Honey Jar Sterilisation

[masterBK]

I've spent the morning rinsing my jars and drying them in the oven - 10 minutes at 160 degrees fan. The lids spent a few minutes in a saucepan of boiling water and were hand-dried. It's probably the most boring part of beekeeping, but I do it every year.
I have thought about putting them in the dishwasher, but it holds too few jars, and would need several loads If you have 200 - 300 lbs of honey to jar up.
Perhaps next year I'll just trust the cleanliness of the factory.

With three hives why would you be jarring up 300lbs of honey? With 25 production colonies I store honey in food grade polybuckets with lids and bottle up as and when I need to.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

With three hives why would you be jarring up 300lbs of honey?

100 lbs per hive, sounds like a reasonable crop for a half competent beekeeper to me - perhaps not this year though

 

[GuyNir]

Personally, I dishwasher clean my new jars as I have found straight out he box they are a bit dull and dusty - nothing to do wither sterilising them though.

I do the same. Comes out clean, dry & fresh. Only jars in the washer, not too full. Bottling straight from the dishwasher once the jars have cooled down.

 

[thorn]

I do the same. Comes out clean, dry & fresh. Only jars in the washer, not too full. Bottling straight from the dishwasher once the jars have cooled down.

how many jars can you do at a time?

 

[GuyNir]

how many jars can you do at a time?

I’m doing 20-40 at a time. Keep it in buckets and jarring when needed.

 

[drex]

My bacteriology training suggests sterilising jars without sterilising the honey is a waste of time. Who wants sterilised honey?

 

[Curly green finger's]

I use boiling water from the kettle to clean out any dust from new jars.
In one of the boxes some of the jars had bits of cardboard.

I fill the jar up to ruffle an inch put the lid on, and leave for a minute then shake the jar like your making a cocktail
Tip the boiled water out and put each jar upside down to dry with the lids.

When you come to fill the jars ill pick a jar up and shake any excess water out by this time most are dry anyway.. Then the filling process . I'm on my 5th box.

 

[Speybee]

My bacteriology training suggests sterilising jars without sterilising the honey is a waste of time. Who wants sterilised honey?

I would have thought that the honey if ripened, would have less than 17% water and with the sugar content of the honey being so high, this would not support bacterial growth in a heat sterilised jar that had been been in an oven for 10mins.
Heating honey would denature it and be only fit for sale as Bakers Honey.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I would have thought that the honey if ripened, would have less than 17% water and with the sugar content of the honey being so high, this would not support bacterial growth

Which begs the question - why sterilise?

 

[Karol]

To properly sterilize jars requires a temperature in excess of 160°C for two hours. Anything less doesn't cut it. What is absolutely critical is that the jars are clean and above all bone dry. Honey is self preserving provided that the amount of water in the honey is kept below the water of activation level. Beware condensation, i.e. working with cold jars brought into a humid warm room. Could be enough to tip water concentration above the water of activation thresh hold.

If you're going to use a dishwasher I suggest running a couple cycles first with a proprietory dishwasher cleanser followed by a standard cycle otherwise there's a risk of contamination from carry over left in the dishwasher.

Best is to use new virgin jars preferably sold in sealed plastic wrapped trays certified clean.

 

[Karol]

Which begs the question - why sterilise?

Because honey is not sporicidal so if it becomes contaminated with spores from handling/packing processes those spores may then become activated later down the line when honey is consumed in food preparation where water content is elevated.

 

[pargyle]

I always use new jars when selling. I never wash them, I always visually check them. I think I would add more germs by washing and drying. I only use my second hand jars for me. I never take jars back in case they have used them for other purposes. If they get left on my doorstep I recycle them in the glass bin
E

That's what I do as well ... saves any problems.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Best is to use new virgin jars preferably sold in sealed plastic wrapped trays certified clean.

And boiling the honey for at least ten minutes

 

[ericbeaumont]

I'm interested to know what process is used to sterilise jars for the mid size organisations. What is the sterilisation process and how do you do it?

