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What is the only food that does not spoil?

Question #249. Asked by MR.
Last updated Jun 14 2021.

essaychess
Answer has 0 votes
essaychess
24 year member
365 replies

Answer has 0 votes.
Honey

Mar 30 2000, 1:28 PM
Kainantu
Answer has 13 votes
Currently Best Answer
Kainantu

Answer has 13 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
Honey seems to be a good candidate.

"The ancient Egyptians loved sweets. Archeologists once found a 3,300-year-old jar of honey in a tomb."
link http://sgfoodies.blogspot.com/2007/09/food-trivia.html

"…the Tomb of Tutankhamun…honey that was almost liquid but still preserved it scent after thousands of years." and "Honey never goes bad, so the honey found in King Tutankhamen's tomb was still edible after thousands of years."
Modern archeologists, excavating ancient Egyptian tombs, have often found something unexpected amongst the tombs’ artifacts: pots of honey, thousands of years old, and yet still preserved. Through millennia, the archeologists discover, the food remains unspoiled, an unmistakable testament to the eternal shelf-life of honey. There are a few other examples of foods that keep–indefinitely–in their raw state: salt, sugar, dried rice are a few. But there’s something about honey; it can remain preserved in a completely edible form, and while you wouldn’t want to chow down on raw rice or straight salt, one could ostensibly dip into a thousand year old jar of honey and enjoy it, without preparation, as if it were a day old. Moreover, honey’s longevity lends it other properties–mainly medicinal–that other resilient foods don’t have
link https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-science-behind-honeys-eternal-shelf-life-1218690/
In addition to having a low pH, honey has almost no water content and is loaded with sugar. This helps to dry out any bacteria that attempt to make its home in honey. Any bacteria that find itself in honey will have the water leached out of its cell walls thanks to osmosis.

link http://zidbits.com/2013/07/does-honey-really-last-forever/

Response last updated by gtho4 on Jun 14 2021.
Jan 28 2005, 2:01 AM
wajo
Answer has 1 vote
wajo
21 year member
186 replies

Answer has 1 vote.
We used to have an apiary and it was very annoying when regulations came in requiring us to put a use by date on our honey. If customers queried it we could show them honey dated 1965 that was still fine to eat, though perhaps a little discoloured.

Aug 07 2005, 2:29 PM
avatar
lanfranco
Answer has 1 vote
lanfranco
19 year member
4407 replies avatar

Answer has 1 vote.
I ran into the claim that honey doesn't spoil when I was researching a question on mead, a fermented honey drink. A number of sites stated that perfectly palatable honey had been found in still-sealed jars in Egyptian tombs. However, I was not able to determine exactly which tombs these were and who had found and tasted the honey in question, so I was left with some doubts. I'd love to see some serious scholarly information about this.

I'm also interested by the fact that Luvs put quotation marks around the word "food." Does that have any significance?

Aug 07 2005, 3:35 PM
Brainyblonde
Answer has 6 votes
Brainyblonde
23 year member
1455 replies

Answer has 6 votes.
When fresh honey comes out of the beehive, it is runny and sticky. With time, all true pure honey will crystallize or granulate, but honey will never spoil. Honey was found in the Egyptian tombs and it was still good.

link http://www.marshallshoney.com/t-hfacts.aspx


Response last updated by gtho4 on Jun 14 2021.
Sep 13 2006, 8:26 AM
skysmom65
Answer has 6 votes
skysmom65
19 year member
1504 replies

Answer has 6 votes.
Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible.
link http://www.world-english.org/facts.htm

Sep 21 2006, 7:29 PM
avatar
myrab51 star
Answer has 10 votes
myrab51 star
17 year member
256 replies avatar

Answer has 10 votes.
Honey is the only food that does not spoil. In fact, this has been proven even by archaeologists, who tasted the honey that was kept in the pyramids and tombs of the pharaohs of Egypt and found that the honey was still edible. However, honey is a hygroscopic product. In other words, if it is left exposed, honey readily absorbs moisture from the atmosphere, expands, gets diluted, and then begins to ferment. It is for this reason that honey must always be stored in a jar with a screw-top lid, which should be sealed tightly to prevent moisture from entering the jar.

link http://www.blurtit.com/q579777.html

Nov 07 2007, 7:52 PM
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