It can be interesting to look at familiar things from a different, sometimes bizarre, angle. We don't usually think about it, but many everyday products are brands promoted by humanity with valuable properties inherent in each of them. For example, bread is perceived as a certain noble product, created by hard human labor, which, even in difficult times, can satisfy a person and satisfy his hunger. Milk, and always with the “country” characteristic, gives strength and health to our main hope in life - children vacationing outside the city with their grandparents. What is honey associated with? Perhaps honey is a healing, mysterious formula of the fields and its main experts and guardians - bees.
Unfortunately, in our times, an aura of mystery and secrecy is inherent not only in honey, but also in any product. It is very difficult to guess from what and under what conditions they make what they sell. There are several relatively simple ways to test honey for some parameters, although not all of them. Only a laboratory can give the most complete assessment. But some things can be detected at home, without worrying about purchasing additional chemical reagents. But first you need to figure out what honey can look like in general.
Two honey states
The vast majority of honey varieties change their appearance: consistency and color within a few months after collection. This process is called crystallization (sugarification). Beekeepers use the term “shrunken honey.” The consistency of honey becomes more like viscous lard with large or small sugar crystals inside. Crystallization does not affect the beneficial properties of honey in any way: they are completely preserved. Basically, honey is candied 1-2 months after collection, approximately in October. But there are also deviations from this, for example, mustard honey in an open container thickens in 4-5 days, and honey from white stock can last until spring. If honey is hermetically sealed, it remains liquid longer. Rock honey is a rather rare type of honey, which is collected by wild bees that settle in the crevices of rocks and rocks. This honey contains very little moisture and is so strong that it has to be broken off into pieces. Therefore, it is often stored without containers, simply wrapped in something.Candied honey is more difficult to counterfeit because it appearance not easy. When buying honey in winter, it is better not to take liquid honey - there is too high a chance that the honey is not real or has been removed from the crystallized state by heating, which has a detrimental effect on the beneficial properties of the product. In the summer, shriveled honey can be suspected of being last year’s or even older.
Learning to distinguish varieties
Often sellers pass off a less popular variety as a more popular one. Therefore, it would be nice to have an idea of how to distinguish one honey from another. Honey varieties vary depending on the type of plant whose pollen predominates in the product. They can be distinguished by color, aroma and taste. This is a very difficult matter. There is no pure honey collected from only one type of plant, because you cannot tell the bees “don’t go there, go here” and you cannot force them to pollinate only one specific field. In addition, the color and even taste of honey depends on the area and the time of year the nectar is collected. Remembering the subtlest shades of taste and distinguishing the predominance of one variety over another is an even more difficult task. However, it is possible to describe a very wide range of colors for each variety. MirSovetov will consider only a few varieties that can be found on the shelves.Acacia. Freshly collected honey is transparent. When candied, it is white and resembles snow.
Buckwheat. The color of honey made from the nectar of buckwheat flowers is dark yellow, often with a noticeable reddish tint, sometimes dark brown. 
Clover. Color from light amber to rich amber. 
Forest. The color varies from faint yellow to light brown and reddish. 
Lime. The color is most often from white to amber, and can be transparent. Yellowish and greenish shades are also acceptable. 
Lugovoy. The color is light tones from yellow to brown. 
Crimson. Although raspberries are red, their flowers are white, which is why the honey is light in color. 
Methods for determining unripe honey
The bees seal the collected honey in honeycombs with wax caps. But they do not do this right away, but allow excess moisture to evaporate; along the way, the workers supply the honey with special substances that, by killing bacteria and microorganisms, do not allow the honey to spoil. It turns out that the bees bring the already collected and almost finished product to an ideal state. This process is called honey ripening. In market conditions, when everyone is striving to profit faster and more, many unscrupulous beekeepers empty the hives long before the bees consider it ready. This allows them, to the detriment of the quality of the product, to begin selling it earlier than others, and the bees, left completely without honey, instinctively begin to harvest it more actively. Why is unripened honey bad? The main thing is that it contains too much moisture. And the point here is not even that you overpay for ordinary water, what’s even worse is that the quality of the product suffers. Such honey is not stored for a long time, quickly begins to ferment and changes its taste and healing qualities. The main thing that indicates the immaturity of honey is an excess of water in the product. This is what MirSovetov suggests to determine using the methods below.Good honey can be stored for a very long time if it is kept in an inert environment that does not interact with the product. It is better not to use iron containers that are not coated with enamel; they react with their contents. Instead of plastic, it is better to use ceramic or wooden dishes for storage. In the old days, beekeepers stored honey in wooden linden barrels, properly coated with wax. The honey in them did not spoil for several hundred years. Honey was revered by the ancient Greeks and Egyptians as the food of the gods. In the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs, pots of honey were found, which has retained its food qualities to this day.
