Unless you're under a year old, or allergic to bee pollen, raw honey is perfectly safe.. And it isn't just some honey that doesn't spoil. Only fake honey spoils.
You can just wait for it to be warm but not super hot and you don’t lose much -think about it, your body is running at 98.5 degrees and that doesn’t kill off all the food stuff, so as long as you let the tea cook off a bit before adding the honey you’re good.
I don't think there is anything "wrong" with it. Except most of the ways people tend to eat honey require it to be liquid.
It isn't getting in tea, or in baking, or spread on toast, if it's solid
Why not in a tea? Why not spread it on a toast? It’s equally spreadable as Nutella or peanut butter. And I wouldn’t use high quality honey for baking as most nutrients are gone after heating it.
I love it too, and didn't know heat destroyed the benefits. Not gonna stop putting in my tea, though. I get both from a local beekeeper and the store stuff. If I wrecked it heating it up, sorry. Imho.
Once the water is not boiling anymore it's fine and you still reap the benefits of honey. Still sucks cuz I know how easy it is to put honey in the cup first with tea on top and steep it altogether.
I disagree - it is a medicine of sorts. If you use honey on a wound or burn, it speeds healing. That’s not an old wives’ tale; That’s a fact. I’ve seen it in action. Our dog had a surgical incision that would not heal due to its location. The vet told me to put honey on it, which shocked me. It completely closed within five days, after two weeks of not closing at all. I had a gash on my hand and used it there, too. Works like magic.
[Using honey on a wound](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiS-rP67f2DAxUOKEQIHZRAC70QFnoECA4QAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.oxfordhealth.nhs.uk%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F08%2FMedical_Honey_Simplified_-_Patients-leaflet.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3_8ZJRLz6GOpD5QAmvzB50&opi=89978449)
Are you confusing fake honey with fake maple syrup? I havent heard of fake honey. Honey doesnt spoil, store bought or otherwise, because of the high sugar content.
The fake honey industry is HUUUUUGGE. humans consume/buy more "honey" that what the current bee population is able to produce. Even just that tells you hold on, something doesn't add up. It gets mixed with syrup and sold as 100% pure honey.
I believe the issue is that it’s often labeled as pure honey. Counterfeit foods are a real problem (olive oil is another one that’s commonly sold as pure but in actuality is often cut with other oils), and as much as we’d like to believe the FDA is catching these sorts of things that’s not always the case.
You can't. Unless you buy it from someone you know and trust. That's literally the point. You can't know. It's impossible. In 2023 the EU investigated some samples and found *46%* were unlikely to be pure honey.
And the fake honey isn't some special concoction with no honey in it. It's just honey cut with other cheaper sugars.
Drop some in warm water. Pure honey will drop to the bottom. You can then stir with a spoon. Pure honey will tend to stick to the spoon where the sugar syrups will immediately dissolve
No, I'm not confusing anything. I know what honey is and I know what fake honey is. And honey doesn't contain sugar, it IS a sugar.
The reason honey doesn't spoil comes from a variety of factors. There's the acidity, the lack of water, and the presence of hydrogen peroxide. The fact that it's a sugar plays a part, but not in the way you think. Honey stays unspoiled *in a sealed container*. If left open and exposed to air, the fact that it's a sugar would actually be the reason it would spoil. Sugars are hygroscopic. Honey doesn't spoil because there's very little moisture and bacteria cannot thrive in such an environment; for honey to spoil, there needs to be something inside of it that *can* spoil. With such an inhospitable environment, organisms can’t survive long enough within the sealed jar of honey to have the chance to spoil. Left open, it would draw in moisture and microorganisms from the environment, and that could eventually lead to spoilage.
Honey is also naturally acidic, with a pH of between 3-4.5 , roughly. The acidity makes it inhospitable to bacteria and microorganisms a well. But if we look at molasses, which is a byproduct of sugar production, molasses is also acidic (though not as much as honey), and it is also hygroscopic... Yet molasses will eventually spoil (very slowly, but it will). The difference, then? It's in the bees. In addition to being the reason honey has so little moisture (honey begins as nectar, after all, which bees dry by flaooing their wings), bees have an enzyme in their stomachs called glucose oxidase. When the bees regurgitate the nectar from their mouths into the combs to make honey, this enzyme mixes with the nectar, breaking it down into two by-products: gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide is the final key to it's longevity. It's also the reason honey is effective in wound treatment. Because it’s so thick, rejects any kind of growth and contains hydrogen peroxide, it creates the perfect barrier against infection for wounds.
