculture, which may attest the significance of bee-feed as a source of contamination of honey. The heavy contamination of honey with C. botulinum spores sometimes encountered, however, can not be explained unless some other factors, e.g., that allowing germination and multiplication of the spores somewhere during honey production, are found. Type A spores were detected in some samples of raw sugar and molasses and also in two of 41 samples of brown sugar lump, but not in refined sugar or other various samples taken at a sugar factory or in sugar cane left on the field in Okinawa. The fact that some natural sweetenings are contaminated with C. botulinum spores, even in low concentrations, may be food-hygienically important.