By thickness and viscosity. Ripe honey is quite thick and flows down very beautifully: in whole wide ribbons or elastic threads. To check the density, the following procedure is carried out at a temperature of about 20 degrees. Scoop up honey with a tablespoon and then begin to rotate it, holding it horizontally. Ripe honey, finding itself alternately on the spoon and then under it, when the spoon is turned over, only has time to begin to stretch, hanging down from it; the viscous ribbon, once at the bottom, wraps around the spoon when turning. As a result, the spoon will be under layers of honey on all sides and will be wrapped in them. If you stop rotating the spoon, the honey will lazily drain from it, not immediately merging with the honey in the jar, and will spread, leaving a slide on the surface. If the honey is immature, then when rotated it will flow down without stopping, it will look more like glue. As a result, the streams are thin, do not stretch, often break off, and perhaps even drip. And the surface of the honey quickly levels out. By weight and volume. Honey contains many particles that are heavier than water. 1 liter of honey should weigh at least 1.4 kg; in extreme cases, you can risk purchasing a product weighing at least 1.2 kg. per liter If the weight is less, then most likely the honey contains too much water, which makes it so light. When weighing in containers, do not forget that the container itself, especially if it is glass or iron, has significant weight. Therefore, first weigh the empty container, and the resulting weight must be subtracted from the result.
Paper Wetting Test. Place some honey on some recycled paper, such as newspaper. If the drop begins to spread and the paper around it becomes wet, this indicates that the honey contains too much water or that the honey is unnatural. Real honey will not wet the newspaper, and the drop will be elastic.
By water absorption. If you dip a piece of soft bread into honey, it will not get wet, and may even become harder, because honey is very hygroscopic and well absorbs moisture and odors from the environment, practically dehydrating everything around it. If the bread is wet, it means the product is spoiled.
"Carbonated" honey. Look carefully at the surface of the honey. If you see a slight movement of bubbles popping up from the inside, foam on the surface, it means that the honey has fermented due to humidity, a lack of protective substances due to its immaturity. Fermentation is also indicated by the sour smell and alcoholic taste of honey. Such honey is spoiled and is not suitable for food without heat treatment, which will devalue all the beneficial properties of honey.
Two layers. If you are going to purchase already candied honey and find that it has evenly separated into two layers of different density, then know that this is most often caused by the immaturity of the honey. If you are not sure of the quality, then it is better not to take such honey.
Methods for determining other additives
To prevent the buyer from noticing obvious signs of a spoiled product, sellers sometimes resort to various tricks. They add something to honey that was never in it. This gives the honey a nice natural appearance, masking its initially poor condition. You can try to identify some of the sellers' tricks using the following methods. Determination of foreign sediment. If you put a tablespoon of honey in a glass of warm water, it should completely dissolve, sometimes making the water slightly cloudy. To be sure, you can heat the water to 50 degrees to help the honey particles melt and mix in the water. If you find that after dissolving in water, a precipitate appears that falls to the bottom or floats up, then this indicates the presence of foreign impurities in the honey.
Definition of chalk additive. The presence of chalk is determined using an acid, such as acetic acid. When chalk interacts with acetic acid, a reaction occurs with intense release of carbon dioxide, and a hissing sound can be heard. In water it looks like boiling. For the test, it is better to use vinegar essence rather than acid diluted with water. The reaction may not be noticeable if there is too little chalk or the acid does not reach it. To be safe, it is better to stir a little honey in water, wait until the chalk precipitates, carefully drain the water, leaving the chalk at the bottom, obtaining a concentration of chalk sufficient for the experiment.
Definition of starch additive. You can detect the addition of starch by dropping a little iodine into the honey. When iodine reacts with starch, a chemical reaction occurs and the iodine changes color to blue. The more intense the color, the more starch the product contained. There is no starch in natural honey, and a drop of iodine will remain unchanged in color. To make the test more reliable, it is better to dilute a little honey with water in a ratio of 1/2. Bring this solution to a boil and drop a little iodine into it. If the honey contained flour instead of starch, the result would be exactly the same.
Determination of starch syrup. It is detected when it interacts with ammonia. The latter reacts with sulfuric acid, which is used in the production of molasses and remains in very small quantities in this food product. Ammonia is added dropwise to a 50% aqueous solution of honey. If the solution changes color to brown and a precipitate of the same color falls out, then the honey has been “flavored” with molasses.
