Best Before Date
By the Food Sanitation Act, every edible product must come with a best before date.
These best before dates are carefully assessed to ensure their validity. If an item is deemed to be best up to 1 year after manufacturing, the item is monitored and tested over 14 months. Typically, honey is said to be best 2 to 5years after manufacturing.
However, it is important to note that these dates are not expiration dates.
In fact, honey is widely known to be an effective emergency-food. This is because, despite the label, honey generally does not spoil.
The low moisture and high sugar content in honey makes it impossible for bacteria to survive if stored properly.
Because of its high antibacterial properties, it is said that honey was used as an embalming agent in Ancient Egypt.Indeed, when historians discovered 3000 year old honey from an Egyptian tomb in 2005, it was deemed to be in perfectly edible condition!
The same applies to the jar of Mānuka honey in your pantry. With proper storage (that is, sealed and without adding any moisture), it should be just fine to eat, regardless of the label.