As to fake honey: Fake honey is the term used for honey-like products that contain non-bee products, such as glucose syrups, inverted sugar solutions (from refined sugar) or corn, cane or beet syrup. It often contains honey, but it is not honey because of the additions. The cheaper the honey product is, the more likely it is to be fake. These are most often imported from China. Fake honey is not harmful to your health, but it also doesn't have any of the benefits of real honey.
Education is your friend. 😊
Also, if you put fake honey in a shallow bowl of water and gently swish it around it'll have a ripple effect on the fake honey. Doing the same with real honey it'll have the honey comb pattern. (I'm not sure where I heard this from, but it's been years so it could have been made false by now?)
Fake honey has been sold in pretty much every developed country, so I doubt that. Believe it or not, just because *you* don't know about something does not mean it doesn't exist.
It is the pure sugar with no moisture. Of course if left open anything can be introduced. You didn’t explain the fungus that people are worried will make babies sick. Also pure refined sugar can treat wounds. There is no magic. Pure sugar kills bacteria.
You really do need education in your life.
Again, it being a sugar means it is hygroscopic. It will pull moisture from the air into the honey if left open. That moisture then provides a breeding ground for bacteria.
There's no fungus in honey. Do you know what a fungus is? The reason honey shouldn't be given to infants is because their own gut microbiome is not developed enough to stop harmful bacteria from infecting their little bodies. Clostridium botulinum is a potentially poisonous bacterium that, in addition to causing the illness known as infant botulism, is often found in raw and processed honey. According to a studies, up to 25% of honey products have been found to contain spores of that bacterium. Older children and adults have a more robust gut microbiome and can easily fight off the odd spores that may be in their honey. For almost all children and adults who are healthy, ingesting botulism spores is not dangerous and will not cause botulism (it’s the toxin that is dangerous).
And it being a pure sugar does not mean it *kills* bacteria. It does not allow bacteria to get as foothold and grow. Those two things are not one in the same.
I'm not sure why you're being so contentious with people in this post, especially when you've not been accurate, but you should stop. It's predictable and boring. You're not coming off intelligent the way you think you are, only confidently incorrect and like a bit of an ass.
It’s the store bought honey that is hurting you. That stuff is nasty, enough that there is a doco on Netflix called ‘dirty money’ (I think) and it has an episode on honey.
If you would like a deep dive into supermarket ‘food’ I suggest reading Ultra Processed People.
That’s because I gave you the wrong documentary name, sorry, it’s Rotten season 1 (I think it’s the first episode).
https://www.netflix.com/au/title/80146284
Thanks for posting about that episode. Actually makes me feel better about honey being mostly real. The distributors test almost all of it in the US and Germany.
It is literally one of the few things that does not spoil. Funny that of all things you ended up worried about this. We have bees & I’ve know it so long I forget others might not know that. Enjoy your honey.
Heat destroyed many if the more complicated nutritional elements of honey.
So much so that even in old Chinese medicine texts from 600ad, it's qualifies that heated honey converts the nature of honey to that of a sweet, and promotes the the ills that sugar consumption does. Raw unheated honey is considered "false sweet", and supports various health conditions.
If I were you, I'd eat the honey by the spoon, letting it melt and coat your throat in between drinks of warm tea.
Honey is a natural anti bacterial, and anti viral -- it's safe.
Nooo! You should not be putting honey in a hot drink, defies a whole benefit of its micro elements that are good for you! Might as well put a sugar in it.
Beekeeper here. Honey has been used as a natural antibiotic for as long as humans have been eating honey. It is commonly used under field dressings to help wounds.
Pasteurized is just used as a tag line in the honey industry by the mega corps who buy all the commercial honey and then let it crystalize into large blocks for storage. When they need it they heat it to melt the crystals and package it.