Identifying artificial honey
Organoleptic test. Simply put, you need to taste the honey. Natural honey should have a pleasant, slightly tart taste, it should completely melt in the mouth, leaving no sediment, solid particles, or strong crystals on the tongue. There cannot be anything in natural honey that does not dissolve in the mouth. You can also feel slight irritation of the mucous membranes of the throat and nose, burning, tingling - this is also a good sign of natural honey. If you feel the taste of caramel, then most likely it is heated honey. Such a product loses all its beneficial properties due to heat treatment. They heat it in order to pass off the already crystallized honey as just collected. According to heterogeneity. If you look closely, natural honey will not be too homogeneous: you can distinguish wax and pollen in it in the form of small particles evenly distributed in the thickness of the honey. Sometimes (if the honey is poorly filtered) insect wings and other natural material may be found. If there are no particles at all, then the honey is initially unnatural, but is made from molasses, vegetable juices and other substitute products. This cocktail is not harmful. But there is nothing from honey there at all. During storage, artificial honey does not crystallize.
Soft falsification
Among all natural varieties of honey, honeydew is distinguished because of its slightly different nature. Honeydew honey is of animal origin (it is collected from the sugary secretions of other insects), as well as plant (made from the sticky secretions of plants and trees, which often fall to the ground, where bees pick them up). This honey appears in the combs if there is not enough nectar in the emission zone or there is none at all. The taste of such honey is bitter, its color ranges from greenish to dark, sometimes it is brown or even black. This is one of the most viscous types of honey, although if it contains a proportion of flower varieties, it can be less thick and lighter in color. The disadvantages of honeydew honey include its weak antibacterial properties and sometimes bad taste. The origin and short shelf life of this variety also do not make it popular, although it has its own unique set of useful microelements.Australian scientists in Queensland have discovered that bees have the ability to count, but only up to 4. They made their way out of the hive through a dark tunnel, where they placed bright markers that were easily visible to the honey plants. Nectar was constantly located on one of them. When the bees got used to it, the treat was removed. However, despite the fact that the scientists changed the shape, distance between them and the location of all the markers in the tube, the bees continued to show increased interest in the one that previously contained nectar. But if the nectar was further than the 4th marker, then the bees do not pay attention to the mark freed from nectar.
Detection of honeydew honey. 96% ethyl alcohol is added to a 50% aqueous solution of honey. It is not recommended to take a different concentration of alcohol, otherwise the reaction may not occur. To one part of honey solution you need to add 10 parts of alcohol. For the reaction to occur, the mixture must be shaken several times. If the solution became very cloudy and a white cloud appeared, the flower honey was diluted with honeydew. If flakes of sediment fall out, then there may be no flower honey at all. In pure flower honeys, the appearance of turbidity is possible, but it will be weakly expressed. Thus, it is impossible to test varieties of honey that, like honeydew, contain a large amount of nitrogenous substances. These include buckwheat and heather honey. They also try not to buy another “type” of honey, which, unlike honeydew, is unnatural, is sugar honey. This kind of honey appears in the combs if the beekeeper feeds his honey plants with sugar syrup. This allows you to quickly fill the hives with a low-quality product, which in its performance is much closer to regular sugar than to honey, and is sold at the price of the latter. At first glance, this honey can be classified as natural, but experts clearly classify it as a counterfeit product.
Identification of sugar honey. It can be distinguished without additional experiments. Sugar honey is suspiciously white. If you try it, it is more like sweetened water, the taste is relatively fresh and empty, it lacks the astringency characteristic of this product. The aroma is also weakened. Fresh honey is watery, but stale honey has a gelatinous consistency and weakly crystallizes. At home, you can test sugar honey using milk. If you add a little sugar honey to hot cow's milk, it will curdle.
Of course, the methods discussed do not allow us to identify all falsifications. After all, there is also the threat of honey becoming infected with bee diseases and poisoning from “drunk” honey, the nectar for which is collected from trees that are poisonous to humans. Identification of these threats is only possible in laboratory conditions. But MirSovetov hopes that this article helped to determine at least some kind of guideline for quality honey.
Honey is recognized by consumers and science as a useful, healing and most sought after beekeeping product, but only if it is natural. Lucky are those who know beekeepers and have the opportunity to buy proven products. What should an ordinary market buyer do, how to protect himself from counterfeits and be confident in its quality?
Honey varieties
Often sellers present a cheap product for which there is no demand as more popular and expensive. For this reason, you should have an idea of how to distinguish between different types of honey.
