Shelf-life of Honey

[Hypno-Toad]

I’ve heard that honey does not go bad. In fact, I’ve heard stories honey has been found in ancient tombs that was still good.

So how long does honey really last? If a long time, why?

[qpw3141]

Anything with enough salt or sugar in its makeup is pretty much proof against going bad because the micro organisms that would feed on it cannot handle the extreme concentrations.

It’s quite amusing that both sugar and salt have ‘sell-by’ dates and yet neither ‘go off’.

[Smeghead]

It comes down to water activity. Microbes need water to live. In honey, the water is all tied up in complexes with the sugar, making it unavailable for microbial metabolism. Apart from a few strains of yeast that can just barely manage sometimes, nothing can grow in it.

[Hypno-Toad]

So if the honey got wet, it would rot?

[qpw3141]

@Hypno-Toad

So if the honey got wet, it would rot?

I think it would just go mouldy.

[Quercus]

@Hypno-Toad

So if the honey got wet, it would rot?

Yes. Of course, since it’s mostly sugar and other soluble stuff, it wouldn’t so much ‘get wet’ as ‘dissolve’.

And in the right conditions, honey and water ferment (whether you consider that rotting is up to you).

[johnpost]

fermentation is spoilage with a desirable outcome.

[aceplace57]

For some reason, old honey will crystallize. The Honey will solidify and turn to sugar. I used to put the open jar in a pan of almost boiling water (turn off burner after water boils) for a few minutes. Sugar crystals dissolves and the honey is good again.

Microwave on low setting works too.

[Maggie_the_Ocelot]

I just had to throw out a jar of honey that had gotten moldy.

[thelurkinghorror]

@qpw3141

Anything with enough salt or sugar in its makeup is pretty much proof against going bad because the micro organisms that would feed on it cannot handle the extreme concentrations.

It’s quite amusing that both sugar and salt have ‘sell-by’ dates and yet neither ‘go off’.

I guess it’s the law. But I’m noticing more often “Best by” dates. They don’t suggest that things will be poisonous after that date, but less than optimal. You can pull out that jar of honey and box of brown sugar you bought ten years ago and they probably won’t make you sick. But both will be solid bricks of sugar by that time.

[Chronos]

Incidentally, even if you have two products which individually never go bad, they can go bad when mixed together. Honey never goes bad because the concentration of sugar is too high, and mustard doesn’t go bad because there’s not enough for microorganisms to eat, but honey mustard can and does go bad.

[Derleth]

On the other hand, just because it won’t go bad doesn’t mean it’s safe for everyone in the family to eat: Honey routinely contains botulism spores, which aren’t exactly ‘alive’ when they’re in the honey but are certainly capable of causing serious illness if they’re eaten by an infant less than twelve months old. Adults and older children, with our more developed gastrointestinal tracts, don’t have to worry about this.

ENY-128/AA142: Infant Botulism and Honey

The spores are apparently less of a problem if you buy from the store.

[Myglaren]

@Chronos

Incidentally, even if you have two products which individually never go bad, they can go bad when mixed together. Honey never goes bad because the concentration of sugar is too high, and mustard doesn’t go bad because there’s not enough for microorganisms to eat, but honey mustard can and does go bad.

It doesn’t need to “go” bad - once mixed it’s about as bad as you can get :spew:

[Chefguy]

@aceplace57

For some reason, old honey will crystallize.

Clover honey will do this. Fireweed (and some other wildflower) honey will not.

[SeaDragonTattoo]

Also, I’ve recently learned about Chinese honey coming into the States under false labeling. Apparently, honey labeling does not require “country of origin” to be listed. Here’s an interesting article: http://zesterdaily.com/environment/624-chinese-honey-laundering

The most pertinent:

On the global front, there’s been a lot of buzz about “honey laundering.” This accurate neologism refers to the way in which millions of pounds of Chinese honey have been making their way into the United States labeled as originating from other countries, and often contaminated with the banned antibiotic chloramphenicol, which can cause fatal aplastic anemia.

A report on honey by Andrew Schneider, an investigative journalist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, found that: “Tens of thousands of pounds of honey entering the U.S. each year come from countries that raise few bees and have no record of producing honey for export.” China is the world’s largest honey provider, producing some 660 million pounds each year. Much of that ends up mislabeled or unlabeled on U.S. store shelves, and one reason is price.

Schneider found that Chinese honey is often less than half the price of other honey. In the radio program “Living on Earth,” he explained that: “The going [wholesale] price for good honey, from Canada, for example, might be a buck sixty a pound … If all of a sudden, as a honey packer, you’re being offered 300,000 pounds of honey at 50 cents a pound, wouldn’t you think … a bit about why you’re getting such a great price.”

Apparently, there are even some allowable dilutions with corn syrup or sugar water for some manufacturers, and they can still label it as honey. This came from the same article and it doesn’t go into greater detail. I would imagine that those honeys would go bad eventually, unlike a pure product.

In my recent quest for buying more local and organic stuff, I just happened on honey and maple syrup from the Kallas company, which is local to me, but they are a national distributor, and they DO label their products as 100% produced in USA. No Chinese honey in this house!