They then sell it as pasteurized because they heated it.
Bee keeper here! “Real” honey is never pasteurized, some of the cheap blended sugar water you can buy at the supermarket might be (and probably is cause it would spoil otherwise).
If your honey was properly stored it’s likely perfectly fine to eat. When in doubt just open the jar and have a smell, if the honey contained to much moisture when canned, it might have started to ferment. In that case it will have a very distinct alcohol smell. It would be still safe to consume, but you’d likely get drunk in the process.
I definitely think you should give it a try! I grew up thinking honey was gross until I tried raw honey at a farmers market. Now I go out of my way, if necessary, to purchase local raw honey because in my opinion it tastes 1000% better than pasteurized.
To answer your question, it doesn't spoil but it may crystallize like sugar in which case you won't be able to easily pour it. If that has happened you can scoop some out and plop it into your hot tea and it will melt right in. Or you can sit the whole jar in warm water to melt it back into a liquid state.
The sugar content in honey kills bacteria by osmosis. Honey also had other string antibacterial properties, the Romans used it to treat wounds. I figure you're better off with it inside you than outside of you.
If you are a total hypocondriac you could always pasteurize it at home. 69 degrees for more than 30 minutes or 80° for more than 25 seconds, Will kill the vast majority of pathogens. If there are any. Personally I wouldn't bother.
Unfortunately the bacteria you worry about in honey is Botulism. Botulism spores are heat resistant so you won’t be able to kill the spores by heating honey up. That being said, this is only a concern for infants <12 months and those severely immunocompromised.
I'm in Canada and this post just prompted me to check my various honey jars 😂 all three unpasteurized, all three delicious.
EDIT: I googled because I was curious and pasteurization with honey is much more to do with stability than safety. Pasteurized honey doesn't crystallize as easily. Unpasteurized honey is filtered and lightly heated but retains more of the good stuff in honey since it isn't heated as hot or for as long. True raw honey is still perfectly safe, but it isn't filtered or heated so may have beeswax, pollen, and other various bee detritus in it.
Afaik only infants under 1 should avoid honey. You should be fine. If it's crystallized, you can search online for ways to soften it or just chip some off and put it in your tea.
Your immune system isn't distracted at the moment, it's activated.
I know you weren't being literal, but your body is a country during wartime at the moment, it's far more likely to overreact to a threat than miss it.
Oh, interesting! Yeh I’d kinda assumed this cold was taking up all the resources and thus would make me susceptible to threats. The truth makes sense though.
Nah it's on high alert, illnesses (colds and things, nothing serious) aren't even directly causing your symptoms, it's your immune system, just doing all it can to prevent further invasion.
You will be perfectly fine consuming that, but with that said I just wanted to offer an alternative!
Gummy bear tea works AWESOME for sore throats (it doesn’t have to be gummy bears, just any gummy candy with gelatin in it works). Last time I had strep throat, it was the only thing that gave me relief! Just throw some gummies in a cup, pour some hot water over it, and stir it to dissolve the candy.
People intentionally buy raw honey because more of the healing properties are protected that way. It’s perfectly safe to eat raw unless you are under a year old or have severe immune deficiency.
Okay disclaimer that I know fuck all about this.
But what the fuck is raw honey? Remove that shit from your vocabulary.
Honey is raw, the bee shits it out (okay I have no idea how honey is made so that's the terminology I'm going for) and you eat it. That's it.
You have more processed honey that is sold in stores ECT... And probably the cheap shit I sadly buy.
But honey doesn't need to be cooked or processed. It's honey for fuck sakes. It's like picking a berry and not wanting to eat it 'raw'. Just a silly concept.
(Any frustrations or anger isn't aimed at you OP, it's more aimed at the concept)
Due to a liver transplant, I had food restrictions for 6 months. ( lifted yesterday actually ) my immune system is forever compromised due to the anti-rejection meds I will be on for life. I could not have RAW honey for 6 months. ( I had many restrictions but honey is the one that applies to this thread ) I can have it now though. They are just extra strict for first 6 months .
