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The chemical secrets that help keep honey fresh for so long

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Re: The chemical secrets that help keep honey fresh for so long

#71
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whole food crunchy Instagram grifters push that infants should eat honey Though tbh do people really eat that much honey? I only have some in my kitchen to have with tea when I have a cold. Other then that I almost never use it.

Breakfast buns go well with honey. Often switched up with jam every few days. Also pancakes and waffles are great with honey from time to time when I'm tired of maple syrup. Jam works too.

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Re: The chemical secrets that help keep honey fresh for so long

#72
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that number is meaningful without knowing how many parents are giving their infants honey. Granted I'm in a high-income, high-education area, but at least in my bubble, "don't give babies honey" seems to be common knowledge, so it's possible there are relatively few instances and a high percentage result in complications.

Whole food crunchy Instagram grifters push that infants should eat honey Though tbh do people really eat that much honey? I only have some in my kitchen to have with tea when I have a cold. Other then that I almost never use it.

Oh man buttered toast with honey... English muffins... But most controversially, and most deliciously, it dresses up a pizza something lovely...

For me the shift happened when I stopped thinking of it as a sweetener for liquids and started thinking about it as a condiment to deploy conservatively but frequently.

Re: The chemical secrets that help keep honey fresh for so long

#74

>> This doesn't mean that honey can withstand all challenges to freshness. Once a jar of honey is open, its surface is being regularly exposed to the air, and dipping licked spoons in will bring bacteria and moisture that weren't there when the jar was sealed. I have plenty of observational, empirical data that contradicts this apparently theoretical statement. Not just licked spoons but breakfast knives with bits of…

My honey jars basically turn into forensic time capsules of breakfast past, and still nothing grows

Re: The chemical secrets that help keep honey fresh for so long

#75

>> This doesn't mean that honey can withstand all challenges to freshness. Once a jar of honey is open, its surface is being regularly exposed to the air, and dipping licked spoons in will bring bacteria and moisture that weren't there when the jar was sealed. I have plenty of observational, empirical data that contradicts this apparently theoretical statement. Not just licked spoons but breakfast knives with bits of…

Definitely give a little love to your honey jars, it does sound like the relationship is quite one-directional. Even cleaning the spoon/knife before interacting with the jar would increase the long-term stability of the relationship and it's just a nice thing to do for a SO.

Indeed it is. I'm not the one not cleaning the utensils before dipping them in btw ;)

Re: The chemical secrets that help keep honey fresh for so long

#76

This article is missing what I think is a pretty important PSA on the topic of bacteria in honey: Honey commonly contains small amounts of the anaerobic bacteria Clostridium botulinum, which causes botulism. This is why you should not feed honey to infants, because their immune systems cannot safely handle any amount of it yet. Even though the levels apparently are small enough for the rest of humans to consume worry…

It's one of those things where honey is both a wonder of nature and a reminder that biology doesn’t always play nice with everyone

Re: The chemical secrets that help keep honey fresh for so long

#77
post #45

I’d be curious to see if similar principles could be applied to non food preservation. Nature’s solutions often scale better than synthetic ones, especially when stability over long timeframes is needed.

Imagine a honey-inspired environment for stabilizing sensitive compounds or preserving biological samples without refrigeration

Re: The chemical secrets that help keep honey fresh for so long

#78
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that number is meaningful without knowing how many parents are giving their infants honey. Granted I'm in a high-income, high-education area, but at least in my bubble, "don't give babies honey" seems to be common knowledge, so it's possible there are relatively few instances and a high percentage result in complications.

Whole food crunchy Instagram grifters push that infants should eat honey Though tbh do people really eat that much honey? I only have some in my kitchen to have with tea when I have a cold. Other then that I almost never use it.

The United States is the second largest honey consumer behind China according to the latest data available from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2019. In 2021, consumption increased 8 percent from the previous year. Between 1991 to 2021, the average rate of growth is 10.7 million pounds per year. This translates to about 1.9 pounds per capita of honey consumption in 2021 compared with 1.2 pounds per capita in the early 1990s.

Re: The chemical secrets that help keep honey fresh for so long

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely give a little love to your honey jars, it does sound like the relationship is quite one-directional. Even cleaning the spoon/knife before interacting with the jar would increase the long-term stability of the relationship and it's just a nice thing to do for a SO.

Indeed it is. I'm not the one not cleaning the utensils before dipping them in btw ;)

> toasted bread and peanut/butter, Greek yogurt, French moldy goat's cheese, bits of tart, croisssants or other confectionary

You turned your kitchen into a bed and breakfast, though you make it sound like a microbiology lab :)

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