6 hours Ago By Angela Patrone
One of the greatest facts about honey is that it doesn’t spoil. However, honey is susceptible to physical and chemical changes over time. It can lose its aroma and flavour, and it also tends to darken or crystallise .
For practical and commercial purposes, a shelf life of two years is often stated on jars and containers of honey. Properly stored honey, though, retains its quality for much longer than that, which is why it’s extremely important to store your honey correctly. Speaking to Martha Stewart, Frank Mortimer, Cornell University master beekeeper and author of Bee People And The Bugs They Love, explained that “honey is the only food that never spoils and is always safe to eat”.
He added: “It can have an almost indefinite shelf life, lasting decades or longer if it’s stored properly.” Beekeeper Dawn Combs claimed that the number one spot to store your honey is somewhere warm and dark, such as in a cupboard near your oven. Keeping your honey is an area that will work fantastically as it replicates an environment like that of a beehive.
Your honey is less likely to crystallise when kept in an area like this. If your honey does crystallise, you can always re-liquefy it by placing the jar into a warm - not boiling - bowl of water. Aside from storing your honey in said location, this natural concoction should always be kept in a glass jar otherwise, the water-loving sugars in the honey will absorb moisture from the air, leading to the growth of undesirable yeasts.
Despite many brands of honey coming in plastic packaging, it is worth transferring them if you want to keep your honey as fresh as possible. Dawn warned: “Plastic is known to be permeable to water vapour, gas, and odours. “This means that when you store honey in plastic, it may lose moisture, or worse, gain it.
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