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.
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.