Topic: Food Science / History
Imagine opening a sealed clay pot inside an ancient Egyptian tomb, finding food buried for over 3,000 years, and realizing you could actually eat it. Sounds like a scene straight out of a movie, but archaeologists have actually found jars of honey from thousands of years ago that are still totally fine.
So why doesn’t honey go bad? It basically comes down to three things working together:
- Super low water content: Honey has almost no water, meaning it sucks the moisture right out of any bacteria trying to grow in it.
- High acidity: With a pH between 3 and 4.5, it’s way too acidic for most microbes to survive.
- Bee chemistry: Bees drop natural enzymes into the honey that produce tiny amounts of hydrogen peroxide, which acts like a built-in disinfectant.
Bacteria just can’t live in an environment like that. As long as the jar stays sealed so moisture from the air can’t sneak in, honey will pretty much last forever.
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