The color, aroma and taste of each variety depend primarily on the plant pollinated by bees immediately before production. But there is no such thing as pure honey, since insects have the habit of flying from place to place, often even changing the terrain. However, in each variety it is possible to determine which range of colors predominates.
Types and color of honey
Each type has its own external characteristics and healing properties.
- Lime. Recognized as the most useful in the fight against colds. Basically, it has a light amber color, but can be yellowish and transparent.
- Buckwheat. It has a rich taste with a slight bitterness. The predominant color is dark brown or dark yellow with a reddish tint.
- Forest. The color range ranges from light yellow to light brown.
- Lugovoy. Has light shades.
- Acacia. The honey from this plant is almost transparent. The exception is the candied state, when the color becomes almost white.
- Clover. Amber in color with shades from light to rich and with a special aroma.
- Crimson. Only the honey took shades not from berries, but from flowers, so the product itself is light in color.
When buying honey, it is not possible to conduct any research, and the seller will not allow you to use additional substances to test your products, but you want to buy a natural and high-quality product. All that remains is to learn how to determine whether honey is really real by external signs.
- If there is foam with bubbles on the surface of the sweet product, this is a sign of fermentation, therefore, water has been added to it. The contents of natural honey contain wax, pollen and other inclusions of natural origin. Transparency and an overly clean appearance indicate that the product is artificial.
- When rubbed with your fingers, natural honey should be absorbed into the skin.
- When tasting, you should feel its tartness, slight burning, tingling in the mouth and moderate sweetness. When you feel the sweetness and taste of caramel, there is a possibility that the honey has been “heated”. This technique is sometimes used to add presentation to a product, but the beneficial properties are lost, and in some cases (depending on the heating temperature) the product can even be harmful.
- Natural honey has a unique fragrant aroma, while its artificial counterpart is odorless.
- Don't be alarmed when a bee product becomes candied. This is an indicator of naturalness, since it is subject to crystallization, unlike a fake. Knowledgeable buyers do not always strive to purchase honey in liquid form, but its crystallization indicates excellent quality, which is the most reliable test.
Checking bee product at home for additives
Viscosity maturity indicator. A product that has undergone a certain processing by bees, reached a minimum degree of humidity and is sealed by them is considered to be of high quality and mature. Some unscrupulous beekeepers, in pursuit of profit, begin pumping out honey before the process is completed and it reaches maturity. As a result, the product is not intended for long-term storage; fermentation begins in it, and the taste and healing qualities are lost.
At home, checking for ripeness can be done using a regular spoon, with which you should scoop up a little honey and lift it until a wide, elastic stream forms. It should flow continuously and settle in a slide without spreading.
Again, use a spoon to scoop up the result of the bees’ work, lift it and scroll it, holding it horizontally, around the axis. The honey should not drip. This shows his maturity. Otherwise, it will look like a liquid mass and begin to spread over the surface.
The candied product began to divide into liquid and crystallized parts - an indicator of immaturity.
Weight check. Honey is heavier than water. The average weight of 1 liter of honey is 1.4 kg excluding utensils. If this indicator is less, then a significant portion of water is present.
Simple ways to check the naturalness of honey
- Dissolve one teaspoon of honey in warm water and leave to stand for an hour. An adulterated bee product will leave sediment at the bottom of the glass or flakes floating on the surface.
- Drop some honey on a piece of paper and set it on fire. A quality product will remain unchanged on burnt paper. The fake will become Brown, like burnt sugar, and will leave a corresponding smell.
- An effective way to check the naturalness of honey and convenient even when purchased at the market is a chemical pencil. When it comes into contact with moisture, it changes color, so by dipping it into a bee product, you can easily determine whether the product they are selling you is real or diluted with water with the addition of granulated sugar.
Sugar is quite often a component of counterfeit products. Beekeepers recommend checking its presence at home in several ways.
- Dip a little honey into hot milk - if it is fake with added burnt sugar, it will curdle.
- Tea with natural honey will turn it dark, but the fake honey will not change.
- Place a piece of bread crumb into the sweet and leave for 10-15 minutes. Hardened bread is a sign of quality; if it softens, then you have honey with the addition of sugar syrup. The white color, close to sugar, also gives out dubious quality.
- Drop a little honey onto absorbent paper and try to smear it. If it works and there are wet marks left, you can rest assured that the surrogate contains water or syrup.
- A simple way to check at home for naturalness is the procedure with a hot stainless steel wire. Dip it in honey and take it out. The material at hand must be clean; if traces of the adhesive mass remain, it is not a clean product.
