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One of the recommendations for enabling a young child to pick up some of the more slippery foods is to coat them with bread crumbs or graham cracker crumbs. While looking for graham crackers at the store, we found honey graham crackers. Considering that exposure to honey can cause infant botulism, I was wondering if the honey graham crackers are safe for him to eat?

rcollyer
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    Whatever the answer is, I would **strongly** advice you to ask your pediatrician rather than seeking for medical advice on the Internet. – nico Jul 07 '11 at 19:06
  • @nico, definitely. This is just a sanity check prior to asking as the next appointment isn't for a month. – rcollyer Jul 07 '11 at 19:08
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    I wonder if the honey in a commercial product is processed to remove any botulism toxin. Maybe somebody from Nabisco will chime in, I don't see anything on their web site. –  Jul 07 '11 at 19:18
  • Is there actually real honey in them? Anyway the other ingredients are probably not very healthy. Put some plain oats in a food processor, and make crumbs from them. At least you know what's in it – TFD Jul 07 '11 at 23:45
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    @TFD: At least some brands of graham crackers say "made with real honey" on the box. – Cascabel Jul 08 '11 at 05:52
  • Never knew about the honey and botulism thing. I find it kinda funny though because apparently I was fed a spoonful of honey when I was still a newborn -- For some reason my mom's milk was not suitable. Apparently I dodged a bullet as soon as I was born ;) – Mostlyharmless Jul 11 '11 at 15:13

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That bit of the Wikipedia article is unsourced, but Health Canada confirms and says that spores may be present even in pasteurized honey. (I never would have thought that.)

I wouldn't expect the cooking of the crackers to damage the spores significantly more than the pasteurization. I can't say for sure that there will be live spores in the crackers, but it's a definite possibility and if you're concerned about this then you should not risk it.

Matthew Read
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    That's the whole point of spores :) They can resist to heat, cold, pressure, disinfectant, UV, time etc etc! A very smart way of surviving if you ask me. – nico Jul 08 '11 at 06:42
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    This is actually the type of information that I was looking for. Thanks. – rcollyer Jul 08 '11 at 21:25
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You say "toddler" and not "infant", which leads me to believe that you"re referring to a child that's at least one. At least in Canada, the honey prohibition is only for children sub 12 months. In which case, yes, it is safe to feed a toddler honey.

Either way, lots of sugar in Graham crackers. Try panko; my kids love It crusted on pretty much anything.

dewdle
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Since the toxin producing spores need a moist environment to germinate and cooking destroys any residual toxin that may have existed in the honey prior to processing, I would say honey graham crackers are safe for kids.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botulism

AaronN
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    Please check the article again. The moist environment is the infant's intestines. In adults, the established microbes will outcompete botulism spores, but this is not yet the case in toddlers. That's why they are specifically vulnerable to botulism spores. – MSalters Jul 08 '11 at 13:33
  • According to the CDC the temperatures achieved by a pressure cooker are sufficient for neutralizing spores in a low acid canning application. Other sources quote the required temperature for killing the spores between 240-250 degrees. I would think a cracker would reach this temperature during high heat industrial baking, but I wasn't able to find a source confirming this. – AaronN Jul 08 '11 at 16:31
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    You might want to specify degrees F or C. 240°F sounds too low to kill spores, and 240°C sounds far too hot. The sugars in honey would dissociate, not to mention a lot of other complex organic compounds. – MSalters Jul 11 '11 at 09:24
  • It was degrees Fahrenheit. – AaronN Aug 23 '11 at 18:28