Microbiology and Food-borne Pathogens in Honey

Grabowski, Nils Th.; Klein, Günter

doi:10.1080/10408398.2015.1029041

Cited by 44 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…Representative ascomycetous yeasts found in honey are Blastobotrys meliponae, Candida lundiana, C. magnoliae, C. sorbosivorans, C. suthepensis, Schizosaccharomyces octosporus, Trichosporon mucoides, Zygosaccharomyces favi, Z. mellis, Z. richteri, Z. rouxii, and Z. siamensis (Lochhead & Farrell 1931;Ruiz-Argueso & Rodriguez-Navarro 1975;Carvalho et al 2010;Saksinchai et al 2012a, b;Čadež et al 2015;Crous et al 2016). The obligate xerophiles Ascosphaera apis and Bettsia alvei have been reported in honey, as well as several xerotolerant species of Alternaria, Aspergillus, Cladosporium and Penicillium and a few mucoralean fungi (Snowdon & Cliver 1996;Kačániová et al 2009;Kačániová et al 2012;Sinacori et al 2014;Grabowski & Klein 2015). Recently, Monascus mellicola, Penicillium apimei, P. meliponae, P. mellis, and Talaromyces brasiliensis were reported from honey produced by stingless bees (Melipona scutellaris, family Apidae, order Hymenoptera) inhabiting Brazilian forests (Barbosa et al 2017(Barbosa et al , 2018.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity of xerotolerant and xerophilic fungi in honey

et al. 2019

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Fungi can colonize most of the substrata on Earth. Honey, a sugary food produced by bees (and other insects) has been studied little in terms of its fungal diversity. We have surveyed and evaluated the presence of xerotolerant and xerophilic fungi in a set of honey bee samples collected from across Spain. From 84 samples, a total of 104 fungal strains were isolated, and morphologically and phylogenetically characterized. We identified 32 species distributed across 16 genera, most of them belonging to the ascomycetous genera Aspergillus, Bettsia, Candida, Eremascus, Monascus, Oidiodendron, Penicillium, Skoua, Talaromyces and Zygosaccharomyces. As a result of this survey, eight new taxa are proposed: i.e. the new family Helicoarthrosporaceae, two new genera, Helicoarthrosporum and Strongyloarthrosporum in Onygenales; three new species of Eurotiales, Talaromyces affinitatimellis, T. basipetosporus, and T. brunneosporus; and two new species of Myxotrichaceae, Oidiodendron mellicola, and Skoua asexualis.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity of xerotolerant and xerophilic fungi in honey

et al. 2019

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“…Examination of microbiological safety of honey and other bee products in earlier studies (Gilliam, ; Grabowski & Klein, ; Kačániová, Kňazovická, Felšöciová, & Rovná, ) showed a great diversity in the presence of different types of microorganisms, primarily molds and yeasts. Molds have great capacity of surviving in nature because of thermal resistance of spores.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this study, six genera of molds were identified. Isolated genera Aureobasidium, Cladosporium, Penicillium, Mucor , and Alternaria are common contaminants of honey that were isolated from different insects (including honeybees), hives, bee products, pollen grains, or soil (Gilliam, ; Grabowski & Klein, ; Kačániová et al, ). In the literature, less frequent or rare were molds of the genus Stachybotrys , which was isolated in our study, whose presence in honey could derive from the secondary sources of contamination.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some of the molds are capable of producing a series of mycotoxins that can diffuse into food matrix and have toxic effect on humans. The main producers of mycotoxins are fungi of the genera Aspergillus , Alternaria , Fusarium , and Penicillium (Grabowski & Klein, ; Salgado Silva et al, ) whose presence could also be found in honey. Some species of Stachybotrys genus are known as the producers of trichothecene mycotoxins that can cause animal and human mycotoxicosis.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Characterisation of Croatian honey by physicochemical and microbiological parameters with mold identification

