Natural honey how to determine. How to easily tell if you bought real or fake honey

Natural honey is valued for its medicinal and nutritional properties. The benefits for humans are due to the fact that the list of minerals in its composition is similar to the minerals in human blood. This product has bactericidal properties that depend on the amount of enzymes it contains. So, in taiga varieties, the diastase number can reach 40. That is why even Koch's stick cannot withstand more than 3 hours in honey. Products such as butter, meat can be stored in it for several months without spoilage. If the product is natural, it cannot cause infection or poisoning. But how to tell if honey is real or fake if it is among the top three most adulterated products?

According to the statistics of Rospotrebnadzor, every fifth jar on the beekeeping market is a fake. Only in order to get a tablespoon of the product (about 30 gr.) 200 bees have to work all day.

To increase the number, beekeepers go to different tricks:

add foreign products to increase the mass and density (starch, flour, chalk, sugar syrup);
feed the bees with sugar;
heated, giving a more attractive look to customers;
pass off an artificial product as a natural one.

The sale of unripe honey is common. Beekeepers do not wait for its maturation and start pumping out even at the height of the honey flow. As a rule, the reason for this is the lack of cells. Such honey is not enriched with enzymes and quickly turns sour. By consistency, it is liquid, since in its composition water can sometimes exceed twice the norm.

Artificial honey is produced so carefully that it is possible to distinguish it from natural only in laboratory conditions. But people who buy in the markets, apiaries, shops have neither a microscope to determine the composition, nor a device that measures humidity. Therefore, the question arises how to determine the quality of honey when buying available means and methods?

It is better if before buying there will be an opportunity to get acquainted with information about the varieties, characteristics and properties of a valuable product.

Classification

The classification is based on a regional basis, method of extraction, color. So, if the bees collected nectar from one plant (buckwheat, linden, acacia, linden, maple), then the result is a monofloral product. If the apiary was located in the meadows, among the flowering steppe, in the garden, then it will be mixed (polyfloral).

Bees can produce honey not only from the nectar of flowers, but also from the sweet juice secreted by plants and from the secretions of insects living on plants (pad). Honey obtained from honeydew is called honeydew. It does not have a pronounced aroma and taste, often dark brown in color, sometimes with a green tint, and is considered second-rate.

According to the method of extraction, the product can be:

gravity - independently flowing from the honeycombs;
centrifugal - obtained by pumping out of honeycombs in a honey extractor;
cellular - sold in sealed combs.

What to look for when choosing

The first minimum you need to know when going shopping is what color the variety you plan to purchase has and how it happens, so as not to get confused in the information on the label.

Each variety has its own color, which varies from all shades of yellow to brown:

linden honey It has amber,
buckwheat suggests all shades of brown,
floral - light yellow,
clover almost colorless,
sunflower - golden yellow.

High-quality honey is transparent, regardless of color. If there are additives, then it will be cloudy and sediment is possible in it. There may be blotches, but it is absolutely harmless. These are particles that are not filtered out during pumping.

According to taste data, only a honey sommelier can determine a quality product.

The specialist advises to take a large number of and how to “smear” it in the mouth over the tongue. At the same time, it should feel tickling. Then take a breath and on the exhale there should be an aftertaste.

But such defects as acid caused by fermentation, caramel taste as a result of heating, strong bitterness can be identified by an inexperienced buyer. Honey has a pronounced aroma. If it was diluted with syrup, the smell will be barely distinguishable.

If you rub a little honey between your fingers, then it is absorbed into the skin and its consistency is uniform. If grains are felt and lie down unevenly, this indicates a low quality of the product.

In shops and fairs, on containers sold, labels with information on the amount of sucrose are required. According to GOST, it should be contained in the range from 1 to 6 units. If the bees were fed with sugar syrup, then the number of units can reach up to 30.

Also, each beekeeper must have a veterinary passport of the apiary. You should not be shy to ask him, because this is the only way to find out that the nectar was collected by non-sick bees.

How to determine the quality in the fall

Harvest in Russia ends at the end of August. After that, beekeepers begin to drive honey, and it goes on sale. fresh product thick in texture but not creamy. If so, then it's not honey of its own shrinkage - it's whipped . Often low-quality varieties are whipped, thereby turning them into expensive, and sometimes elite ones. Lost when beating useful components, and the output is only custard. Moreover, if in liter jar fresh honey will be almost 1.5 kg, then half as much whipped honey. It only benefits the seller.

