Experts from the National Honey Board explain that honey stays edible for decades, even centuries — but there’s a catch. Nature’s natural sweetener is highly susceptible to physical and chemical changes, and if stored incorrectly can darken, lose its aroma, flavor, and/or crystallize.
Still, that’s not to say the honey becomes inedible. As per the National Honey Board, crystallization is a natural process in which the glucose in honey precipitates out of the liquid honey. You can still consume it, but if the crystallization bothers you, spokespersons from the board says that placing the honey jar in warm water and stirring will dissolve the crystals.
The story of honey is older than history itself. An 8,000-year-old cave painting1 in Spain depicts honey harvesting, and we know it’s been used for food, medicine and more by cultures all over the world since.
But honey isn’t about humans. It’s the natural product made from bees—one of our planet’s most important animals. Honey bees visit millions of blossoms in their lifetimes, making pollination of plants possible and collecting nectar to bring back to the hive.
Lucky for us, bees make more honey than their colony needs, and beekeepers remove the excess and bottle it. Just like they’ve been doing since the beginning of time.
Honey is one of those forever foods – you can store it virtually forever without it going bad (as long as you follow proper storage and food handling techniques). It has so many uses in the home and kitchen that it is a food you NEED to store!
STORING
Store your honey at room temperature in your pantry or on your shelf. Storing in the refrigerator isn’t recommended as it promotes crystallization, which isn’t harmful, but just the way honey reacts when it becomes too cold. If your house tends to run cold in the winter, store your honey near your stove (though not on it). If you find that your honey has crystallized, simply place your jar in a pot of boiling water that has been removed from heat. In my personal experience, the more natural of a state the honey is in, the less it crystallizes. The more naturally occurring a honey is, the better it will work. Going through the processes for commercializing honey, it loses many of its natural properties from the heat processes or being mixed with other elements to make it more commercially viable. The best source will always be a local beekeeper in your area like Pahrump Honey Company. You can purchase right from this website, CLICK HERE to shop.