Sunday, May 3, 2009

Food that don't go off!!!

"Honey is the only food consumed by humans that don’t go off."

Honey is a sweet fluid produced by honey bees (and some other species)[1] and derived from the nectar of flowers. 

Honey gets its sweetness from the monosaccharides fructose and glucose and has approximately the same relative sweetness as that of granulated sugar (97% of the sweetness of sucrose, a disaccharide).[4][5] Honey has attractive chemical properties for baking, and a distinctive flavor which leads some people to prefer it over sugar and other sweeteners. Most micro-organisms do not grow in honey because of its low water activity of 0.6. 

However, honey frequently[citation needed] contains dormantendospores of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which can be dangerous to infants as the endospores can transform into toxin-producing bacteria in the infant's immature intestinal tract, leading to illness and even death (see Potential health hazards below).

The study of pollens and spores in raw honey (melissopalynology) can determine floral sources of honey. Because bees carry an electrostatic charge, and can attract other particles, the same techniques of melissopalynology can be used in area environmental studies of radioactive particles,dust, or particulate pollution. A main effect of bees collecting nectar to make honey is pollination, which is crucial for flowering plants.



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