Alcoholic taste, sour smell, hissing when stirred and bubbles on the surface, indicate that the honey has fermented. As a rule, this happens with unripe honey, when the beekeeper hastened to collect it.

Natural product contains up to 21% water, so it is viscous in consistency and 1.5 times denser than water. One liter of a quality product should weigh 1440 grams. Weighing is one of the methods for determining quality.

It should be taken into account that linden honey is slightly lighter, flower varieties are heavier. Autumn varieties are not liquid, with the exception of those taken from acacia and mountain chestnut.

Winter nuances

In winter, honey cannot be liquid. If they sell in winter liquid product which means it was heated. You should know that at temperatures above 40, only minerals remain, and enzymes are destroyed. When heated above 60, carcinogens are formed. The use of such honey can lead to diseases of the central nervous system and malignant neoplasms.

AT winter time quality is determined by crystallization. The mass must be homogeneous without delaminations. If the honey thickens at the bottom of the jar, but remains liquid on top, then it is immature. But there are subtleties here too. So, spring varieties crystallize faster. The more glucose in the composition, the faster the crystallization. Its level, in turn, depends on the botanical origin. For example, sunflower honey contains a large amount of glucose and can often crystallize in honeycombs. Therefore, a bee gift can thicken both in 2 weeks and in a year. If the grains in the crystallized product are large, then it contains more glucose, if small, then fructose.

Home quality testing

ways how to determine honey for naturalness a lot happened at home.

The simplest and available methods determine honey for naturalness:

The presence of additional substances, such as chalk, molasses, starch, can be detected by dissolving honey in water in a ratio of one to two. If the honey is fake, the water will become cloudy and sediment will gradually begin to form. If vinegar is dropped into the solution and gas bubbles are released, it means that chalk has been added.
Starch or flour in the composition is determined by a solution of iodine. To do this, it is enough to drop a drop of iodine solution into honey, if it turns blue, then there are impurities.
When adding honey to warm tea, the drink may darken, but it should not form a precipitate.
Ripened honey, if poured from a spoon, winds like a ribbon without interruption. A trickle of unripe honey will surely break. Quality product it will not pour out of the spoon if it is turned over, but if it is sugar, it will definitely drain.
If mature honey is poured in a stream in one place, then a hill should form and the higher it is, the less humidity. A product with a high water content will spread without forming a heap.
Maturity can be determined by dropping a drop on a paper napkin. The drop should retain its shape and not be absorbed into the paper.
A piece of bread dipped in a quality product hardens. If the bread spreads, then it is fake.

Product storage

Often, fans of a natural natural ingredient have a question, how to store honey at home? There are some nuances, subject to which useful product will not lose its useful properties for many years.

The storage temperature of honey should be constant. He is afraid of light, so there is a storage rule with conditions: warm and dark. With the right content, honey retains its properties for decades. Experts believe that for each year of storage, two diastasia units are lost.

Not suitable for storage plastic and metal utensils, it is better to use glass, ceramics, wood or aluminum containers.

Crystallization is a natural phenomenon that does not affect the quality of the product. But if there is a desire to use liquid honey, then it cannot be heated. In order for it to melt with the preservation of all useful properties, it is enough to put the jar in warm water, which must be changed. If stored in conditions of high humidity, then even a quality product can turn sour, as it easily absorbs moisture.

It is 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 mankind with valuable properties inherent in each of them. For example, bread is perceived as a kind of noble product, created by hard human labor, which, even in difficult times, can saturate a person and satisfy his hunger. Milk, and necessarily with the characteristic "village", gives strength and health to our main hope in life - children who rest outside the city with their grandparents. What is honey associated with? Perhaps honey is a healing mysterious formula of the fields and its main connoisseurs and guardians - bees.
Unfortunately, in our time, an aura of mystery and secrecy is inherent not only in honey, but in any product. It is very difficult to guess from what and in what conditions they make what they sell. There are several relatively simple ways check honey for some parameters, however, not all. Only the laboratory can give the most complete assessment. But something can be detected at home, without worrying about purchasing additional chemicals. But first you need to figure out how honey can look like outwardly.