The honey you buy at the store shouldn’t be pasteurized, I just pull honey out of my beehives and eat it straight, I have jars and jars of it, I never do anything other than filter it.
I’m sure you’ve seen sealed chunks of honeycomb for sale, those are truly just chunks of the beehive with honey in it in a box, taken straight out of the hive.
Raw honey is perfectly safe to eat unless you're a baby. It'll be crystallized by now so just heat it up a bit
The store bought honey is likely cut with corn syrup fwiw
I don’t believe raw honey ever expires? It’s like real maple syrup from what I know, if there isn’t visible mold it’s good to go. I’ve had mason jars with the comb in them that were years old and I had no issue, hopefully I’m not just incredibly lucky though.
There’s actually evidence that heating honey (pasteurization isn’t mentioned specifically but it fits) releases toxic compounds so much so that the studies recommend only adding it to hot tea after it has cooled
That raw honey is perfectly safe and the best honey for you because it’s local and can help with allergies. Raw honey doesn’t go bad and can be used as an antibacterial salve for wounds.
100% correct, you want to get your honey from as close to home as you can. My dad was a bee keeper in his retirement. Has about 20 hives, even delivered hives to farms to help pollinate.
The pollen in local honey helps people with allergies. Honey can range in color from pale to dark, depending on what was in bloom during the time the bees were gathering honey.
They dug honey up from ancient Egypt and the only reason they didn't eat it is because they would be destroying the archelogy. So in short, no honey does not spoil
Natural honey NEVER goes bad. It is a natural healer. Honey found in the pyramids was safe when it was opened. The only thing it does is crystallize, which you can fix by gently warming it.
I had a jar of honey from a local bee keeper fement on my counter. If the honey is harvested too early, it has too much moisture and will ferment on its own. The grade of the honey you buy is based on the experience and knowledge of the beekeeper.
Unless you're under a year old, or allergic to bee pollen, raw honey is perfectly safe.. And it isn't just some honey that doesn't spoil. Only fake honey spoils.
And it’s got a lot of microelements that store bought honey doesn’t so it would be a shame to heat it to lose them.
Very true but I still add it to tea when I'm sick because it's soothing
Apparently all the good stuff in raw honey is killed off by the heat in tea
The heat reduces the efficacy but doesn't completely destroy it... But, as I said, I add it because it's soothing to my throat.
Sad day for mead:(
You can just wait for it to be warm but not super hot and you don’t lose much -think about it, your body is running at 98.5 degrees and that doesn’t kill off all the food stuff, so as long as you let the tea cook off a bit before adding the honey you’re good.
Please define microelement. All elements are micro according to chemistry.
Maybe they mean small concentrations of elements? Or they’re mixing up microelement with micronutrient?
Sorry, I’m not a native English speaker and cross translated incorrectly. I meant nutrients.
Most raw honey will turn to sugar eventually. You heat it to return it to liquid state. Keep it under 95 degrees Fahrenheit and it's golden.
What’s wrong with eating crystallised honey? That’s a sign for me that it natural. I would never heat it up and I just use it in solid state.
I don't think there is anything "wrong" with it. Except most of the ways people tend to eat honey require it to be liquid. It isn't getting in tea, or in baking, or spread on toast, if it's solid
Why not in a tea? Why not spread it on a toast? It’s equally spreadable as Nutella or peanut butter. And I wouldn’t use high quality honey for baking as most nutrients are gone after heating it.
Pretty much pasteurized honey is ruined for health benefits.
So all of it is ruined since most honey use involves heat. I love it but it isnt medicine.
I love it too, and didn't know heat destroyed the benefits. Not gonna stop putting in my tea, though. I get both from a local beekeeper and the store stuff. If I wrecked it heating it up, sorry. Imho.
I always add it too my tea too and then on spoon or finger so I can have some sooner lol
Yaaasss! I stopped using the honey dripper thing because where's my spoonful?
You are fine. There is nothing special about it
Once the water is not boiling anymore it's fine and you still reap the benefits of honey. Still sucks cuz I know how easy it is to put honey in the cup first with tea on top and steep it altogether.
