Honey Jar steralisation

[TLil]

Hi
Newbie here.
Just extracted our first super of honey and will be decanting into jars soon.
As we have produced jam in previous years we are quite familiar with the process for steralising jars. However the jam is sealed with celophane and waxed paper so can anyone suggest how metal jar lids are steralised?

The other issue is how long can we leave the honey in a large sealed plastic bucket which it is only half filling?

Cheers

Tim

 

[VEG]

It will keep in a sealed bucket for years, but may set. Lids I put in boiling water.

 

[MuswellMetro]

It will keep in a sealed bucket for years, but may set.

yep,agree, as long as it is sealed as it can absorb water , Sealed honey in buckets has an almost indefinate shelf life due to the high concentration of sugar, no problem with half buckets

tends to darken after a year or two thought,

the best before date can be up to five years after bottling, but that's the bottling date not extraction date.

i do wash the jar in a dishwasher prior to bottling but do not steralise them and soak the lids in boiled water, mainly to get rid of dust

 

[Frisbee]

Just extracted our first super of honey and will be decanting into jars soon.
Cheers

Tim

I would just say (as the rest has been covered nicely) don't jar yet. You need to wait and see what your honey does........will it stay runny, set in a fine crystal or set rock hard......quite possibly the latter, in which case trying to get rock hard honey out of a jar is no joke.

There is plenty of advice on here as to how to produce soft set honey.

Leave it for 4 - 6 months unless you plan on eating it pretty quickly.

Frisbee

 

[Peter Cox]

The simple way is to go and buy a jar of creamed honey and then mix it at a roughly 1:10 ratio with your liquid honey, i.e. 1 lb of creamed honey to 10 lb of liquid honey and then let it set in a cool environment, around 55-60f is good, like a basement. If you have more liquid honey you now have 11 lbs of starter to continue.
The principal is to seed the liquid honey will fine crystal creamed honey to create more fine crystal honey rather than the large crystals produced in natural crystallization

 

[psafloyd]

yep,agree, as long as it is sealed as it can absorb water , Sealed honey in buckets has an almost indefinate shelf life due to the high concentration of sugar, no problem with half buckets

tends to darken after a year or two thought,

the best before date can be up to five years after bottling, but that's the bottling date not extraction date.

i do wash the jar in a dishwasher prior to bottling but do not steralise them and soak the lids in boiled water, mainly to get rid of dust

The dishwasher trick is a good one for making jam/chutney, with the jars then used hot. THat probably isn't crucial for honey, so easier to handle.

 

[Rosti]

As above, I use the dishwasher trick, the hot air drying stage acts as the microbial sterlisation stage and the fact that the jars are inverted and then rinsed acts as your physical foreign body removal due diligence - for adhering debris, glass fragments in particular, or any other physical foreign body contamination from any failure within the manufacturing process, damage in transit or storage. My HACCP plan as submitted to the Local Authority Food Safety Team identifies this as a Critical Control Point (Physical & Microbial). R

 

[greatbritishhoney]

If you are just doing it on a small scale then a steam seriliser (the type you use for babies' bottles) works quite well for lids. They will stay sterile for 24hrs in the steriliser (as long as you leave the cover closed).

 

[victor meldrew]

If you are just doing it on a small scale then a steam seriliser (the type you use for babies' bottles) works quite well for lids. They will stay sterile for 24hrs in the steriliser (as long as you leave the cover closed).

I always replace lids , steel and acidic honey react with each other ,even an imperceptible break in the lids' varnish it enough to initiate the production of a black residue

John Wilkinson

 

[greatbritishhoney]

I always replace lids , steel and acidic honey react with each other ,even an imperceptible break in the lids' varnish it enough to initiate the production of a black residue

John Wilkinson

I agree John - I don't re-use lids or jars.
But I sterilse all the new lids and jars.

 

[victor meldrew]

I agree John - I don't re-use lids or jars.
But I sterilse all the new lids and jars.

I reuse jars returned with my label intact from trusted regular customers who are likely to get their own recycled jars back

John Wilkinson

 

[MuswellMetro]

As above, I use the dishwasher trick, the hot air drying stage acts as the microbial sterlisation stage and the fact that the jars are inverted and then rinsed acts as your physical foreign body removal due diligence - for adhering debris, glass fragments in particular, or any other physical foreign body contamination from any failure within the manufacturing process, damage in transit or storage. My HACCP plan as submitted to the Local Authority Food Safety Team identifies this as a Critical Control Point (Physical & Microbial). R

Rosti

did the LAFST require you to have a level 2 NVQ in Manufacturing Food Safety

 

[Rosti]

Rosti

did the LAFST require you to have a level 2 NVQ in Manufacturing Food Safety

Nah, but it's the day job innit; that and the fact I'm a sad anally retentive food science/technologist with nothing better to do and poor social skills ta'boot!