Two honey states

The vast majority of honey varieties change their character within a few months after harvest. appearance: consistency and color. This process is called crystallization (candied). Beekeepers use the term "dead honey". By consistency, honey becomes more like a viscous fat 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 harvest, approximately in October. But there are deviations from this, for example, mustard honey in an open container thickens in 4-5 days, and honey from a white stock can stand until spring. If the honey is hermetically sealed, then it remains liquid longer.

Stone honey - quite rare variety 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 into pieces. Therefore, it is often stored without containers, simply wrapped in something.

Candied honey is more difficult to fake because it is not easy to imitate this condition in appearance. When buying honey in winter, it is better not to take liquid honey - the probability is too high that the honey is not real or it is removed from the crystallized state by heating, which has a detrimental effect on the beneficial properties of the product. In the summer, the shrunken honey can be suspected of being last year's or even older.

Learning to distinguish varieties

Often sellers give out a less popular variety for a more purchased one. Therefore, it would be nice to have an idea of how to distinguish one honey from another. Varieties of honey differ depending on the type of plant, the pollen from which prevails in the product. You can distinguish them by color, aroma and taste. This matter is very difficult. There is no pure honey, collected from only one type of plant, because you can’t order bees “don’t go there, go here” and you won’t force them to pollinate only one specific field. In addition, the color and even the taste of honey depends on the area, the season of nectar collection. Remembering the subtlest shades of taste and distinguishing the predominance of one variety over another is an even more difficult task. However, a very wide range of colors for each variety can be described. MirSovetov will consider only a few varieties that can be found on the shelves.
acacia. Freshly picked honey is transparent. In the candied state, it is white, reminiscent of snow.

Buckwheat. The color of honey made from the nectar of buckwheat flowers is dark yellow, often with a noticeable reddish tinge, sometimes dark brown.

Clover. Color from amber light to saturated amber.

Forest. The color varies from faint yellow to light brown, reddish.

Lime. The color is most often white to amber, and may be translucent. Yellowish and greenish shades are also acceptable.

Lugovoi. Color of light tones from yellow to brown.

Crimson. Although raspberries are red, the flowers are white, which is why the honey is light in color.

Methods for determining immature honey

The collected honey is sealed in honeycombs with wax caps. But they do not do it right away, but allow excess moisture to evaporate, along the way, workers supply honey with special substances that, by killing bacteria and microorganisms, do not allow honey to deteriorate. It turns out that already assembled and almost finished product bees are brought to an ideal state. This process is called honey ripening. In a market where everyone is looking to get more and faster, many unscrupulous beekeepers empty their hives long before the bees think it's ready. This allows them, to the detriment of the quality of the product, to start selling it earlier than others, and the bees, left completely without honey, instinctively begin to harvest it more actively. What's wrong with raw honey? The main thing is that it contains too much moisture. And it's not even that you overpay for plain water even worse, 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 MirSovetov and offers 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 an iron container that is not enameled, it reacts with its contents. Instead of plastic for storage, it is better to use ceramic or wooden utensils. In the old days, beekeepers stored honey in wooden barrels from linden, as it should, smeared with wax. In them, honey has not deteriorated for several hundred years. Honey was revered by the ancient Greeks and Egyptians as the food of the gods. In the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs, pots of honey were found, which has retained its food qualities to this day.