- Authenticity is easy to determine by heating the honey poured into a spoon over the fire. The counterfeit product will ignite, and the natural product will be slightly charred.
Determination of other additives
Often, a damaged product must be sold by any means necessary, and so that an uninformed buyer does not notice signs of poor quality, sellers resort to various tricks. The quality suffers from the presence of additives not inherent in honey, but it becomes marketable.
One of the determinants is iodine. It is enough to drop a few drops of it on a sweet product, and you can determine the presence of starch added for thickness. As a result of the chemical reaction, the color will change to blue or blue. The more intense the color, the more foreign matter there is. In real honey, the shade does not change.
Using vinegar essence, added chalk is detected. To do this, dilute a spoonful of the product in 0.5 cups of water and add vinegar. If the water hisses, it means there is chalk.
They also test for the presence of molasses. Mix 2 tablespoons of water and 1 spoon of honey and add a few drops of ammonia, shake. The change in color of the solution to brown and the formation of the same precipitate indicate that the additive is still present.
And it may also be useful as general information to know when honey is candied. The process generally begins one or two months after collection. An exception is mustard honey, which can thicken after 5 days if left in an open container. A white acacia product, on the contrary, remains in its original state for more than six months, and if the jar is tightly closed, longer.
Unnatural honey may, at best, not bring any benefit to your health, and at worst, have a detrimental effect on it. So you shouldn’t neglect checking, at least minimally.
Video: how to determine the quality of honey at home
Honey is a real treasure for the body. It contains useful minerals and vitamins that have a positive effect on health. In addition, it is also a very tasty delicacy. The scope of application is very diverse. It can be used to prepare cosmetics, as a food additive, or for the treatment and prevention of various diseases. Every person needs to know how to determine the naturalness and quality of honey in order to avoid buying an artificial substitute for the product.
Honey: what is it like?
There are several main types of honey:
- May. This is the name given to the product obtained after the first pumping. It is worth noting that the name has nothing to do with the characteristics of the honey itself, but is of a purely philistine nature.
- Honeydew honey This is a product that is produced by bees from the sweet secretions of certain insects, and not from flowers. Honeydew honey of plant origin can also be obtained from the honeydew of trees such as maple, linden, spruce, fir, and hazel.
- Monofloral honey. This product received this name because bees collect it from the flowers of one type of plant.
- Polyfloral honey. A product that bees produce from nectar collected from several types of plants.
We have figured out the types of product, all that remains is to understand how to determine the quality of honey at home.
How to choose natural honey on the market?
Today in the market you can very often encounter the fact that sellers are trying to sell an unnatural product to the consumer. Such honey may have been pumped out earlier than expected, diluted with water or starch. Sometimes sellers even melt it specifically to make the product look more presentable. All these actions lead to honey losing its beneficial properties. And its heating leads to the formation of harmful substances in the composition. How to test honey? Is the product in front of you real or not? This is a pressing question today. Knowing just a few simple rules, you can easily distinguish an artificial product from a natural one.
What you need to know:
- To avoid purchasing melted honey, never look for a liquid consistency in late autumn or winter. Even the latest varieties crystallize by this period. If you go to the market in January and see a seller demonstrating that honey flows smoothly from a spoon, never buy such a product, because most likely it is melted. Unfortunately, sellers do this very often in order to make more profit.
- Have you noticed that honey is sometimes sold with foam on the surface? This doesn't mean it's fresh. Such a product was either pumped out ahead of time, or simply diluted with water, and this already significantly reduces the percentage of useful substances in the composition.
- When purchasing honey in combs, you also need to be very careful. The main thing is to ensure that the cells are tightly sealed. Beekeepers do this in order to preserve the beneficial properties of the product.
How to determine the quality of honey by external signs?
Before you can determine the quality of honey at home, you first need to buy it. At the market it is not always possible to figure out whether the product in front of you is natural or not. But there are several signs, paying attention to which, you can buy good honey.
What to look for?
- Color. The first thing a person is interested in when looking at the counter is the color of honey. Of course, depending on the varieties, the shades may differ. However, there is a general rule. If the honey is fresh, there will be no sediment in it. If the product is cloudy, it means there are some impurities in the composition. If you notice several dark spots, it means the honey has been heated, perhaps more than once.
- The consistency of natural honey should be slightly viscous. If you twirl the jar in your hands and notice that the product is pouring too quickly, this means that it is either diluted or melted.
- Weight and taste. It is known that a jar with one liter of honey weighs approximately 1.5 kilograms. If you notice that it is much lighter, it means the product was diluted with water. Now as for the taste. Honey itself is sweet, but some sellers add additional sugar to it. Try the product on the tip of your tongue. If it's sweet, it means the seller sweetened it.
