Royal Jelly Storage Jars

Royal jelly storage jars are small containers with airtight lids that protect fresh royal jelly from light, air, moisture and odours from harvest to consumption, and that withstand cold and freezing. The best choice is a dark (e.g. brown) glass jar; food-grade, light-proof plastic containers are also used. However good the container, what really preserves the quality of royal jelly is an unbroken cold chain.

Why is royal jelly stored in special containers?

Royal jelly is a thick secretion produced by the hypopharyngeal and mandibular glands in the heads of young nurse worker bees; about two-thirds of it is water, and it is rich in proteins, sugars and fatty acids. This makes it not a durable product like honey but a perishable one.

• Heat: Its components change relatively quickly at room temperature; a cold chain is essential.
• Light: Light, especially sunlight, speeds up deterioration.
• Air: Contact with oxygen causes changes in colour and taste; the more often the container is opened, the more the product is affected.
• Moisture and odours: The product can lose water or pick up surrounding smells.
• Acidity: Royal jelly is acidic; in contact with reactive metals its taste and colour can be spoiled.

The storage container is the first line of defence against most of these effects. When the cold chain is broken, the product may look unchanged but loses quality; the buyer cannot detect this deterioration, and the responsibility lies entirely with the producer.

Which container material is suitable?

Being able to see the product in a clear container may appeal to buyers, but light damages it. If a clear container is used, the product must always be kept in a dark refrigerator or inside a light-proof box.

What should the lid be like?

• Airtight: Screw lids with an inner gasket minimise contact with air and refrigerator odours.
• Inner surface: Any inner surface that may touch the product must be food-grade plastic or coated; a bare metal lid must not come into contact with the acidic product.
• Freeze resistance: Choose material that does not crack, harden or break in the freezer.
• Tamper evidence: For products offered for sale, tamper-evident lids (with a safety ring or seal) build trust.

How do you choose the jar size?

For royal jelly, the small container rule applies. A large jar exposes all of the product to air and temperature changes every time it is opened. Frozen product, once thawed, must not be refrozen.

• Collection container: Several small containers are used during harvest; each one is closed and cooled as soon as it is full.
• Storage container: For long-term storage, the producer keeps the product in freezer-safe containers divided into portions.
• Consumer container: Small jars of a few tens of grams hold an amount that will be used up soon after opening.

How do you prepare and fill the jars? Step by step

1. Clean: Wash new or used glass jars in lukewarm water and rinse so that no detergent residue remains.
2. Sterilise: Sterilise glass jars by heat treatment in boiling water or in the oven; clean the lid gaskets as the manufacturer recommends.
3. Cool and dry completely: Royal jelly is never put into a hot or damp jar.
4. Fill in a cold, clean environment: In a cool, dust-free, bee-proof room, wearing gloves and a cap.
5. Little air, small margin: Keep the container as full as possible; if it is to be frozen, leave a very small margin at the top for expansion on freezing.
6. Clean the rim: Wipe any product on the rim of the jar with clean paper; otherwise the lid will not sit properly.
7. Close, label, cool: The lid is closed tightly, the label applied and the jar placed in the refrigerator or freezer without delay.

At what temperature is royal jelly stored?

• Short term: In the refrigerator, at about 0–5 °C. The inner door shelves are unsuitable because their temperature fluctuates; the back shelves are preferred.
• Long term: In the freezer, at −18 °C or below.
• Thawing: Frozen product is thawed slowly in the refrigerator, not at room temperature or in warm water. Thawed product is not refrozen.
• Transport: It is carried from the apiary to the processing area and point of sale in a cool box with ice packs.
• Records: Put a thermometer in the refrigerator and freezer and record the temperature regularly.

What should the label say?

• Product name: Fresh royal jelly; that it is not a blend, or the contents of the blend if it is.
• Harvest date and batch number: For traceability.
• Storage conditions: "Store at 0–5 °C" or "Store frozen at −18 °C; do not refreeze once thawed".
• Producer details and other information required by food labelling legislation.

Products for sale must not carry claims of treating or preventing disease on the label; since allergic reactions to royal jelly have been reported, adding a warning is good practice.

Freeze-dried (lyophilised) royal jelly

The powdered product obtained by removing water from fresh royal jelly by freeze-drying is stored differently from fresh jelly. Because it tends to absorb moisture readily, it is kept in moisture-proof, tightly closed, light-proof containers in a cool, dry place. After opening, the container should be closed again immediately each time.

Common mistakes

• Storing in a large jar: Every time it is opened, all of the product is exposed to air and heat.
• Keeping a clear container in the light: Product sitting in a display case or on a counter soon loses value.
• Letting the inner surface of a metal lid touch the product: The acidic product can react with the metal.
• Filling a warm jar: A container that has not cooled after sterilisation spoils the product.
• Thawing and refreezing: Speeds up loss of quality.