How to independently determine the quality and authenticity of honey

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Honey is a useful, but rather expensive product. Not surprisingly, unscrupulous sellers began to forge it, mix it and dilute it with water. Moreover, there are already methods of synthetic production of honey. Its useful properties are not even worth talking about - it's a banal chemistry that is realized under the guise of a quality product. How can you not get caught up in such tricks and distinguish between high-quality honey?


Contents:
  • Quality of natural honey
  • Color
  • Flavor
  • Flavor
  • Consistency
  • What should I look for when buying?
  • methods for determining the authenticity of
  • Paper
  • Water
  • Milk Tea
  • Iodine
  • Vinegar
  • Bread
  • Permanganic
  • Ammonia
  • Chemical pencil
  • Fire
  • Saucer

quality natural honey

This honey can be distinguished even by their appearance. Among them: color, taste, consistency, aroma. With due skill, even a visual inspection will be sufficient to give an assessment of the quality of the product. For experienced beekeepers, this is not at all a problem. But what to pay attention to an ordinary buyer?

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Color

There is a huge amount of varieties of honey, the color of each of them depends on the plants from which it was mined.

  • Lime honey has a bright amber color;


  • Floral - golden yellow, with crystalline transparency;Chestnut - dark, brown;
  • Mustard - cream color;
  • From the May acacia - light yellow, sometimes even transparent;
  • Raspberry - light golden hue with a pronounced fruit aroma;
  • Buckwheat - light brown, sometimes with an unobtrusive red tint( due to the presence of a large amount of iron in the composition);
  • Forest - can be light, but more often dark brown, as if it melted a chocolate bar, but without a haze;
  • Sunflower - bright golden, sunny;
  • Rapeseed - lemon color;
  • Mountain - from light yellow to light brown.

An admixture of other colors directly indicates a low quality product. In this regard, the color of honey and the quality are completely interrelated.

In no case should you buy honey, if it contains shades of green, blue, pink. Too dark and muddy honey color does indicate that it was heated to a high temperature and melted when it was already candied.
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Taste of

One of the main criteria for the quality of honey is its taste. It should be tart with a bright floral scent. At the same time, if you put it on your tongue and do not swallow it - it starts to burn a little. Under no circumstances should there be any crystals left in the mouth, solid sediment( with the exception of honeycomb).

If the taste is honey sweet and too sweet - this is the main sign that it was added sugar or they were fed bees. After eating a few tablespoons of natural honey - I do not feel like drinking it. Too much sugar can not eat like this - it will make you sick. The aftertaste of caramel indicates that it was heated to a high temperature.

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Fragrance

Check the quality of honey when buying it, paying attention to its aroma. In natural distinctly herbal or floral notes are clearly felt. If there is an admixture of smoke, dampness or even combustible substances - it was stored incorrectly.


How do I know if water or starch was added to honey? In this case, the flower fragrance practically disappears. And if you smell caramel in the smell - honey is strongly heated or added to it burnt sugar. It is better to refuse to purchase such a product.

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Consistency

The consistency and density of honey are checked only by experiment. The easiest option is to dip the spoon into the honey and try to "wind" it on the cutlery. This should happen without much difficulty. From the bottom, a thin trickle of nectar should arise, which will be laid in layers. If it immediately spreads, then this indicates the addition of water, starch or semolina.

Synthetic honey in consistency, like ordinary water with a small admixture of flour.

It should be noted that the density of this honey is one and a half times that of milk. It is convenient to operate with such knowledge when buying on the market. For comparison, take a jar of milk and honey and compare their weight. When adding water, starch, sugar or molasses to honey, its density, of course, decreases.

As a rule, a liter of natural mature honey weighs 1.4 kg.
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What should I look for when buying?

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To limit yourself from low-quality goods, you need to know several features at the stage of purchase:

  • Often, honey, which is sold in the store, is heated to 70-90 degrees to give it a presentation. With this treatment, it loses most of its useful properties and its value can be compared to a dense sugar syrup. Very rarely in stores they sell a natural product that has not been heat treated, so it is better to buy honey at fairs from trusted beekeepers.
  • By kind honey melted slightly darker than usual, and on the surface of it appears foam. If it is only on the edges - this is a sign of very fresh honey, but if there is a whole "hat", it is better to refuse to purchase such a product. Most likely, it was melted to get an attractive presentation. And it is quite possible that this was done more than once.
  • Honey spreading is a normal natural process. In the lower part of the container, sucrose is lowered, and water rises upward. In quality mature honey, this process takes 3 to 6 months. But immature - it stratifies almost immediately. Therefore, pay attention to the terms of production.
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  • To avoid honey stratification, sellers usually store it at a temperature of up to +10 degrees, and when put up for sale - heat. It must be remembered that a minor stratification is normal. But if you see a clear separation into a light yellow opaque honey and brown transparent - it was exactly stoked or diluted.
  • Sugaring of honey is a natural process of its crystallization, which flows evenly throughout the container. In this process, there should not be a clear separation. Candied honey can be eaten and all useful properties are stored in it. Many people do not like it in taste and consistency, but you can melt it yourself at a temperature of no more than +35 degrees.
  • You do not have to worry about the presence of impurities by buying honey in honeycombs. It is guaranteed to make bees. But if they were fed with sugar syrup, it will not work.
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Authentication methods