By density and viscosity. Mature honey is quite thick, flows down very beautifully: whole wide ribbons or elastic threads. To check the density, at a temperature of about 20 degrees, the following procedure is carried out. Scoop honey with a tablespoon, and then begin to rotate it, holding it horizontally. Mature honey, ending up, in turn, on the spoon, then under it, when the spoon is turned upside down, only has time to start stretching, hanging down from it, the viscous tape, being at the bottom, is wound on the spoon when turning. As a result, the spoon will be under the layers of honey from all sides, it will be wrapped with them. If you stop rotating the spoon, then the honey will lazily flow from it, not immediately merging with the honey in the jar, it will spread, leaving a slide on the surface. If the honey is immature, then during rotation it will flow down without stopping, it will be more like glue. As a result, the streams are thin, do not stretch, often break off, perhaps even drip. And the surface of honey is quickly leveled.
By weight and volume. Honey in its composition contains many particles heavier than water. 1 liter of honey should weigh at least 1.4 kg, in extreme cases, you can risk buying a product weighing at least 1.2 kg. per litre. If the weight is less, then most likely the honey contains too much water, which makes it so light. When weighing in dishes, do not forget that the container itself, especially if it is glass or iron, has a significant weight. Therefore, pre-weigh the empty container, and the resulting weight must be subtracted from the result.
Paper wetting test. Put some honey on recycled paper such as newspaper. If the drop began to spread, the paper around it got wet, then this indicates an excessive content of water in the honey or unnatural honey. Real honey will not wet the newspaper, and the drop will be elastic.
By water absorption. If you put a piece of soft bread into honey, it will not get wet, maybe even become harder, because honey is very hygroscopic and well absorbs moisture and odors from the environment, practically dehydrating everything around. If the bread gets wet, then the product is spoiled.
"Carbonated" honey. Take a close look at the surface of the honey. If you saw a slight movement of bubbles emerging from the inside, foam on the surface, it means that the honey has fermented due to moisture, lack of protective substances due to its immaturity. Fermentation is also indicated by the sour smell and alcohol taste of honey. Such honey is spoiled and without heat treatment, which will devalue all the beneficial properties of honey, it is not suitable for food.
two layers. If you are going to buy honey that has already been candied and find that it has evenly stratified into two layers of different density, then you should know that this is most often caused by the immaturity of honey. If you are not sure of the quality, then it is better not to take such honey.

Methods for determining other additives

So that the buyer does not notice obvious signs of a damaged product, sellers sometimes go to various tricks. What is added to honey is something that has never been in it. This gives the honey a good natural appearance, masking its inherently poor condition. You can try to identify some tricks of sellers by the following methods.
Determination of foreign sediment. If you put a tablespoon of honey in a glass of warm water, then it should completely dissolve, sometimes making the water slightly cloudy. To be sure, you can heat the water up to 50 degrees to help the honey particles melt and mix in the water. If you find that after dissolving in water, a precipitate appeared that fell to the bottom or floated, then this indicates the presence of 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 carbon dioxide, a hiss can be heard. In water, it looks like boiling. For the test, it is better to take vinegar essence, and not acid diluted with water. The reaction may not be noticeable if there is too little chalk or acid has not got on it. For reliability, 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 interacts with starch, a chemical reaction occurs, and iodine changes color to blue. The more intense the color, the more starch was contained in the product. There is no starch in natural honey, and a drop of iodine will remain unchanged in color. For the reliability of the test, 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 there. If there was flour instead of starch in honey, then the result will be exactly the same.
Definition of starch syrup. It is revealed when it interacts with ammonia. The latter reacts with sulfuric acid, which is used in the molasses production process and remains in this in very small quantities. food product. Ammonia is added in drops to an aqueous 50% solution of honey. If the solution changes color to brown and a precipitate of the same color forms, then the honey has been “flavored” with molasses.

Discovering artificial honey

Organoleptic test. Simply put, you need to taste honey. Natural honey should have a pleasant, slightly tart taste, it should melt completely in the mouth, leaving no sediment, solid particles, or strong crystals on the tongue. In natural honey, there can be nothing that does not dissolve in the mouth. You can also feel a 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 warmed honey. Such a product loses all its useful properties due to heat treatment. They heat it in order to pass off the already crystallized honey as freshly collected.
By heterogeneity. If you look closely, then 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 thick of honey. Sometimes (with poor filtration of honey) insect wings and other natural material can be found. If there are no particles at all, then honey is initially unnatural, but made from molasses, vegetable juices, and other substitute products. This cocktail is not harmful. But from honey there is nothing at all. Storage artificial honey does not crystallize.

soft falsification

Among all natural varieties Honey is isolated from honeydew because of its slightly different nature. Honeydew honey is of animal origin (collected from the sugary secretions of other insects) as well as vegetable (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 departure zone or there is none at all. The taste of such honey is bitter, its color is from greenish to dark, sometimes it is brown or even black. It is one of the most viscous varieties of honey, although if it contains a proportion of flower varieties, it can be less dense 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 does not make it popular, although it has its own unique set of useful trace elements.