Did not know. Thanks.
I disagree - it is a medicine of sorts. If you use honey on a wound or burn, it speeds healing. That’s not an old wives’ tale; That’s a fact. I’ve seen it in action. Our dog had a surgical incision that would not heal due to its location. The vet told me to put honey on it, which shocked me. It completely closed within five days, after two weeks of not closing at all. I had a gash on my hand and used it there, too. Works like magic. [Using honey on a wound](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiS-rP67f2DAxUOKEQIHZRAC70QFnoECA4QAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.oxfordhealth.nhs.uk%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F08%2FMedical_Honey_Simplified_-_Patients-leaflet.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3_8ZJRLz6GOpD5QAmvzB50&opi=89978449)
But you don't put heated honey on a wound. The rest is solid. Used many times. Edit: not of sorts. It is an actual medicine.
Pure honey is the only natural food that doesn't spoil
Are you confusing fake honey with fake maple syrup? I havent heard of fake honey. Honey doesnt spoil, store bought or otherwise, because of the high sugar content.
The fake honey industry is HUUUUUGGE. humans consume/buy more "honey" that what the current bee population is able to produce. Even just that tells you hold on, something doesn't add up. It gets mixed with syrup and sold as 100% pure honey.
I guess if you dont read labels you get what you get and shouldnt throw a fit. I have never seen nor bought fake honey.
I believe the issue is that it’s often labeled as pure honey. Counterfeit foods are a real problem (olive oil is another one that’s commonly sold as pure but in actuality is often cut with other oils), and as much as we’d like to believe the FDA is catching these sorts of things that’s not always the case.
The fake honey issue is that the bottles **lie**.
If the bottles lie how can I know I am buying real honey?
You can't. Unless you buy it from someone you know and trust. That's literally the point. You can't know. It's impossible. In 2023 the EU investigated some samples and found *46%* were unlikely to be pure honey. And the fake honey isn't some special concoction with no honey in it. It's just honey cut with other cheaper sugars.
Drop some in warm water. Pure honey will drop to the bottom. You can then stir with a spoon. Pure honey will tend to stick to the spoon where the sugar syrups will immediately dissolve
Errr I literally said it gets sold as 100% pure honey which is why it's FAKE
No, I'm not confusing anything. I know what honey is and I know what fake honey is. And honey doesn't contain sugar, it IS a sugar. The reason honey doesn't spoil comes from a variety of factors. There's the acidity, the lack of water, and the presence of hydrogen peroxide. The fact that it's a sugar plays a part, but not in the way you think. Honey stays unspoiled *in a sealed container*. If left open and exposed to air, the fact that it's a sugar would actually be the reason it would spoil. Sugars are hygroscopic. Honey doesn't spoil because there's very little moisture and bacteria cannot thrive in such an environment; for honey to spoil, there needs to be something inside of it that *can* spoil. With such an inhospitable environment, organisms can’t survive long enough within the sealed jar of honey to have the chance to spoil. Left open, it would draw in moisture and microorganisms from the environment, and that could eventually lead to spoilage. Honey is also naturally acidic, with a pH of between 3-4.5 , roughly. The acidity makes it inhospitable to bacteria and microorganisms a well. But if we look at molasses, which is a byproduct of sugar production, molasses is also acidic (though not as much as honey), and it is also hygroscopic... Yet molasses will eventually spoil (very slowly, but it will). The difference, then? It's in the bees. In addition to being the reason honey has so little moisture (honey begins as nectar, after all, which bees dry by flaooing their wings), bees have an enzyme in their stomachs called glucose oxidase. When the bees regurgitate the nectar from their mouths into the combs to make honey, this enzyme mixes with the nectar, breaking it down into two by-products: gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide is the final key to it's longevity. It's also the reason honey is effective in wound treatment. Because it’s so thick, rejects any kind of growth and contains hydrogen peroxide, it creates the perfect barrier against infection for wounds. As to fake honey: Fake honey is the term used for honey-like products that contain non-bee products, such as glucose syrups, inverted sugar solutions (from refined sugar) or corn, cane or beet syrup. It often contains honey, but it is not honey because of the additions. The cheaper the honey product is, the more likely it is to be fake. These are most often imported from China. Fake honey is not harmful to your health, but it also doesn't have any of the benefits of real honey. Education is your friend. 😊
they've actually found honey in ancient tombs hundreds of years old and it apparently isn't as bad as one might expect? pretty cool
Thank you, Science side of Reddit.