I don't and I won't; as Enrico and Drex point out, it's counter-productive to try to clean and no way to sterilise at home even if you wanted to. I've bottled a few thousand Freeman & Harding shrink-wrapped jars and only once in about ten years have I found anything in a jar (cardboard scraps, I think).

Think of the time saved! No more faffing!

 

[Karol]

And boiling the honey for at least ten minutes

Is that for pasteurization or sterilization?

 

[Leigh]

Jars from most of the suppliers are described as "clean but not sterile". There is no need to sterilise because of the nature of honey, BUT there is often a slight bloom on jars whether palleted or in boxes which I think is from the manufacturing process. We use a commercial glass washer (effectively a small dishwasher but with a 2 min cycle) which removes the bloom and also any small fragments of glass that might be lurking. Breakages happen in the factory and in transit and tiny bits of broken glass somehow stick to the sides...not sure how, maybe static. The very least you should do is a thorough visual check for these little bits (you might look at thousands before you encounter any), or for complete peace of mind, put them through a dishwasher.

 

[Newbeeneil]

I don't and I won't; as Enrico and Dfrex point out, it's counter-productive to try to clean and no way to sterilise at home even if you wanted to. I've bottled a few thousand Freeman & Harding shrink-wrapped jars and only once in about ten years have I found anything in a jar (cardboard scraps, I think).

Think of the time saved! No more faffing!

I use F&H direct from the shrink wrapped trays but had my first ever breakage from one of the very effectively bubble wrapped parcels. That tray will go through the dish washer!

 

[Karol]

Jars from most of the suppliers are described as "clean but not sterile". There is no need to sterilise because of the nature of honey, BUT there is often a slight bloom on jars whether palleted or in boxes which I think is from the manufacturing process. We use a commercial glass washer (effectively a small dishwasher but with a 2 min cycle) which removes the bloom and also any small fragments of glass that might be lurking. Breakages happen in the factory and in transit and tiny bits of broken glass somehow stick to the sides...not sure how, maybe static. The very least you should do is a thorough visual check for these little bits (you might look at thousands before you encounter any), or for complete peace of mind, put them through a dishwasher.

Presumably you use Type II glass jars, hence the bloom which comes from a sulphur coating that is used to anneal the glass. Honey being acidic will over time react with the alkali in Type III glass. The coating applied to Type II glass helps prevent this reaction but does require a wash to get rid of the bloom. Some manufacturers will do this as part of their process which makes their jars slightly more expensive but removes the pfaff.

 

[Speybee]

Which begs the question - why sterilise?

Good point Sir....now that you mention it.
I still sterilise my jars and lids using the oven method as I always do this when I make jams and chutneys....old habits dying hard.
It’s part of my due diligence in packing procedure for jams, jellies and chutneys, where jars are checked for debris and pre-cleaned using the oven method....and it’s spilled over into the honey extraction and jarring process now.
I write up my batch number book for jams etc to include
Ingredients check
Preparation and pre-clean ingredients check
Cooking pre-cleaned ingredients check
Packing pre-clean jars check
Sample of the label.
BRIX sugar%. For jams and jellies.
Acidity ph less than 5, for chutneys and pickles.

For honey it’s
Preparation and pre-clean ingredients check ( don’t want the odd wee leg floating around)
Packing pre-clean jars check.
BRIX and H2O %.check
Sample of label.

 

[ldwgs]

I'm interested to know what process is used to sterilise jars for the mid size organisations. I get that you can boil jars in a pan or put them on a shelf in the oven but what about those with hundreds of jars each harvest?

I would imagine the people doing thousands of jars have expensive commercial equipment or get someone else to bottle the honey. Also those with maybe 100 jars probably do it in the oven but what about the people in between that are not doing it in their kitchen?

If you have around 50 hives and supply local shops etc. What is the sterilisation process and how do you do it?