Literally nothing can live in pure water. What matters is everything else in the Popsicle, which is mostly processed sugar. Processed sugar is a preservative and will prevent bacterial growth.
Sugar can refer to any sweet-tasting carbohydrate, but most commonly the word refers to glucose, sucrose or fructose. There are bacteria which can consume all of these. “Processing”, at most, might break down sucrose into the other two, but that’s not a significant change.
Nothing can survive in pure anything. Any substance is lethal if an organism is entirely immersed in it. Sugars or starches are a bacterial favourite, but yes, they too kill in high enough concentrations.
But not because they are intrinsically antibacterial. You’re not wrong to say that sugar is a preservative, but it’s still just sugar. The difference is in how much of it there is.
The water in a Popsicle isn’t pure water. There’s other shit in water. Hate to break it to you but there’s also other shit in the water in your tap or that they use to make food. It’s not all the most chemically pure water on the planet. Sugar in a high enough concentration is a preservative, doubt they’ve reached that in a Popsicle. If you make like concentrated simple syrup which is 2:1 it sort of is, but I think that’s only shelf stable for a few months. That’s basically liquid sugar at that point though and way more than is in a Popsicle. In lower amounts sugar basically acts as food for bacteria.
I got curious so I tried googling what concentration of sugar actually inhibit bacterial growth. According to this paper, it varied according to sugar type and bacteria species, but generally inhibition started at ~5% concentration for sucrose and ~10% for fructose, with maximum inhibition at ~35% sugar concentration. Popsicles can contain 15% sugar or more, so bacteria might not be able to grow effectively there, though growth still does happen.
Literally nothing can live in pure water. What matters is everything else in the Popsicle, which is mostly processed sugar. Processed sugar is a preservative and will prevent bacterial growth.
What exactly do you mean by processed sugar?
Sugar can refer to any sweet-tasting carbohydrate, but most commonly the word refers to glucose, sucrose or fructose. There are bacteria which can consume all of these. “Processing”, at most, might break down sucrose into the other two, but that’s not a significant change.
Nothing can survive in pure anything. Any substance is lethal if an organism is entirely immersed in it. Sugars or starches are a bacterial favourite, but yes, they too kill in high enough concentrations.
But not because they are intrinsically antibacterial. You’re not wrong to say that sugar is a preservative, but it’s still just sugar. The difference is in how much of it there is.
Slight correction, but sucrose breaks down into the other two
Thanks. Corrected.
The water in a Popsicle isn’t pure water. There’s other shit in water. Hate to break it to you but there’s also other shit in the water in your tap or that they use to make food. It’s not all the most chemically pure water on the planet. Sugar in a high enough concentration is a preservative, doubt they’ve reached that in a Popsicle. If you make like concentrated simple syrup which is 2:1 it sort of is, but I think that’s only shelf stable for a few months. That’s basically liquid sugar at that point though and way more than is in a Popsicle. In lower amounts sugar basically acts as food for bacteria.
I got curious so I tried googling what concentration of sugar actually inhibit bacterial growth. According to this paper, it varied according to sugar type and bacteria species, but generally inhibition started at ~5% concentration for sucrose and ~10% for fructose, with maximum inhibition at ~35% sugar concentration. Popsicles can contain 15% sugar or more, so bacteria might not be able to grow effectively there, though growth still does happen.