Dan Greenwood 
The exceptional quality of honey, in that it doesn’t have an expiry date, makes it indispensable in every household. Who doesn’t use honey when baking or even when having a sore throat or a skin rash to treat?
The question is — does honey really last forever, and why? Can it ever go bad? The simple answer is, “No.” But, why doesn’t it degrade in time? Let’s take a look.
Have you ever reached for the jar of honey in your pantry only to find it entirely crystallized? It’s quite disheartening. Luckily, there’s no need to get rid of it — honey can last for years. The crystallization of honey is a naturally occurring process that only affects its appearance and doesn’t deter its quality.
If you deliberately wish to crystallize honey and want to learn more about why it does this, you’re in the right place!
How you store honey is vital to its longevity. Although crystallization is a natural process, it doesn’t mean that honey is “going off.” Even so, there are ways of storage to avoid this process as much as possible. Honey has a long shelf life due to the high concentration of sugars, and it can have an indefinite shelf life if properly stored.
Ultimately, the way you store your honey is up to you. Even so, check out our advice on how to store honey correctly.
Honey is made with the nectar of a flowering plant. Field bees collect nectar from flowers using their tongue. They suck out the sugary liquid and save it in their bellies until they return home to their hive. Once they return, they turn the nectar into honey.
What is honey made of that makes it different from nectar and different from commercial sweeteners? Let’s find out.
The development of sugar crystals in honey is a natural development called crystallization.
Honey is a sweet liquid with a high sugar-to-water content ratio. In order to handle this disproportionate ratio, sugar condenses or “precipitates” out of the solution into its solid form. The solid form of sugar is granulated and coarse. This precipitate creates chunky, uneven honey.
Honey is a natural sweetener, immune system booster and a remedy that doesn’t seem to have an expiry date. Despite all of its benefits, honey can sometimes cause an allergic reaction.
Honey is mainly composed of sugars and water, but may also contain other components, such as pollen, wax and bee gland secretions. Those components have been referred to as the most probable allergens in the mixture.
Looking at a beehive from the outside, we can never imagine the magic that’s happening on the inside. Bees work tirelessly to produce their homes and honey for them to consume. A beehive is a complete, high-quality honey factory with a colony full of fascinating and hard-working bees that together produce a surprisingly large amount of honey.
During honeybees’ short lives, they work all day foraging the maximum amount of flowers they can, with the sole purpose of filling the hive with honey.
Honey is a natural resource with long-lasting properties — if you seal it properly and store it for hundreds of years, it’s still good for eating. Despite being able to last so long, it still can’t remain as fresh as it was when first sealed.
As a beekeeper or a consumer of honey, you should be able to tell when your honey is going bad. So you can handle it and ensure its quality.
Both honey and royal jelly are known for their high nutritional value and multiple health benefits. Whereas honey has been consumed and used as a remedy for ages, royal jelly became popular only in the previous century.