Nobody is immune from buying low-quality honey. Of course, you can trust the market-based laboratory analysis, which all beekeepers who sell honey have to go through. Or purchase a special device to determine the quality of honey, but, as practice shows, it gives a high error. And often such devices measure only moisture, and the presence of starch is not able to determine.

Therefore, in order to avoid unpleasant and unnecessary waste, you need to know a few simple ways to check the quality of honey at home.

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Paper

This is the best method to check honey for impurities. For the test, it is better to use newspaper or toilet paper. A drop of honey is placed on it and after 1 minute it is visually examined. If honey spreads - it has a large concentration of water. If it percolates through - it was added molasses.

However, synthetic honey for consistency and density is very similar to natural honey and at high sugar concentration it also will not leak. In this case, you need to orient yourself also to taste.

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Water

If you add honey to warm water, it turns into a whitish whitish liquid without sediment and sugar crystals. If the water remains absolutely clear when mixed, honey is diluted with water or sugar syrup. The appearance of sediment indicates the admixture of starch, manna. This method of determining quality is not relevant for honeydew honey, since it also precipitates.

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Milk

With the help of warm milk determine the presence of an impurity of sugar or molasses. It is enough to stir in it a small amount of honey. If the milk curdles, this indicates a low quality of the honey product and the presence of silicon in the impurities. Natural honey contains many minerals, but there is no silicon among them.

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Tea

When adding honey to a weak black tea - the drink should be slightly darkened. But it should not form a cloudy sediment. If the color remained unchanged, and at the bottom of the visible mixture of crystals or just turbidity, then sugar was added to it or bees were fed with syrup. If honey is not ripe, the color of the tea will become a little lighter.

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Iodine

Iodine( 20-30 drops) diluted in a glass of water and add honey there. If the solution turns blue or there is a precipitate in it - this is a clear sign of the presence of starch. This honey will not be of use.

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Vinegar

If there is foam when mixing vinegar and honey - this indicates the presence of chalk. In the same way, honey can be tested for antibiotics. If the foam appears when mixed with vinegar, and the mixture becomes whitish, like moonshine, this indicates the release of a large amount of carbon dioxide. This honey is clearly of unnatural origin.

A similar method is used to check the quality of honey by a distal number, but instead of table vinegar, concentrated essence is used.

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Bread

It is necessary to take a crumb of white bread and place for 10 minutes in honey at room temperature. If the bread becomes firm, everything is fine( it absorbs fructose).And if it has become soft or completely deformed - there is water or synthetic molasses( sucrose with water).It is better to refuse such honey.

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Manganese

Manganese reacts with potassium and carbon dioxide derivatives. Therefore, if there is water or chalk in the honey composition, the aqueous solution of manganese will slightly discolour with the addition of honey.

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Ammonium alcohol

To determine the presence of chalk or water in honey, you can mix it with ammonia. If these additives are found, alcohol will start to foam and cloud, a precipitate of white or transparent crystals will appear in it.

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Chemical pencil

The method of checking the quality of honey with a chemical pencil involves checking the reaction to those substances that can not be contained a priori in a mature product. It is enough to drop honey on a palm or paper and smear it with that pencil. If there are blue divorces, then there are impurities in a rather large amount.

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Fire

If honey is melted after candling, or sugar syrup is added, then it will be ignited. You need to take a clean sheet of paper, drop a few drops of honey on it and set it on fire. Burn only paper. Natural honey does not turn black, it does not start to smoke. If this happens, there is a large admixture of sugar in it. A similar reaction would be if the bees were "fed" with sugar syrup.

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Saucer

Place the honey on a saucer and add 3 tablespoons of water to it. Saucer slightly shake in the horizontal plane. Honey should form a uniform pattern reminiscent of honeycombs. If it just spreads, it indicates an admixture of sugar, water or starch.

  • Mar 12, 2018
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