why is it things like honey can never go bad?
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Bacteria grows in places with moisture. Honey has barely any moisture at all. Without bacteria, it will stay safe. Honey is also acidic, bacteria doesn’t like acidic things. The bees also add an enzyme to it that produces hydrogen peroxide. This has antibacterial properties. These 3 things keep it from spoiling.
Microorganisms cause food to go bad. The high sugar content in the honey means it has less water in it than inside the microorganism. By a process called osmosis, water moves from an area where there is more water (the cell) to an area where there is less water (the sugary honey) and the microorganism dies, as most living things need water to survive.
For bacteria or fungus to grow it needs to be in a growth medium of some sort., typically something with water. As part of ‘the manufacture’ of honey as it were, the bees evaporate off the water, which means there is nothing that fungus or bacteria can grow in.
Jamming works in a similar way, except by locking the water into a jelly (and evapourating a fair amount first). This is also why when someone uses the butter or margarine knife to get out jam, and leaves a little bit in the jam jar it immediately goes crazy with fungus and things, as suddenly this food rich resource has a good growth medium in it.
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