Honey never spoils — even after thousands of years

1Archaeologists have opened Egyptian tombs to find honey thousands of years old — still perfectly good. The secret is chemistry: honey is extremely high in sugar and low in water, so any microbe that arrives is dried out; the acidity helps, and an enzyme bees add produces tiny amounts of hydrogen peroxide, making life even harder for bacteria.

2If your honey turns grainy and solid, it has not spoiled — the sugars have simply crystallised. Stand the jar in warm water and it flows again.

3One important exception: honey must never be given to infants under one year old (risk of botulism). That is a medical consensus — and has nothing to do with spoilage.