Testing honey at home by dissolving the product in water
If you are interested in how to determine the quality of honey at home, then one of the most effective ways is to dissolve it in water.
Take a small mug of boiling water, add a little honey to it. Once it dissolves, the liquid will become slightly cloudy. It is important to know that there should be no residue left. If it appears, it means that the product contains impurities. If after adding honey the water remains clear, it means that sugar syrup has been added to it.
A sheet of paper is an easy way to check the quality of honey
In order to conduct this test, it is better to use low-grade paper rather than thick white paper. Even a thin napkin or regular toilet paper will do. Drop a small amount of honey on it and carefully observe how it behaves. If the honey begins to spread or seep through the napkin, it means the product is unnatural or diluted. A good product will be one that leaves no wet spots around the napkin.
This method is great for determining the quality of honey at home. The test is carried out very quickly and gives you a clear answer whether the product you are looking at is natural or not.
Home quality test using vinegar
Every housewife has vinegar in her arsenal. Are you wondering how to determine the quality of honey at home using it? In fact, everything is very simple. Take some honey and dilute it with water, then add vinegar to it. Now let's see what happens next. If the consistency begins to bubble or foam forms, then this is a very bad sign, which clearly makes it clear that the composition contains chalk.
Iodine test
Now we check the quality of honey at home using iodine. This test will help to find out whether the product contains additional impurities, namely flour or starch.
Take a small amount of honey and dilute it in water. The water should not be hot, let it be boiled at room temperature. Mix everything well so that the honey dissolves. Then add a few drops of iodine. If the solution turns blue, this means that the product contains flour or starch.
Wire method
You don't know how to test honey? Whether the product in front of you is real or not can be determined by ordinary copper wire. This test involves performing two simple steps:
- Heat the wire until it turns red.
- Place it in a container with honey and keep it there for literally 10-15 seconds.
After you remove the wire, see if it is still clean. If so, then this is a truly natural product. However, if a sticky mass remains on the surface, then the honey contains impurities or has been diluted with water.
Bread dough
Checking the quality of honey at home does not take much time, but you can be completely sure which product you are using: natural or not.
One of the most effective tests is to check quality using bread. Pour enough honey into the bowl to cover a piece of white bread, then lower the bread itself. You need to leave it there for about 10 minutes. If you see that the bread has softened or begun to spread, it means that the honey contains sugar syrup, and this already indicates that the product is unnatural. Real, pure honey helps harden the bread.
Now you know how to test honey at home. All possible methods that give a clear result were presented above. Never buy a large jar at the market at once, take a little to try first. Carry out simple tests at home and you will see whether you purchased a fake or a natural product. If it turns out that the honey is good, then you can buy a larger quantity, but you will be sure of its authenticity.
Absolutely every person should know how to determine the quality of honey at home. Don't be fooled, always check the product for quality and presence of impurities. And the methods listed above will help you make the right choice.
Good day everyone! Almost everyone loves honey. When the season for selling it comes, the markets are crowded. However, you can buy a fake, unnatural, which may contain impurities. If you know a beekeeper, you will get good honey from him. How to determine the quality of honey when buying it on the market?
In this article we will look at some of the features associated with determining the quality of this tasty product.
Unnatural honey has some special characteristics. For example, if it has an amber sheen and is very clear, it has been heated. And heating, as is known, leads to the loss of many useful substances.
As we pour it into the jar, we notice that it begins to foam. This means that the honey is not yet ripe.
If the color is white (pale) and has no aroma, then sugar has been added to it. This, by the way, often occurs among some beekeepers.
When buying honey on the market, you can determine whether it is good or not by the trickle flowing from the spoon. If drops form, it is not a natural product. Real honey not only flows continuously, but also accumulates in layers. The last drop of it will not fall, but will be attracted to the spoon.
You can tell whether honey is good or fake by using homemade products. These are iodine, water and vinegar.
How to check whether honey is natural or not at home using iodine
If you know how to taste honey, you can easily check its quality directly on the market. But, if you can’t do it yet, then train at home.
The first thing you can take to check is iodine. It is used to detect the presence of starch. Remember, if you drop iodine on a piece of bread, a blue spot will appear.
Place a teaspoon of honey in a glass of warm water. Then we add four drops of iodine. If the water turns blue, it means starch has been added. Ask why this is being done? That would weigh a little more. If the solution does not turn blue, then the honey is natural.
