By Sharon Omahen

University of Georgia

For safety’s sake, generations of babies have missed out on
the sweet taste and healthy benefits of honey. But a new
sterilization process may erase the risk and allow future
toddlers to enjoy the sweet treat.

“Honey isn’t recommended for babies because their immune
systems
are not developed,” said Romeo Toledo, a food scientist with the
University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences.

Spores can survive

“The normal process for pasteurization of honey doesn’t kill
any
(bacterial) spores present and could be a potential hazard for
infant botulism,” he said.

Eating honey poses no risk to adults with normal immune
systems.
But Clostridium botulinum spores found at very low
levels in 5
percent to 10 percent of commercial honey samples can be deadly
to infants.

For this reason, makers of children’s medicines like cough
syrups
normally use sugar and corn syrup instead of honey as sweeteners,
Toledo said.

Why is it so hard to kill the spores?

“Spores are the form bacteria take to lie dormant until the
conditions are right for them to grow,” Toledo said. “Because of
this protective mechanism, spores are very resistant to killing
by physical and chemical agents.”

Honey’s hard to heat

To kill the spores, processors must heat a product to at least
250 degrees Fahrenheit, under pressure, and hold it at this
temperature for at least 3 minutes, Toledo said. But you can’t do
that to honey.

“You can’t heat honey to very high temperatures because it
burns,
the flavor changes and some of the components that have health
benefits are destroyed,” he said. “The industry pasteurizes honey
by heating it to 170 F and holding it there for 4 to 5 minutes,
then hot-filling it into bottles and cooling it. This is adequate
to destroy molds and common yeasts and prevents fermentation
during storage.”

But spores can survive this process.

With funding from the National Honey Board, Toledo developed a
sterilization process called high pressure throttling, which
kills spores in honey without affecting the honey.

“The process we developed produces honey that is free of
Clostridium botulinum spores, so it can be used safely in
pharmaceutical products and foods designed for infants,” he
said.

New process kills spores

Toledo’s new sterilization process kills all microorganisms,
vegetative cells and spores.

“Our process uses a combination of heat and high pressure to
instantaneously kill the spores,” he said. “Therefore, the flavor
and other physical properties of the honey remain the same as in
the raw honey.”

The process pressurizes the honey to about 35,000 pounds per
square inch and passes it very fast through a heat exchanger to
raise its temperature to 180 degrees Fahrenheit within a few
seconds. When the pressure is dropped, the temperature instantly
spikes to about 275 degrees. The honey is then cooled within
seconds.

“We instantaneously raise the temperature to kill the spores,”
Toledo said. “Exposure time at the high temperature is just a few
seconds. We produce a sterile product with all the natural
nutrients retained.”

Honey industry interested

The honey industry is very interested in the process, which
UGA
patented last year. The next step is to develop the prototype
machines for use in processing plants.

“The food industry traditionally takes about 10 years to adopt
new techniques like this one,” Toledo said. “We’re in our fifth
year with this new process, so we’re well on our way.”