Identifying Pure Honey
What is Honey?
According to Wikipedia, Honey is a sweet, viscous food substance made by honey bees and some other bees. Bees produce honey from the sugary secretions of plants or from secretions of other insects, by regurgitation, enzymatic activity, and water evaporation.
How To Tell If the Honey You Are Using is Pure
How can you be sure you are buying pure honey? Choosing between the various types and varietals offered on the market can be overwhelming if you aren’t buying it directly from a beekeeper. According to estimates, nearly three-fourths of the honey sold in some grocery stores is fake. Pollen, minerals, enzymes, and vitamins have all been removed from this processed product. All that is still in the jar is sweetened syrup. Disturbingly, some producers even mix in corn syrup and other sweeteners to dilute the real honey and lower the price of the “honey.”
Understand that these tests are not 100% accurate.
1. Crystallization
Honey crystallization is a natural occurrence in which it changes from a liquid to granular or semi-solid form for purely natural causes. What do you envision when you see a crystallized or semi-solid honey, then? It’s likely that you will disregard it as fake or tampered honey. This is because it’s a common misconception that “pure honey doesn’t crystallize,” even though the opposite is actually true.
Bees transform nectar into honey by processing it and adding unique enzymes. Natural honey as a result of this process has a propensity to crystallize and thicken when kept in storage. Inorganic honey won’t.
2. Check The Label
Make sure to read the label to learn where the honey originated rather than the location where it was packaged or at least find the information from their website. Check around the brand name or logo in addition to the ingredient list to check for “additives” or “added flavors.” Pure honey should only have one ingredient: honey. However, even if no other ingredients are listed, the manufacturer may not be telling the truth. So doing more research about the dealings of the brand company may help.
3. Paper Test
Add a few drops of the honey you are examining to a piece of paper. Pure honey won’t flow through and will stay solid. The paper will get wet and possibly even get soaked through if the honey isn’t pure.
4. Fire Test
This test only checks for added water in the honey, which may prevent the honey from burning. Dip a cotton pad or the cotton wick of a candle into a bit of the honey, and shake off the excess. Attempt to light the cotton pad or wick. If it burns easily, then it probably has no added water, but may or may not have other substances added. If it refuses to burn or makes a cracking sound instead, water may have been added.