Checking the quality of honey with water
The presence of impurities in honey can be determined using water. You will also need ammonia. As in the previous case, we make a honey solution: add a spoonful of honey to two tablespoons of water. Then, add a couple of drops of ammonia and shake. If the solution has acquired a brown tint and a precipitate has appeared, it means that the product contains molasses.
You can do without ammonia. Leave the honey dissolved in warm water for an hour. If after this time a sediment forms in the glass or flakes appear, then the quality leaves much to be desired.
Another way, very original. Take a saucer, put honey and pour three tablespoons of cold water. After this, rotate the saucer with honey with quick circular movements. If, as a result, we see lines similar to a honeycomb, it means the honey is natural.
Using vinegar to test natural honey
Vinegar is useful for testing honey. We use this to determine whether it contains chalk. Dissolve honey in water and add a few drops of vinegar. If the water hisses and foam appears, there is definitely chalk.
Natural honey does not burn - let's try to set it on fire
We do this check step by step. First, apply a drop to the paper. If a wet spot forms around the honey, it means it has been diluted. Next, set fire to the paper. Real honey will not burn or change its color, it will only melt. A low-quality product will simply start to burn, and in addition, the smell of burnt sugar will appear.
You can simply pour a small amount of honey into a spoon and heat it over the fire. The natural one will only char, and the unnatural one will start to burn.
How to test candied honey at home
As for sugar. Most often it is added for long-term storage. The presence of sugar in honey is checked in several ways.
Boil milk, put honey in it. If it contains sugar, it will curdle. Instead of milk, tea is also suitable. Natural honey will give the tea a dark color.
You can use bread. If a piece placed in honey does not soften, but, on the contrary, hardens a little, then the quality is good.
And finally, you can dip a hot wire into the honey. If it remains clean, it’s natural. If there is an adhesive substance on the wire, then it is a fake.
Often, after some time, many people see thickened and sugared honey in a jar and think that it is a bad product.
However, there is nothing wrong with that. That's how it should be. Crystallization occurs due to the presence of pollen.
Video on how to check the quality of honey at home
There are quite a few ways in which honey is checked for quality. The video below explains how to tell if honey is natural or not.
All the methods mentioned above are designed to determine the quality of honey at home. However, I would still like to determine the quality immediately upon purchase. Use a chemical pencil. By dipping a pencil into honey and seeing that it has not changed its color, we find out this way. that honey is natural
In today's article we will talk about such a useful product as -.
We all know from childhood that honey is very healthy, and no matter whether we like it or not, we always try to have honey in our house. Many people use honey not only for the treatment of diseases, for cosmetic purposes, for massage, in the preparation of various culinary masterpieces, but also in many other areas of life. Therefore, due to the popularity of honey, people, unfortunately, have learned to make honey without bees and profit from buyers who do not know how to distinguish real honey from a fake, which not only will not be beneficial, but can also seriously harm our health.
So, let's arm ourselves with the necessary knowledge about honey, and learn how to choose real honey and not buy a fake.
Honey classification
Honey is distinguished by:
- origin;
- manufacturing method;
- color and consistency.
By origin:
— Monofloral — formed from the nectar of one plant (linden, maple, buckwheat, acacia, etc.).
— Polyfloral – mixed, formed from nectar from different plants (meadow, steppe, garden, etc.).
Honey comes in flower and honeydew varieties.
Bees produce honeydew honey not from the nectar of flowers, but from honeydew, the sweet juice secreted by leaves and honeydew (secretions in the form of liquid sweet drops of herbaceous aphids, scale insects, and clean flea beetles). Honeydew honey is dark in color, viscous, has an unpleasant aftertaste and a bad aroma. This type of honey is used for processing.
Bees collect flower honey only from flower nectar.
By manufacturing method:
Gravity flowing, freely flowing from the honeycomb, pressed and centrifugal, separated by centrifuge. This is the purest and most transparent honey. The method of obtaining honey using a centrifuge is the most common.
By color and consistency:
The consistency of honey can be liquid or thick (as a result of crystallized glucose).
The color of honey depends only on the variety. The color of real honey can be all shades of brown and yellow.
Below are the main types of honey:
Lime. Light yellow, easily crystallizes, has a characteristic odor. Used for respiratory diseases, good for colds and, including for inhalation. It has a good effect on the gastrointestinal tract and kidneys. Bees can collect about 40 kg of honey from one linden tree.
Acacia. Transparent, light, more liquid, with a slight acacia aroma. Crystallizes slowly. It is used for diseases of the cardiovascular system, gastrointestinal tract and female inflammatory diseases, not only internally but also externally, due to its bactericidal properties.
