Nature has presented the world with bees - unique workers. They produce honey, propolis, royal jelly and pollen. All these beekeeping products treat many diseases, increase immunity, and restore vigor. And giving up their poison when bitten (very useful, by the way), the bees die. But this is not the main thing. Honey is of great value. But it's one thing to buy a real one, and another to keep it longer.

Features of honey

Honey is a sweet, viscous mass of amber color. And again, it's impossible not to admire these winged manufacturers. To make 100 g of a natural product, they need to collect nectar from over a million flowers. Then the insects process it and seal it into honeycombs, which they themselves also build with the precision of a mathematician. Each corner in a cell is 109.28 °. Almost the entire population of the hive is involved in the processing of nectar.

What to store

This beekeeping product contains a large amount of minerals and vitamins. To replenish the stock of these substances, you need to eat 1 tbsp daily. a spoonful of this amazing nectar. This is where the question arises: where and in what way will it preserve its beneficial substances best. Are plastic containers suitable for storing it, or will it be better preserved in dishes made of other materials, such as glass or ceramics?

When stored properly, honey will be beneficial for a long time

Wasp trap from a plastic bottle

Storage containers must be perfectly dry and clean. You need to wash it with laundry soap and rinse thoroughly. It is not recommended to use detergents, since after their use a thin film remains, which is difficult to wash off and will interact with the product.

Important! You cannot pour fresh honey into the remains of the old one, it can ferment and deteriorate.

If honey is stored in large quantities (for example, your own apiary), then the ideal containers for storing it would be aluminum alloy flasks, stainless steel, and glass jars. It can also be stored in wooden tubs, but the choice of material must be approached carefully. All beekeeping products absorb odors, so not all wood is suitable. For example, you should not choose containers from spruce, pine, as they have a specific aroma, as well as aspen, which will give a bitter taste. Containers are absolutely not suitable for storing this sweet product, which include:

  • zinc;
  • copper;
  • lead.

There is acid in honey, which, interacting with metals, forms toxic substances.

Is it possible to store honey in a plastic container

How to make a useful thing for the home from a 5-liter plastic bottle

Recently, plastic has become part of the everyday life of modern people. A great variety of all kinds of containers, jars and bottles have been released. It is allowed to keep honey in plastic for no more than a year, since it is a biologically active product. If it stays in such a container longer, it can absorb chemical impurities present in plastic dishes.

In terms of their composition, plastic dishes can be designed for different purposes and, therefore, made from different materials. For food and non-food products, for cold and hot. And honey must be stored in a container on which there is an image of a glass with a fork or marking PP, PP or 5.It means that polypropylene is used in the production of these containers - a durable and safe material that can be heated to 130 ° C and cooled to -40 ° C.

Is it possible to store honey in a plastic container

Having decided whether it is possible to store honey in plastic containers, you need to clarify in what way it is best stored: in a container or bottle.

It is convenient to pour it into storage containers or buckets with an adjacent lid. But such containers have a slight drawback - the cap does not fit as tightly as a bottle or a container with a screw cap. Therefore, honey can be saturated with side odors. Therefore, it is best to keep it in a container with screw lids. As long as it is liquid, it is easy to pour into a bottle, and after crystallization, the plastic is easy to cut.

Storage

To preserve a natural product longer, you need to take into account several nuances:

Temperature

How to store honey in combs

The beneficial properties of honey are preserved for a long time, provided that it is stored correctly. What container can be used to store this useful product has already been discussed. Now you need to decide where it should be stored and what air temperature is most favorable for this. For better preservation of honey, a temperature of -6 ° C to 20 ° C is required. In the room, of course, it is above 20 ° C, therefore, it is not recommended to keep this product in the apartment for a long time (more than one year). A cellar or a cool basement is just that. At temperatures above 35 ° C, vitamins begin to disappear from honey, if it is heated even more, then enzymes disintegrate, and bactericidal properties disappear. The product is no longer curative, but just a delicacy.

Note! At low temperatures (below -20 ° C), it hardens, but this is not a problem, since it retains all its medicinal properties.

Humidity

Honey, like other beekeeping products, absorbs moisture very well. In high humidity, this nectar can ferment. Therefore, its storage provides for the presence of a hermetically sealed container.

Important! Whenever possible, when storing honey, it is necessary to ensure a constant temperature, otherwise crystallization (a natural process) will occur unevenly.

Smells

Just like water, honey absorbs odors quickly. Therefore, it should be kept away from foods such as:

  • fuels and lubricants;
  • toxic substances;
  • paints and varnishes;
  • polymer products.

Even a tightly closed container will not prevent these odors from penetrating the honey.

Honey in plastic containers

Illumination

Direct sunlight will kill the antimicrobial qualities of honey, so keep it in a dark place.

Important! If honey has darkened, thickened, crystallized during storage, these are normal phenomena for it. Moreover, if it suddenly did not thicken, then there are no healing properties in it, which means that a counterfeit was bought.

Can honey be stored in the refrigerator

In a city apartment, a refrigerator is the best storage for this sweetness: the temperature conditions are suitable, it remains the same both in winter and in summer, the sun's rays do not fall, the humidity is also not very high. This means that if the container with honey is tightly closed (better with a screw lid), then you can store this product in the refrigerator.

From the above, we can conclude that it is allowed to store honey in plastic containers. But, if you need to save it for a longer time, then it is better to use glass jars, aluminum flasks or enameled containers for this purpose.