Honey is a valuable beekeeping product, which must be included in your daily diet. Delicious, nutritious, containing a huge amount of vitamins, it helps support the body in the winter, strengthen immunity, and accelerate recovery from colds. In the season, many tend to stock up with honey, while its cost is the most affordable. However, the question then arises of how to properly store this amazing product, and many suggest that it is best to put it in the cold for better preservation. Whether this is true, we will consider in detail in our article. Is it possible to store honey in the refrigerator, what kind of dishes should I choose and how long will it retain its beneficial properties? Read about all this below.
Choosing the right dish
The duration of storage, as well as the quality of the product that you will consume throughout the season, depends on this. Before answering whether it is possible to store honey in the refrigerator, let's decide in which dishes to pour it. The choice is large enough, you can use ceramic, nickel and enameled dishes. Surely many people immediately come to mind a wooden barrel with honey. This is a very convenient and environmentally friendly tableware, but not every tree species from which it is made will normally adjoin to honey. For example, if it is coniferous, then it can absorb the smell of resin, and in an oak barrel it will darken over time.
An ideal storage option would be a vessel with a tight dark glass lid. Stainless steel cookware works well. Milk cans, cans, plastic buckets, glasses made of aluminum foil - all this can be used to pour honey. Where to put the vessel and is it possible to store honey in the refrigerator? Let's go directly to this.
Dishes that are not suitable for storing honey
First of all, you need to take care of the purity of the future packaging. If honey was previously stored in it, this does not mean at all that you can immediately pour a new batch into it without washing the walls. A film of candied, aged honey promotes the fermentation of a new one. As a result, its taste and smell change.
Since it is sometimes necessary to store honey at home for many months, until the next harvest, it must be remembered that some metals can interact with it. Acids contained in honey react with zinc, copper, lead or alloys of these metals. As a result, chemical compounds are formed that can cause severe poisoning. Iron packaging is also a bad option, as the metal corrodes as a result of prolonged contact with acids. As a result, honey will get an unpleasant odor.
Storage conditions, temperature
Can honey be stored in the refrigerator? Yes, if it has the correct temperature. This range is from -6 to +20 degrees. Therefore, it is undesirable to store it at room temperature , since in apartments it can rise even above 25 degrees. In this case, part of the vitamins is destroyed, and healing properties are lost. In modern refrigerators, you can set the temperature to 0 degrees in a particular chamber and leave jars of honey there. If the thermometer column drops below, then the treat is quickly sugared, but retains all the useful properties.
Important point
By the way, this can be a quality check. If honey remains liquid at sub-zero temperatures, then it is very hot. This is a gross violation. When heated, at least half of its beneficial properties lose honey. Do I need to store in the refrigerator? It is more likely to be related to your living conditions. If there is a cellar or storage, where, as in modern refrigerators, a constant temperature is maintained, then it is quite possible to use them. But in an apartment where there is no pantry or cellar, other options are difficult to find.
Lighting
As you see, you need not only to buy a high-quality, natural product, but also to preserve its properties. Whether honey is stored in the refrigerator, we have already discussed that this option can be ideal for most residential premises, where there is nowhere else to create suitable conditions for it. But what if the chamber is too small, or the volumes of harvested honey are very large? Then you have to choose another option.
Choose the darkest and coolest corner. It can be a cold insert or a cellar. If your winters are not too cold and the temperature on the closed balcony does not drop below -20, then it is quite possible to use it. Such storage will not affect the taste and healing qualities. In winter, honey is mostly stored in crystallized form.
Commodity Neighborhood Rules
If honey is poured into glass jars, then be sure to darken its storage location. It quickly darkens in the light, which can degrade the quality of the product. In 48 hours of continuous sunlight exposure, the enzymes possessing antimicrobial properties are completely destroyed in honey.
Remember that the beekeeping product absorbs odors very well. It is precisely such arguments that some beekeepers make when explaining why honey cannot be stored in the refrigerator. In fact, salads or pastries do not have such a pungent odor that could become noticeable in honey. Rather, it concerns paint, acetone, kerosene and other corrosive substances that are usually stored in cellars or sheds. Therefore, before determining honey for storage, check its neighbors.
Air humidity
And we continue to talk about whether it is possible to store honey in the refrigerator. Why did we decide to remember about air humidity? The fact is that honey is hygroscopic, it is able to absorb moisture from the air and hold it. In conditions of high humidity, being in an open container, it is able to absorb about 30% of moisture. It is clear that unscrupulous beekeepers can use this property, so you need to carefully select suppliers. Such a product, when stored in heat, will very quickly ferment and sour. That is why at home it is easiest to store honey in the refrigerator. It is cool, dark, and the humidity is much lower than in the room. Necessarily the room where the sweet treat is stored needs to be protected from insects. And in this case, the refrigerator is an ideal choice.
Storage time
On the market, we are always assured that honey is fresh, arguing this with its physical condition. Because of this, we have the impression that liquid honey is a good product, and candied honey is old or not very high quality. This is actually not the case. Not all varieties of honey can remain in liquid form. Sunflower crystallizes already two months after pumping, while other varieties may remain liquid from autumn to spring.
In the cold, honey retains its properties longer, but becomes solid after a few days. However, speaking about how much honey can be stored in the refrigerator, you should remember about the purpose of this product. This is a food product for the whole bee family until the next harvest. Accordingly, its shelf life is one year. If you plan to eat a sweet treat during this period, then there is no big difference whether you will keep it in the refrigerator or in a darkened cupboard in the room at temperatures up to +20. By nature itself it is calculated that it will fully retain its properties until the future harvest.
Honey honey
Most often, this product is placed in the refrigerator so that liquid honey does not leak from the honeycomb. After all, there is nothing tastier than fresh honeycombs, filled to the top with fragrant honey. However, to save them for a long time is not particularly difficult. It is necessary to cut the honeycomb into pieces and pack it in clean containers, covering them with lids. Such honey is best stored in a dark, cool room. In the refrigerator, honey will harden and partially lose its charm. However, if there is no other option, then set the temperature from 0 to +4 degrees in one of the compartments of the refrigerator.