Honey is magic. Besides its delicious taste, it’s pretty much the only food that does not spoil while in an edible state. But why, exactly, doesn’t honey go bad?
Honey is the only food item that is created with the sole purpose of being stored. Since bees need to eat during the winter, and plants aren’t flowering, their evolutionary goal was to create a food source that wouldn’t spoil after a few months. During its production, the bees slightly overcompensate, creating a food that has the potential to last for hundreds of years or more. No other food source is created this way. The oldest honey ever found was unearthed in Georgia, and dates back over 5,000 years. So, if you found yourself in possession of some 5,000 year-old honey.
Why does honey last forever?
In addition to having a low pH, honey has almost no water content and is loaded with sugar. This helps to dry out any bacteria that attempt to make its home in honey. Any bacteria that find itself in honey will have the water leached out of its cell walls thanks to osmosis. The high sugar content and lack of water make honey a hypertonicsolution, whereas bacteria and other living organisms are hypotonic. When you mix the two, they will equalize – this process is called osmosis. Since there is much more honey and sugar than bacteria, the bacteria lose the battle and have their water leached out of them into the honey. This causes instant death to any unfortunate bacteria.
So, the honey have no expiry date.. You can eat it for lifetime 🙂
