why does sugar prevent bacteria from growing on fruit?

2 responses so far ↓

• 1 grandmaster_guru // Nov 9, 2008

  are you sure that it does? i mean a lot of bacteria consume sugar and/or any other carbohydrate for food

• 2 ann1eee // Nov 9, 2008

  I’m not sure about sugar on fruit, but in foods such as honey, it is highly unlikely to find a bacteria growing on it when you leave it on a counter for a very long time. The reason for this is that sugars make water diffuse into a cell, thus making any bacteria cell fill up with water until it lyses. This has to do with the osmotic pressure.