How can sugar act like a food preservative when it’s said to attract bacteria?

Question

How can sugar act like a food preservative when it’s said to attract bacteria?

In: 1

Answer 1

You need very, very, very high concentrations of sugar.

And it works due to osmosis.

Osmosis is a process where water is naturally draw from areas of high concentration to low concentration.

So if you put bacteria, a little cell full of water it needs, into a very high sugar concentration like honey, all that sugar actually pulls the water out of the bacteria, killing it.