Once there was a king of ancient Egypt,
whose name was King Tut. Upon his death
he declared he wanted honeycomb put in his tomb so that he could enjoy it in
next world. Little did he know that 3,000 years later people would find his
tomb and discover the very same honeycomb within. Surprisingly, the honeycomb
was not spoiled and still edible!
Honey never spoils, but why? How is
it that every other food will go bad at some point but honey always stays good?
The answer lies in how honey is made.
When a honeybee makes honey there are a few
things done to the nectar before it turns into honey. First, a honeybee gathers
the nectar from flowers. A honeybee has a long tongue called a proboscis. The
worker bee uses her proboscis to suck up the nectar from the flower and store
it in her special honey stomach. Honeybees have two stomachs, their regular
stomach that they eat with and their honey stomach that they use to store
nectar and make honey. Some people also call it a honey sack. Once their honey
sack is full they will fly back to the hive. As they fly, the honeybee mixes
three enzymes into the nectar. It is one of these specific enzymes makes the
honey never spoil.
Once the
honeybee gets back to the hive she dehydrates the nectar by fanning
her wings to remove most of the water. After the nectar is dehydrated it
becomes honey and is placed into a wax cell.
The cell is capped over with wax, which acts as a lid to keep the honey
clean.
Honey will never spoil as long as
nothing else is added to it. However, if honey is not properly dehydrated and the
water content is too high, the honey will ferment but not spoil. Also, honey can crystalize. This does not mean the honey is bad, this
means the liquid honey begins to thicken and become solid by forming sugar
crystals. If honey becomes crystalized, it can be returned to normal by warming
it at a low temperature. It is important
that the temperature is not too hot so that beneficial enzymes in the honey are
not harmed.
When the honey was found in King Tut’s tomb, people were able to taste
it because honeybees added a specific enzyme 3,000 years ago! Because of the
honeybee and their special enzymes, honey never spoils and can last forever! Honey
is an amazing topic and we learn more about it all the time.