Australian scientists in Queensland have identified the ability to count in bees, 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 honey plants. On one of them, nectar was constantly located. When the bees got used to it, the treat was removed. However, despite the fact that scientists changed the shape, the distance between them and the location in the pipe of all the markers, the bees continued to show an increased interest in the one on the account that previously had nectar. But if the nectar was further than the 4th marker, then the bees do not pay attention to the label freed from the nectar.

Detection of honeydew honey. In an aqueous 50% solution of honey, add 96% ethanol. It is not recommended to take another concentration of alcohol, otherwise the reaction may not occur. To one part of the honey solution, add 10 parts of alcohol. For the reaction to proceed, the mixture must be shaken several times. If the solution became very cloudy and white turbidity appeared, the flower honey was diluted with honeydew. If flakes of sediment fell out, then there may be no flower honey at all. In pure flower honeys the appearance of turbidity is possible, but it will be mild. Thus, it is impossible to check varieties of honey containing, like honeydew, a large amount of nitrogenous substances. These include buckwheat and heather honey.
Another “grade” of honey, which, unlike honeydew, is not natural, they also try not to buy is sugar honey. Such honey appears in 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, but is sold at the price of the latter. At first glance, this honey can be attributed to natural, but experts clearly attribute it to counterfeit products.
Identification of sugar honey. It can be distinguished without additional experiments. Sugar honey is suspiciously white. If you try it, it looks more like sweetened water, the taste is relatively bland and empty, it lacks the astringency inherent in this product. The aroma is also weakened. fresh honey watery, and lying down has a gelatinous consistency, weakly crystallizes. At home, you can test sugar honey with milk. If added to hot cow's milk a little sugar honey, it will curdle.

Of course, the considered methods do not allow to reveal all falsifications. After all, there is also the threat of honey being infected with bee diseases and poisoning with “drunk” honey, the nectar for which is collected from trees that are poisonous to humans. Identification of these threats is possible only in laboratory conditions. But MirSovetov hopes that at least some kind of reference point for quality honey this article helped me figure it out.

Honey is recognized by consumers and science as a useful, healing and most demanded product from the entire range of beekeeping, but only if it is natural. Lucky are those who have familiar beekeepers who have the opportunity to buy proven products. And what should an ordinary market buyer do, how to protect himself from a fake and be sure of its quality?

Varieties of honey

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 varieties of honey.

The color, aroma and taste of each variety depends primarily on the plant pollinated by bees immediately before production. But pure honey does not happen, since insects have a habit of flying from place to place, often even changing the terrain. However, in each variety, you can determine which range of colors prevails.

Types and color of honey

Each of the species has its own external features and healing properties.

Lime. Recognized as the most useful in the fight against colds. Generally light amber in color, may be yellowish and translucent.
Buckwheat. Is different rich taste With slight bitterness. Dark brown or dark yellow color with a reddish tint prevails.
Forest. The color range ranges from light yellow to light brown.
Lugovoi. Has light shades.
Acacia. Honey from this plant is almost transparent. An exception is the candied state, when the color becomes almost white.
Clover. Amber color with shades from light to rich and a special aroma.
Crimson. Only shades of honey were taken not by berries, but by flowers, so the product itself is of light colors.

When buying honey, it is not possible to conduct any research, and the seller will not allow the use of additional substances to test their products, but I want to buy a natural and high-quality product. It remains only to learn how to determine whether honey is real, according to 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 content of natural honey contains wax, pollen and other inclusions of natural origin. Transparency and too clean appearance indicate that the product is artificial.
When rubbed with fingers, natural honey should be absorbed into the skin.
Tasting, you should feel its astringency, slight burning, tingling in the mouth and sweetness in moderation. When you feel cloying and taste of caramel, it is likely that the honey was "warmed". This technique is sometimes used to add presentability to the product, but the useful 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.
Do not be alarmed when the bee product is candied. This is an indicator of naturalness, as it is subject to crystallization, unlike a fake. Knowledgeable buyers do not always seek to purchase honey in liquid form, and its crystallization speaks of excellent quality, which is the most reliable test.

Checking a bee product at home for the presence of additives

Viscosity maturity index. A quality and mature product is considered to be a product that has undergone a certain processing by bees, has reached a minimum degree of moisture and is sealed by them. Some unscrupulous beekeepers, in pursuit of profit, begin pumping out honey without waiting for the process to complete and reach 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, a maturity test can be performed using a regular spoon, which should scoop up a little honey and raise it to form a wide, elastic stream. It should flow continuously and settle in a slide without spreading.