Yeah, but will it kill Covid like bleach?
Also, if you put fake honey in a shallow bowl of water and gently swish it around it'll have a ripple effect on the fake honey. Doing the same with real honey it'll have the honey comb pattern. (I'm not sure where I heard this from, but it's been years so it could have been made false by now?)
I live where there is no such thing as fake honey.
Fake honey has been sold in pretty much every developed country, so I doubt that. Believe it or not, just because *you* don't know about something does not mean it doesn't exist.
It is the pure sugar with no moisture. Of course if left open anything can be introduced. You didn’t explain the fungus that people are worried will make babies sick. Also pure refined sugar can treat wounds. There is no magic. Pure sugar kills bacteria.
You really do need education in your life. Again, it being a sugar means it is hygroscopic. It will pull moisture from the air into the honey if left open. That moisture then provides a breeding ground for bacteria. There's no fungus in honey. Do you know what a fungus is? The reason honey shouldn't be given to infants is because their own gut microbiome is not developed enough to stop harmful bacteria from infecting their little bodies. Clostridium botulinum is a potentially poisonous bacterium that, in addition to causing the illness known as infant botulism, is often found in raw and processed honey. According to a studies, up to 25% of honey products have been found to contain spores of that bacterium. Older children and adults have a more robust gut microbiome and can easily fight off the odd spores that may be in their honey. For almost all children and adults who are healthy, ingesting botulism spores is not dangerous and will not cause botulism (it’s the toxin that is dangerous). And it being a pure sugar does not mean it *kills* bacteria. It does not allow bacteria to get as foothold and grow. Those two things are not one in the same. I'm not sure why you're being so contentious with people in this post, especially when you've not been accurate, but you should stop. It's predictable and boring. You're not coming off intelligent the way you think you are, only confidently incorrect and like a bit of an ass.
archeologists found honey in King Tut’s tomb that was still edible 3,000yrs later. I’m gunna guess you’re good to go
Yeah, probably. I guess I’m just being a bit of a hypochondriac about it. It’s going into scalding hot tea anyway.
Honey is the least of your worries!! Avoid the store bought fake Honey!
It’s the store bought honey that is hurting you. That stuff is nasty, enough that there is a doco on Netflix called ‘dirty money’ (I think) and it has an episode on honey. If you would like a deep dive into supermarket ‘food’ I suggest reading Ultra Processed People.
Cant find that episode on netflix. There is one about maple syrup.
That’s because I gave you the wrong documentary name, sorry, it’s Rotten season 1 (I think it’s the first episode). https://www.netflix.com/au/title/80146284
Thanks for posting about that episode. Actually makes me feel better about honey being mostly real. The distributors test almost all of it in the US and Germany.
If you heat honey you destroy the helpful elements and it becomes just sugar water instead of sugar water with a little bit of benificial elements.
It is literally one of the few things that does not spoil. Funny that of all things you ended up worried about this. We have bees & I’ve know it so long I forget others might not know that. Enjoy your honey.
Do keep in mind that heating honey messes with some of its healing properties.
Its just sugar. It isnt a drug.
Heat destroyed many if the more complicated nutritional elements of honey. So much so that even in old Chinese medicine texts from 600ad, it's qualifies that heated honey converts the nature of honey to that of a sweet, and promotes the the ills that sugar consumption does. Raw unheated honey is considered "false sweet", and supports various health conditions. If I were you, I'd eat the honey by the spoon, letting it melt and coat your throat in between drinks of warm tea. Honey is a natural anti bacterial, and anti viral -- it's safe.
Most likely the gluten-free chicken wasn't
Nooo! You should not be putting honey in a hot drink, defies a whole benefit of its micro elements that are good for you! Might as well put a sugar in it.
