KEY POINTS:
A manuka honey exporter is reassuring overseas markets its products are safe following an outbreak of honey poisoning cases.
The Waikato District Health Board said there were 17 confirmed cases of tutin poisoning and two more were being investigated.
The people affected had eaten comb honey contaminated with the tutin toxin after bees fed on honeydew containing toxins from native tutu bushes.
It was sold under the brand name A Taste of Whangamata Pure Honey, produced by Projen Apiaries.
Manuka Health chief executive Kerry Paul today said he had reassured European distributors, who had seen the poisoning story on a New Zealand news website, that its products were safe. Markets in North America and Asia had also been advised.
"I was able to tell them our honey is in no way connected with the poisonings," Mr Paul said.
"The manuka honey harvesting season was completed more than a month before the poisoning cases started, we are not involved in selling comb honey, and we don't deal with the beekeeper concerned."
A Sunday newspaper today reported the Food Safety Authority and the Waikato District Health Board (DHB) both blamed skeleton staff and busy phones for poor communication which resulted in the facts about the honey not being released immediately.
They initially refused to say where the honey was bought, its brand, what its label looked like or whether it had been recalled. They also told affected people not to reveal the brand or where they bought it, the newspaper said.
Anyone who had bought or eaten the product in the past two months was advised to call the DHB on 0800 276 216.
- NZPA