Kiš

Furmeg

Tkalec

et al. 2018

Journal of Food Safety

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Honey is an important food supplement in the human diet because of its nutritional quality. Therefore, honey should be safe for human consumption. The purpose of this research was to evaluate physicochemical and microbiological properties of 64 honey samples. The physicochemical analysis (water content, hydroxymethylfurfural, electrical conductivity and diastase activity) showed that 95.31% of samples meet Croatian and European standards. Microbiological quality of tested samples was considered good with no pathogenic bacteria detected. In 34.38% of the samples, the yeast and mold count exceeded the limit established by legislation. The presence of yeasts was noted in 17 samples varying from 18 to 1300 CFU/g, whereas mold count ranged from 18 to 182 CFU/g. The study revealed that out of six genera of molds recovered, Cladosporium was the most frequent, followed by Alternaria, Penicillium, Mucor, Aureobasidium, and Stachybotrys. Considering that the majority of molds identified in this study are commonly found in bee hive environment and in digestive tract of honey bees, it can be concluded that the mold contamination of honey in this study derives mainly from primary sources. The presence of Stachybotrys sp. is an indicator of contamination that comes from secondary sources. Practical applications Due to continuous expansion of the world honey market and increasing awareness of consumers towards healthy food, the importance of quality control of honey has also grown. In respond to these demands, this study presents physicochemical and microbiological properties of different types of Croatian honey, with special emphasis laid on the identification of the present molds in incompatible samples. The results of this study provide useful data that Croatian honey has good level of quality and contribute to better understanding of the genera of molds present in the honey from this region.

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“…The bacteria can also populate anaerobic regions of the intestine. Infant botulism is caused by the ingestion of foods, for example honey, that are contaminated not with toxin, but with Clostridium botulinum spores, resulting in intestinal colonization and toxin production [ 16 , 48 , 50 ]. Wound botulism is yet another form of the disease, caused by wound contamination with Clostridium botulinum spores, followed by colonization of the wound with C. botulinum and toxin production [ 5 , 16 , 47 , 48 ].…”

Section: Botulismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Botulinum Neurotoxin Diversity from a Gene-Centered View

Benoit¹

2018

Toxins

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Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) rank amongst the most potent toxins known. The factors responsible for the emergence of the many known and yet unknown BoNT variants remain elusive. It also remains unclear why anaerobic bacteria that are widely distributed in our environment and normally do not pose a threat to humans, produce such deadly toxins. Even the possibility of accidental toxicity to humans has not been excluded. Here, I review the notion that BoNTs may have specifically evolved to target vertebrates. Considering the extremely complex molecular architecture of the toxins, which enables them to reach the bloodstream, to recognize and enter neurons, and to block neurotransmitter release, it seems highly unlikely that BoNT toxicity to vertebrates is a coincidence. The carcass–maggot cycle provides a plausible explanation for a natural role of the toxins: to enable mass reproduction of bacteria, spores, and toxins, using toxin-unaffected invertebrates, such as fly maggots, as the vectors. There is no clear correlation between toxigenicity and a selective advantage of clostridia in their natural habitat. Possibly, non-toxigenic strains profit from carcasses resulting from the action of toxigenic strains. Alternatively, a gene-centered view of toxin evolution would also explain this observation. Toxin-coding mobile genetic elements may have evolved as selfish genes, promoting their own propagation, similar to commensal viruses, using clostridia and other bacteria as the host. Research addressing the role of BoNTs in nature and the origin of toxin variability goes hand in hand with the identification of new toxin variants and the design of improved toxin variants for medical applications. These research directions may also reveal yet unknown natural antidotes against these extremely potent neurotoxins.

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Microbiology and Food-borne Pathogens in Honey

Cited by 44 publications

References 65 publications

Diversity of xerotolerant and xerophilic fungi in honey

Diversity of xerotolerant and xerophilic fungi in honey

Characterisation of Croatian honey by physicochemical and microbiological parameters with mold identification

Botulinum Neurotoxin Diversity from a Gene-Centered View

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