Again, with a spoon we collect the result of bee labor, lift and scroll, holding it horizontally, around the axis. Honey should not drip. It speaks of 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. Average weight 1 liter of honey is 1.4 kg minus dishes. If this indicator is less, then a significant part of the 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 turn brown like burnt sugar, and will leave an appropriate smell.
An effective way to check the naturalness of honey and convenient even when buying on the market is a chemical pencil. In contact with moisture, it changes color, so by dipping it into a bee product, you can easily determine whether the product is being sold to you or diluted with water with the addition of granulated sugar.

Sugar is quite often a component of a counterfeit product. Beekeepers recommend checking at home for its presence in several ways.

Dip some honey in hot milk - if it's fake with burnt sugar added, it will curdle.
Tea with natural honey will color it in dark color, fake will not change.
Put a piece of bread crumb into the sweetness 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. Doubtful quality gives out and White color close to sugar.
Put some honey on absorbent paper and try to smudge it. If it worked out, and wet traces remained, you can be sure that the surrogate contains water or syrup.
A simple way to check for naturalness at home 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 - this is not a clean product.
Authenticity is easy to determine by heating honey poured into a spoon over a fire. The counterfeit will ignite, and the natural product will be slightly charred.

Definition of other additives

Often, a damaged product must be sold by any means, and so that an uninformed buyer does not notice signs of poor quality, sellers use various tricks. The quality suffers from the presence of additives that are not inherent in honey, but it acquires a marketable appearance.

One of the determinants is iodine. It is enough to put a few drops of it on sweet product, and the presence of starch added for thickness can be determined. As a result of a chemical reaction, the color will change to cyan or blue. The more intense the color, the more foreign agent. In real honey, the shade does not change.

By using vinegar essence identify the added chalk. To do this, dilute a spoonful of the product in 0.5 cups of water and drip vinegar. If there is a hiss of water, then there is chalk.

Conduct a test for the presence of molasses. Mix 2 tablespoons of water and 1 tablespoon of honey and add a few drops ammonia, shake up. A change in the color of the solution to brown and the formation of the same precipitate indicate that the additive is still present.

And it can also be useful as general information to know when honey is candied. The process basically starts one or two months after harvest. The 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 can, in best case, do not bring any benefit to your health, and at worst - have a detrimental effect on it. So do not neglect the check, at least minimal.

Video: how to determine the quality of honey at home

Those who want to lose weight come to the rescue. Well, those who are not worried about problems excess weight can treat themselves to a piece of honey cake. It should be noted that the most valuable properties possesses only natural honey. Unfortunately, at present, some beekeepers are not chasing the quality of the product, but the volume. As a result of dishonesty, it has become quite easy to come across a fake and, under the guise of honey, acquire something that does not even smell like honey. Today you will learn how to determine the quality of honey at home.

The ideal option would be to determine the quality of honey at the time of purchase, then you can protect yourself not only from wasting money, but also from a purchase that will not bring you any benefit. It is known that some simply feed the bees with sugar to increase the volume of honey. Such honey palatability practically does not differ from flower, however, in terms of useful properties, it clearly lags behind. There are several recommendations for choosing honey, we have already introduced you to them, but it will not be superfluous to repeat them. So, you can determine the quality of a beekeeping product by the following criteria:

Color

The color of honey depends on its variety and can vary from light yellow to brown. Flower varieties are usually light, linden honey has an amber color, but buckwheat honey produces brown color. At the same time, honey should be transparent, without sediment, if the product is cloudy, then this indicates that it contains additives. Often in honey there are bee products - bees, pieces of honeycombs, this should not alarm you, since this is a sure sign High Quality honey.

Aroma

Natural honey has a distinct smell that cannot be confused with any other. If honey is characterized by a slightly perceptible aroma, then most likely you have a product with added sugar.

Viscosity

You can also determine the quality of honey by its viscosity. Scoop honey with a spoon and lift it above the plane, natural honey will stretch with a continuous thread and form a slowly spreading hill on the surface of the honey.

Consistency

Anyone who has tasted natural honey at least once will confirm that the product had a delicate texture. Take a drop of honey and try to rub it between your fingers. If the product is absorbed, then this is a sure sign of its high quality, fake honey with such manipulation rolls into lumps.

