How would mixing sea salt and honey affect the water activity of honey?

Honey has around 20% water content which is one mechanism of it's antibacterial action. If I mixed equal parts of honey and salt how would this affect the water content/activity of honey? Would it lower the content of water and thus provide a stronger antibacterial effect?


Also how would mixing salt with honey affect its other properties?


Thank you.




Any antibacterial effect of honey would need to be determined without salt, first, and then compared with the salt added. 


It would be hard to state that there is *any* antibacterial effect without evidence. It would be interesting to see the results of a careful controlled experiment, with varying concentrations of honey on different bacteria. For example, simply *covering* the growth medium with honey might just prevent growth of aerobic bacteria, as it excludes oxygen, so should not be considered an "antibacterial effect". Comparing the honey with an equally-concentrated sugar solution would help determine if osmosis (or sugar concentration) is the cause of antibacterial actoin.


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The salt will fall out because the 20% water is not enough to dissolve it. Plus many fine salts have anticaking agents such as TriCalcium Phosphate, which are not soluble in water.


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