Can raw honey spoil?

Raw honey never spoils in a way that can be hazardous to health if eaten. “Raw” foods carry an implication of reduced safety. This is understandable given how raw dairy products caused much illness and death prior to the discovery of pasteurization. While “pasteurized” often indicates increased food safety, this is not the case with honey. There is nothing safer about pasteurized honey compared to raw honey.

The good news is that raw honey is an exceptionally safe natural food and can withstand months or even years of storage at ambient temperatures without becoming hazardous to eat. While the “perfectly good 3000-year-old honey” found in the pyramids is somewhat apocryphal, the story does attest to natural honey’s incredible food safety.

The quality of freshness of any raw honey will change over time with exposure light and heat. We encourage you to store your raw honey properly to extend its freshness.  It is an unprocessed food and naturally contains yeast, which can cause honey to ferment over weeks to months if stored in a warm, humid environment (like most kitchens).

Wendell Estate Honey’s low moisture content prevents fermentation. However, honey is strongly hygroscopic and readily absorbs water vapor from the air. This occurs even in unopened jars, but at a much slower rate. Honey exposed to heat and humidity loses freshness over time, first turning dark yellow in color and then yellow-brown and developing bubbles and froth on the surface accompanied by a “yeasty” odor and sour taste. Eating fermented honey poses no health risk whatsoever, but many people find the sour taste unpleasant. Fermented foods and drinks are currently enjoying popularity among health-conscious consumers for their health benefits.

Pictured above: A jar of honey that has fermented due to being opened and then forgotten for over a year in my kitchen cupboard. The dark color, separation of liquid and solid phases, bubbles and sour odor readily give away the fermented state. Not pretty, and with a yeasty, sour taste, but I ate a spoonful (for science) with no fear of any side effects (and there were, of course, no ill effects). Our raw honey’s striking, naturally white color gives it a built in freshness indicator: as the honey color darkens, it indicates increasing loss of freshness (and flavor and health benefits).

Storage instructions for soft-set raw honey can be found here.