Taste

And of course, the naturalness of the product can be established by tasting honey. real honey has a tart-sweet taste. Taste a little honey, if you were treated to a natural product, then you will definitely have a tickle in your throat.

If you do not trust your senses, but are accustomed to relying only on research results, then you can also determine the quality of honey at home empirically.

How to check the naturalness of honey with water

Place a teaspoon of honey in warm water. If the bee nectar melted for a short time, and does not lie in a lump at the bottom of the glass, then you can be sure of the quality of the product.

Tea with honey - not only delicious drink, but also an excellent method for determining the quality of honey
If you dip a spoonful of honey into tea, the natural product will immediately turn dark.

Milk with honey will help with coughing and will identify a poor-quality product

It is known that you can get rid of a cough if you undergo a course of treatment with milk and honey. However, this will help not only cure the disease, but also determine the quality of honey. So, if you add unnatural honey to milk, it will curdle.

How to check the naturalness of honey with a blotter

Take a piece of a blotting paper or napkin and put some honey on it. After a couple of minutes, take a look at reverse side paper. If a watery speck was found, then the poor quality of honey will have to be stated.

Iodine and vinegar - indicators of the quality of honey

Fill up a glass warm water and dissolve a teaspoon of honey in it. After that, add a couple of drops of iodine to the liquid. If after a few minutes the water in the glass turns Blue colour, this indicates that honey contains starch.

Instead of iodine, vinegar can be added to water with honey. This will determine if the product contains chalk. As a rule, in the presence of foreign impurities, the water in the glass begins to hiss and boil.

How to check the quality of honey with bread

Can determine the quality of honey and slice stale bread. Dip the bread in a container with honey. If the bread becomes soft after a few minutes, then you have to admit that the honey is not natural.
The quality of honey can be judged by spreading it on a piece of bread. As a rule, a natural product lays down in an even layer, does not drip from the edges and quickly transforms soft bread into solid.

Heating is an effective method for determining the quality of honey

Fill a tablespoon with honey and heat it over the fire. The natural product will char, honey containing impurities will ignite.

Chemical pencil will help to identify low-quality honey

Smear a drop of honey on a piece of not very thick paper and draw a chemical pencil over it. The appearance of blue stains indicates that the honey contains flour or starch.

Time will put everything in its place

If you don't want to experiment, you can just leave the medok alone for a few months. Time will do everything for you! So, if after a couple of months the honey began to thicken and crystallize, then this indicates that the product is natural. If honey remains liquid even after six months, it means that it contains a large amount of fructose. If the honey does not thicken, but separates into two layers - liquid and thick, then be sure that you have purchased an unripened product. Of course, it does not pose a health hazard, but it is characterized by a short shelf life.

We are sure that after all that has been said, it will not be difficult for you to determine the quality of honey, and if necessary, you can easily bring the seller-beekeeper to clean water.

To buy a really high-quality bee product, and not a fake, it is important to know how to check honey for naturalness. With equal success, this can be done both in the laboratory and at home. To the cunning folk ways includes checking with iodine, chemical pencil, water, vinegar, milk and other improvised means.

What is fake

Natural honey is usually mixed with sugar syrup, beet or molasses, saccharin, chalk, flour and other impurities.

Attention! Liquid honey sold in winter testifies:
about falsification of the product;
about deliberate removal from a crystallized state by heating, which deprives it of all healing properties.

You should also be wary of candied honey in the summer, as this means that it is last year's.

How to check honey for naturalness

Quality and naturalness bee product can be determined in two ways: "by eye" and with the help of special tools. Let's consider the first method in more detail.

Checking honey "by eye"

Taste

Checking honey at home begins with a taste test of the product. The taste of a natural amber dessert is pleasant, tart, giving off a floral or herbal sound. It should melt on the tongue, covering with a tingling, slightly burning aftertaste. It leaves no residue, solid particles or crystals behind. A light shade of caramel gives out warm honey, and sugary sweetness is an admixture of sugar.

By color

Knowing the varieties of honey will help you easily identify a fake. As you know, each type of bee product has its own characteristic shade. For example, the linden variety is distinguished by an amber color, the flower variety is golden yellow, the mustard variety is creamy yellow, and the chestnut variety is dark brown. But all of them, regardless of color, are transparent and pure. Fake honey is a little cloudy and has a sediment.

