Honey apparently does not naturally decompose. Why?

Re: Honey apparently does not naturally decompose. Are there other foods that don't?

Here decomposition is related to bacterial decomposition. Bacteria do not grow in honey, peanut butter, and other like substances because these substances have a very low water content and will actually dehydrate any bacteria that lands in the substance. These substances can still decompose chemically, but at room temperature, any chemical decomposition occurs very slowly.

See the related PF thread here: https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=615560

 

Re: Honey apparently does not naturally decompose. Are there other foods that don't?

Low water content is definitely a major factor. Fresh meat and fish require cooling (which slows down all biological and, to a lesser degree, chemical processes) to last more than a few days at most. Dried, however, they can last for a much much longer time.

Another, probably less important, factor is that honey contains natural antibiotics. There are a few other foodstuffs which do, and presumably all of those keep for a comparatively long time.

Off the top of my head, I can name cocoa and garlic. Cocoa is a seed, and those are naturally more resistant to all kinds of decomposition - they need to be, to fulfill their function. Garlic works well to illustrate this, though. Its water content is, at first, not particularly low, and yet, when stored under appropriate conditions, it desiccates to the point of crumbling to dust before ever becoming moldy.

 

Re: Honey apparently does not naturally decompose. Are there other foods that don't?

The way I understand it, it's being immersed in the honey (or whatever), rather than trying to eat the honey, that's already harmful to the bacteria. Macroscopic organisms can eat the honey without immersing themselves in it - and even if they do become immersed, it's only a relatively small number of cells which are directly in contact with the substance; most are protected simply by not being surface cells. Furthermore, surface cells are specifically designed to withstand that kind of thing, so there may not be any damage to those anyway.

ps: Of course, if an insect does fall into honey, it usually will die, so the end result is the same as that for the bacterium. But that's due to drowning, which is something else altogether. :)

 

Hmmmmnnn... interesting. Honey is essentially plant pollen and nectars. That's what the bees go and collect. Pollen and Nectar, and that is what goes into honey.

The pollens are probably acting as a preservative, anti-bacterial, anti-oxidant, etc...

The bee larvae are fed something called bee bread, and that is what bee pollen is, after it is eaten by the bees, and then regurgitated back up. It is very sour tasting, and tart, and the only other flavor I can compare it with is children's candy.

I wish I had more info at a molecular level, but I don't.

Bees have other interesting products. Propolis. They collect tree resins, and they use the resins to seal off areas of the hive that have been infected with fungus and bacterias and insects. Tree resin is essentially a trees immuno defense system and the bees know how to utilize that.

Another thing is that the bee produce royal jelly and that is fed to a normal bee, which then becomes a super queen bee. They are fed nothing except the royal jelly.

This source attempts to describe the various stages of food production, and they mention that the bees seal the nectar that is converted to honey via regurgitation with wax.

http://westmtnapiary.com/bee_diet.html

I will argue that pure honey, will probably go bad over time. The Smithsonian mentions that it will spoil once water gets into it.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/scien...ind-honeys-eternal-shelf-life-1218690/?no-ist

I am going to guess there is probably some pollen acting as a preservative as well. That is only a guess, and I could be wrong, but natural honey, is loaded with "particulates".

http://www.scirpus.ca/cap/articles/paper017.htm

 

Honey is not thought to ever go bad, when stored properly. They found some in an ancient Egyptian tomb and it was still partially liquid and seemed just fine.

Quote: "They had hit the jackpot; one of the most amazing discoveries up until this point in Egypt. Apparently, even though there seems to have been cracks in all the sealed barriers, the tomb was so devoid of atmosphere that silver was still bright and shinny, but within three days of the tombs opening had it had turned black. Some vessels that were uncorked by the archaeologists still contained thick oil, and honey that was almost liquid but still preserved it scent after thousands of years."


Source: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/yuyat.htm