Buckwheat. Bright brown color, with a characteristic odor and slight bitterness. This type of honey is used in confectionery products. Treats diseases of the stomach, blood and skin
Field and meadow. Light amber or brown color, with a very pleasant smell and taste. It has almost all medicinal properties.
Fruit honey. Collected from berry and fruit crops. Light amber, with a delicate smell and taste. Has dietary qualities.
Sunflower. Golden yellow in color, pleasant to the taste, crystallizes quickly. Anti-allergenic, but in terms of medicinal properties it is inferior to the main types of honey.
Types of fake honey:
– natural honey with additives;
– honey from products not of nectar origin;
– artificial “honey”.
When buying honey, pay attention to:
Price. If you want to buy honey cheaper, then they can sell you sugar syrup for a good price, which will be tinted with tea. This type of fake is mixed a little with real honey, and then it will be difficult to distinguish the difference from real honey. For counterfeits, sucrose, molasses, starch, chalk and even sand are used. Skilled beekeepers have learned to fake honey in such a way that it is difficult to understand even in laboratory conditions. The most common fake is when bees are fed with sugar syrup and as a result we get processed sugar, not nectar from the fields.
Color. Unnaturally white honey may turn out to be sugary. Unnaturally dark, even dark brown honey can be either melted (with a caramel flavor) or, in the worst case, honeydew (made by bees from insect secretions). Such honey not only does not contain useful substances, but is also harmful to health.
Each type of honey has its own natural color: flower - light yellow, linden - amber, ash - transparent, buckwheat - any shade of brown.
But any variety, regardless of color, if it is real and pure, will be transparent. While honey with additives will be cloudy and, if you look closely, with sediment.
Smell. If honey has a pleasant rich aroma, then it is real, because in fake honey you can hardly notice the smell, and if you can hear it, it’s because it comes from sweet water.
Taste. Real honey, when you taste it evenly, will dissolve completely in your mouth, there will be no crystals or powdered sugar on your tongue. Also, after real honey, your throat will feel a little sore.
All types of honey have a sweet taste, but some varieties have a specific taste (tobacco, chestnut and willow varieties have a bitter taste, and heather is astringent). Any deviations in the taste of honey indicate its poor quality. Other flavor defects may be due to the presence of impurities. Excessive acidity may be due to the onset of fermentation, the aroma of caramel is the result of heating and melting honey, bitterness is due to improper storage conditions.
Viscosity and consistency. Dip a toothpick into the plate, and if it is real honey, then it should stretch as a long continuous thread, and when the thread breaks, it will completely sink, forming a small hill on the surface of the honey, which will smoothly and slowly diverge. Natural honey is thin and delicate, easily absorbed into the skin without leaving lumps.
Real honey does not roll off the spoon quickly. Take a tablespoon of honey and turn the spoon several times in a quick circular motion. The honey will roll onto it, almost without dripping.
Dip a spoon into the container with honey. As you pull out the spoon, watch the honey drip off. A high-quality one will form a ribbon and lie down in a mound, and bubbles will form on its surface.
Natural honey can be liquid or crystallized. Crystallization time depends on the colors and storage temperature.
Most honey varieties crystallize in November-December. So, when buying candied honey at this time, there can be no doubt that it is real. If the honey in the jar has two layers: denser at the bottom and more liquid at the top, then it is a fake. Because few varieties of honey (heather, acacia, chestnut), which contain a lot of fructose, remain liquid until spring. Natural liquid honey in the middle of winter is a huge rarity. It can be either sugar (the bees were fed sugar) or melted.
Dip a piece of bread into honey for 10 minutes. In real honey the bread will harden, but in fake honey it will soften. This is a sign that sugar syrup has been added to the honey. Real honey contains no water at all.
Take a drop of honey and sprinkle it with a pinch of starch. If the starch remains on top of the yellow droplet as a white cap, the honey is real; if not, it’s fake.
Add a few drops of vinegar to a spoonful of honey diluted with distilled water. If chalk is present, the mixture will boil due to the release of carbon dioxide.
And if instead of vinegar you drop a few drops of iodine and it turns blue, then starch has been added to the honey.
Drop honey onto the paper and set it on fire. Real honey does not burn, does not melt or turn brown, only the paper around it will burn. If the honey melted, then the bees were fed sugar syrup, and if it turned brown, they were fed diluted sugar.
Video about the difference between real honey and fake honey
That’s all for today, and in the following articles, dear readers, we will introduce you to the methods of storing honey, and also dwell on its beneficial properties.
