[LMB] OT: old honey

[Mark Allums]

Bear Master wrote:
> On Jan 25, 2008 4:55 PM, Joel Polowin <jpolowin at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I don't see why a honey solution would be any more likely to spoil
>> than a sugar solution of the same concentration.
>>
> At a guess, honey is made of monosaccrides, mostly glucose, and sugar is a
> disaccaride, a glucose and fructose radical stuck together.  It takes an
> enzyme to break down sugar into monosaccarides before they can be
> metabolized (in humans the enzyme is found in saliva), and (again I'm
> guessing) there may be more bacteria without that enzyme than with it.

Also, my guess is (unpasteurized) honey may contain some bacteria that 
sugar lacks.  Honey is mostly sugar but contains small amounts of many 
other things, e.g., inevitably a little pollen.

--Mark Allums