Have you ever wondered how to keep raw honey at its best for as long as possible?
Honey is one of nature’s powerhouse foods. It’s sweet, it provides energy and nutrition, and is one of the longest-lasting foods in the world. Its shelf life is thousands of years when stored properly.
But you probably aren’t planning to store raw honey for thousands of years. You’re planning to eat it while it’s at its best.
Unfiltered raw honey is a living food that has…
- antioxidants
- minerals
- vitamins
- amino acids
- enzymes
- probiotics
- carbohydrates
- bee pollen
- essential fatty acids
- micronutrients
- a diverse microbial community
- antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties
Every year, honeybees turn perishable nectar and pollen into raw honey that’s at peak nutritional value. Honey doesn’t expire . . . but it does slowly lose nutritional value over time.
So how can you ensure that your raw honey stays at its best when it’s only harvested once or twice a year?
We’re giving you several storage tips that will keep your raw honey in tip-top shape. Don’t worry, they’re really easy to implement! 🙂
Keep raw honey sealed.
Keep the lid firmly closed.
When honey is open to the air, it is affected by moisture and by air.
Honey absorbs moisture from the air, and as we all know in the South, air has plenty of humidity! An airtight seal will keep your honey safe from added moisture and will also limit air exposure. Oxidation damages some of the components in honey.
We sell our honey in BPA-free glass jars with canning lids. This gives our honey a very tight seal and is perfect for storage. We recommend keeping our honey sealed in the jar for long-term storage.
Keep raw honey cool.
Store your honey somewhere that stays cool.
Heat actively destroys raw honey. Since Cotton Patch Farms honey is not pasteurized or filtered, it retains a lot of living components. The best way to preserve your raw honey is to avoid heat and keep it somewhere cool.
For best shelf life, store raw honey in the freezer. Studies show that honey stored in the freezer stays a lot fresher than honey stored at room temperature. Plus, honey does not expand when it’s frozen, so it’s perfectly safe to put your jar of honey in the freezer. Just make sure that when you take honey out of the freezer, you give it plenty of time to warm up to room temperature before opening the jar.
Raw honey can also be stored at room temperature. It will age faster than honey stored in the freezer, but so long as it is kept away from heat sources, it will stay quite stable.
Keep raw honey dry.
Don’t introduce moisture.
Honey is really, really good at absorbing water, but extra water leads to fermentation and spoilage.
Make sure that the lid stays tightly closed to keep humidity out.
If your honey was stored at a different temperature than room temperature, give it plenty of time to adjust before opening the jar so that you won’t introduce moisture.
Once you start using your honey, always use a dry utensil to scoop out honey.
Keep raw honey dark.
Store your honey in the dark.
Some components in raw honey are reactive to light and will break down over time as they’re exposed to it.
Store honey in the dark when possible and out of bright light.
Just to summarize…
If you want to keep your raw honey at its best, we recommend storing it in the freezer until you are ready to use it.
If you want to keep your current jar as fresh as possible, we recommend keeping it in the pantry, using a dry spoon, and keeping the lid closed between servings.
Proper storage makes a big difference in the quality of raw honey. There’s no way to stop time from affecting honey, but following these tips will help your raw honey keep its wonderful properties for as long as possible.
And of course, if you find yourself eating all of it right away, just remind yourself that fresh raw honey is the best kind of honey. Mmm!
Are you looking for recipes that use raw honey without heating it? We’d love to send you our free raw honey recipe book, including Caleb’s favorite frozen yogurt.
Links
Storage and how it affects honey: https://ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1750-3841.16921
