The honey that outlived the pharaohs

Jars of honey still edible have been found in Egyptian tombs sealed more than 3,000 years ago. It is not a myth: it is chemistry.

Honey has almost no water (around 18%), it is very acidic (pH between 3 and 4.5) and bees add to it an enzyme that releases hydrogen peroxide. That trio turns the jar into a place where bacteria and fungi simply cannot live.

With no water to use, no tolerable pH and a built-in antiseptic, there is nothing that can rot. Honey does not keep by luck: it keeps because, to a microbe, it is an impossible desert.

Honey's only real enemy is the moisture outside it. Well sealed, it can wait for millennia.

Source: Smithsonian Magazine, "The Science Behind Honey's Eternal Shelf Life".