Honey if stored properly, say in airtight jars, will not spoil. This is due to honey’s unique composition – its acidity, low water content and the presence of hydrogen peroxide (an antibacterial substance) ensure that it stays good forever. Because of the low moisture content, bacteria and other microorganisms cannot survive in honey. How is honey made? Bees collect nectar from flowers and process it. The nectar, which loses most of its moisture when bees flap their wings, mixes with the enzymes secreted by the bees and turns into honey.
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. They needed something non-perishable (at least for a year or so) and nutritious — they needed honey. 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.
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 hypertonic solution, 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.
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