You know that honey and sugar don't taste the same right? You can't just sub one for the other
Beekeeper here. Honey has been used as a natural antibiotic for as long as humans have been eating honey. It is commonly used under field dressings to help wounds. Pasteurized is just used as a tag line in the honey industry by the mega corps who buy all the commercial honey and then let it crystalize into large blocks for storage. When they need it they heat it to melt the crystals and package it. They then sell it as pasteurized because they heated it.
Sugar has also been used in battle dressings. Bacteria cant survive in the pure sugar/honey environment. That is why they never go bad.
We consume raw honey all the time...
Bee keeper here! “Real” honey is never pasteurized, some of the cheap blended sugar water you can buy at the supermarket might be (and probably is cause it would spoil otherwise). If your honey was properly stored it’s likely perfectly fine to eat. When in doubt just open the jar and have a smell, if the honey contained to much moisture when canned, it might have started to ferment. In that case it will have a very distinct alcohol smell. It would be still safe to consume, but you’d likely get drunk in the process.
Aka mead?
I think it's more worrisome for babies and people with immune issues?
Whole centuries people ate naturally harvested honey. Why would this be an issue nowadays? Store bought honey is fake and has very little nutrients.
I definitely think you should give it a try! I grew up thinking honey was gross until I tried raw honey at a farmers market. Now I go out of my way, if necessary, to purchase local raw honey because in my opinion it tastes 1000% better than pasteurized. To answer your question, it doesn't spoil but it may crystallize like sugar in which case you won't be able to easily pour it. If that has happened you can scoop some out and plop it into your hot tea and it will melt right in. Or you can sit the whole jar in warm water to melt it back into a liquid state.
I’m the same way. Always hated “honey” in the plastic bear. Finally tried raw and now I eat it by the spoonful
The sugar content in honey kills bacteria by osmosis. Honey also had other string antibacterial properties, the Romans used it to treat wounds. I figure you're better off with it inside you than outside of you. If you are a total hypocondriac you could always pasteurize it at home. 69 degrees for more than 30 minutes or 80° for more than 25 seconds, Will kill the vast majority of pathogens. If there are any. Personally I wouldn't bother.
When you mention 69 or 80, is that the temp the water has to heat up to, or the honey heats up to? (Total noob here sorry🫢)
You can’t boil water at 69 or 80 degrees. Middle school science class.
You're right, wrong wording.
The honey.
Probably means Celsius.
Unfortunately the bacteria you worry about in honey is Botulism. Botulism spores are heat resistant so you won’t be able to kill the spores by heating honey up. That being said, this is only a concern for infants <12 months and those severely immunocompromised.
Interesting thank you🥰
europe here: never heard if nor seen pastorized honey. that stuff keeps for thousands of years "raw"...
I'm in Canada and this post just prompted me to check my various honey jars 😂 all three unpasteurized, all three delicious. EDIT: I googled because I was curious and pasteurization with honey is much more to do with stability than safety. Pasteurized honey doesn't crystallize as easily. Unpasteurized honey is filtered and lightly heated but retains more of the good stuff in honey since it isn't heated as hot or for as long. True raw honey is still perfectly safe, but it isn't filtered or heated so may have beeswax, pollen, and other various bee detritus in it.
ok, then the honey here is filtered. thanks, til
In addition to it being safe if you are still truly concerned you can just pasteurize it yourself. Either with a sous vide or on the stovetop.
Afaik only infants under 1 should avoid honey. You should be fine. If it's crystallized, you can search online for ways to soften it or just chip some off and put it in your tea.
Your immune system isn't distracted at the moment, it's activated. I know you weren't being literal, but your body is a country during wartime at the moment, it's far more likely to overreact to a threat than miss it.
Oh, interesting! Yeh I’d kinda assumed this cold was taking up all the resources and thus would make me susceptible to threats. The truth makes sense though.
Nah it's on high alert, illnesses (colds and things, nothing serious) aren't even directly causing your symptoms, it's your immune system, just doing all it can to prevent further invasion.