By smell

The quality of honey is easy to determine by aroma. A natural product smells of floral or herbal notes, while a dessert with an admixture of sugar, starch or flour has no smell - neither pleasant nor pungent.

By density and viscosity

Dip a thin wooden stick into the honey and then slowly pull it out. Real honey will follow her with a long thread. When interrupted, the thread forms a turret on its surface, which is then slowly absorbed by the product. If honey becomes similar to glue and drips from the stick with small splashes, then you have a surrogate.

By consistency

When making demands on the quality of honey, pay attention to its consistency. The natural product of beekeeping is distinguished by its thin, viscous, delicate structure. It rubs well between the fingers, melts and is absorbed into the skin, while the fake leaves lumps on the hands, characterized by a rough texture.

We attract improvised means

Attention! Foreign substances are added to honey for three reasons:
to hide signs of damaged goods;
to give it a natural and appetizing look;
to add weight.

However, it is quite easy to bring unscrupulous sellers to clean water. Honey can be checked with iodine, chemical pencil, vinegar, alcohol, paper, hydrochloric acid and other items.

Determine the admixture of molasses

Mix one part of honey with 2 parts of distilled water and add a few drops of ammonia. Shake the mixture. If the solution turns brown and precipitates of the same color, then the product is mixed with starch syrup.
You can determine its presence in another way: dissolve honey in two parts of water and add 2-3 drops of hydrochloric acid and 20-30 g of honey to the mixture. wine spirit. Turbidity of the solution indicates the presence of molasses.

Detect the presence of flour or starch

Consider how to test honey with iodine for the presence of flour or starch impurities. Dilute the product with distilled water and drop a few drops of ordinary iodine into the solution. The blueness of the composition is a clear sign that flour or starch is mixed into the amber dessert.

Attention! The darker the color, the more starch is contained in the bee product.

Checking for chalk

Dissolve honey in water and add a few drops to the mixture acetic acid(essences). If the solution boils, emitting a characteristic hiss and releasing carbon dioxide bubbles, your dessert is “stuffed” with chalk.

"Unmasking" Sugar

In connection with the increasing cases of falsification of the bee product, many people are interested in the question: how to check honey for sugar? You can do this in several ways:

The sugar product gives out its suspiciously white color with a head, a taste reminiscent of sweet water, no astringency, slight smell.
Add it to hot milk, and if it curdles, you have a fake mixed with burnt sugar.
In a cup of weak tea, dissolve 1 teaspoon of honey, and then inspect the liquid. Sediment at the bottom of the cup is a sign that the quality of honey leaves much to be desired.
Dip the bread crumb into the dessert and leave it in it for 10 minutes. Then take it out and inspect. Softened bread indicates the presence of sugar syrup, hardened bread indicates a quality product.
On a piece of paper (newsprint or toilet paper), which absorbs moisture well, put a little amber dessert. If it “smeares” on paper, leaving wet marks, or seeps through it, you bought a surrogate with an admixture of sugar syrup or water.

How to test honey with a chemical pencil

An indelible pencil is an effective tool that you should definitely take with you to the beekeeping market or fair. Its peculiarity is that it changes color when it comes into contact with moisture. Before buying honey, immerse the instrument in it. If it changes color, it means that they are trying to sell you a product diluted with water under the brand name of natural. Checking honey with a chemical pencil is also carried out in order to identify impurities in sugar syrup.

The easiest way to check quality

Dissolve 1 teaspoon of honey in a glass of warm water and leave the composition for 1 hour. The sediment formed at the bottom of the glass or flakes that have floated to the surface indicate the unnaturalness of the bee product.
Drop honey on paper and set it on fire. If the product is of high quality, only the paper will burn, and the honey will remain intact - it will not char, burn or darken. The counterfeit will turn brown and melt slightly, leaving the characteristic smell of burnt sugar in the air.

On honey, sometimes there are vivid evidence of its naturalness - particles of pollen or wax, wings of bees. However, this fact cannot be a 100% guarantee. When buying, pay attention to the main indicators of honey quality - color, smell, viscosity and consistency. Subject it to all the listed methods of verification and enjoy the great taste of a natural product.