On many occasions, archeologists have found thousands of years old honey that had still not gone bad.
And there are many reasons why honey can go on forever without spoiling.
Reason 1: Honey is hygroscopic (tends to absorb moisture from the air).
Because of this property, honey dehydrates the bacteria by drawing water out of them.
Reason 2: Honey is 80% sugar.
Honey is mostly sugar and water, but the quantity of water is significantly less.
And most bacteria or microorganisms need moisture to survive.
E.g., you don’t need to refrigerate dry, uncooked rice but once cooked, the rice must be kept in the fridge within a few hours, or it would spoil.
So, honey doesn’t provide a supportive environment for bacteria to survive and reproduce.
Reason 3: Honey is highly acidic (it has a pH between 3 and 4.5).
pH is short for potential of Hydrogen — A pH number measures, from 0 to 14, how acidic or alkaline something is — anything above 7 is alkaline, and anything below 7 is acidic.
Most bacteriaSome survive in very acid conditions also and can survive pH of 1 as well. These are called acidophilus survive and thrive in pH of 6.5 to 7 (that is why bacteria love moisture — water has a pH of 7).
Reason 4: Honey contains hydrogen peroxide (we use this stuff to heal wounds).
Honey starts out as nectar that bees suck from flowers and store in a special honey stomach (bees have two stomachs), which has special enzymes that start converting the nectar into honey.
When at the beehive, the bee vomits this enzyme-treated nectar into another bee’s mouth, which then vomits into the other bee’s mouth, and so on.
This process breaks down the nectar into two by-products, one of which is Hydrogen Peroxide, which is considered the perfect barrier against infection for wounds.