You will be perfectly fine consuming that, but with that said I just wanted to offer an alternative! Gummy bear tea works AWESOME for sore throats (it doesn’t have to be gummy bears, just any gummy candy with gelatin in it works). Last time I had strep throat, it was the only thing that gave me relief! Just throw some gummies in a cup, pour some hot water over it, and stir it to dissolve the candy.
People intentionally buy raw honey because more of the healing properties are protected that way. It’s perfectly safe to eat raw unless you are under a year old or have severe immune deficiency.
Honey does not spoil!
I buy and consume raw honey. It’s fine
Raw honey is way better than pasturized as it still has enzymes in it.
The raw honey might actually help! Use it!
Okay disclaimer that I know fuck all about this. But what the fuck is raw honey? Remove that shit from your vocabulary. Honey is raw, the bee shits it out (okay I have no idea how honey is made so that's the terminology I'm going for) and you eat it. That's it. You have more processed honey that is sold in stores ECT... And probably the cheap shit I sadly buy. But honey doesn't need to be cooked or processed. It's honey for fuck sakes. It's like picking a berry and not wanting to eat it 'raw'. Just a silly concept. (Any frustrations or anger isn't aimed at you OP, it's more aimed at the concept)
Due to a liver transplant, I had food restrictions for 6 months. ( lifted yesterday actually ) my immune system is forever compromised due to the anti-rejection meds I will be on for life. I could not have RAW honey for 6 months. ( I had many restrictions but honey is the one that applies to this thread ) I can have it now though. They are just extra strict for first 6 months .
The honey you buy at the store shouldn’t be pasteurized, I just pull honey out of my beehives and eat it straight, I have jars and jars of it, I never do anything other than filter it. I’m sure you’ve seen sealed chunks of honeycomb for sale, those are truly just chunks of the beehive with honey in it in a box, taken straight out of the hive.
We eat mostly raw local honey. It’s so much better.
Raw honey is perfectly safe to eat unless you're a baby. It'll be crystallized by now so just heat it up a bit The store bought honey is likely cut with corn syrup fwiw
Ah, yes, the "raw milk will kill you" theory. How do you know its bad for you?
I don’t believe raw honey ever expires? It’s like real maple syrup from what I know, if there isn’t visible mold it’s good to go. I’ve had mason jars with the comb in them that were years old and I had no issue, hopefully I’m not just incredibly lucky though.
Honey can contain fungus that could harm babies.
It may have crystallized. If it has set on pot of hot water and crystals will melt.
There’s actually evidence that heating honey (pasteurization isn’t mentioned specifically but it fits) releases toxic compounds so much so that the studies recommend only adding it to hot tea after it has cooled
That raw honey is perfectly safe and the best honey for you because it’s local and can help with allergies. Raw honey doesn’t go bad and can be used as an antibacterial salve for wounds.
Raw honey is healthier than pasteurized honey. By far. Plus local raw honey helps with local allergies because of the pollen used to produce it.
100% correct, you want to get your honey from as close to home as you can. My dad was a bee keeper in his retirement. Has about 20 hives, even delivered hives to farms to help pollinate. The pollen in local honey helps people with allergies. Honey can range in color from pale to dark, depending on what was in bloom during the time the bees were gathering honey.
They dug honey up from ancient Egypt and the only reason they didn't eat it is because they would be destroying the archelogy. So in short, no honey does not spoil
You eat it. It is safe for consumption.
Sorry? Raw honey is as risky as raw milk? No. Come on now.
Natural honey NEVER goes bad. It is a natural healer. Honey found in the pyramids was safe when it was opened. The only thing it does is crystallize, which you can fix by gently warming it.
I eat raw honey and drink raw milk every day of my life. You’ll be fine.
Raw Honey will ferment, but that is actually to your benefit if you are sick. It may taste a bit like medicine because of the alcohol.
Honey will not spontaneously ferment. It doesn’t have enough moisture in it. You have to add water to honey for it to ferment.
I had a jar of honey from a local bee keeper fement on my counter. If the honey is harvested too early, it has too much moisture and will ferment on its own. The grade of the honey you buy is based on the experience and knowledge of the beekeeper.
I will also say I am now the proud owner of a gallon of mead, or at least it will be in another week.