High quality honey excellent palatability, preservation of the natural composition, long term storage. To determine the quality characteristics of honey, special analysis is required, as well as special quality control. Otherwise, there is a risk of encountering an unnatural product.
Signs of high quality
Honey in the absence of sugar in its composition has the following features:
- nutritional value. The assessment of this criterion directly depends on the amount of carbohydrates contained in the product. Maturity is reflected in taste and nutritional qualities honey. This criterion allows you to determine the presence of medicinal substances in its composition.
- Mature. Maturity assessment is related to the biochemical processes that the product has undergone, such as hydrolysis, fermentation, etc. These figures indicate high quality product.
- Sweet taste without additives.
- Absence signs of honey fermentation.
- Pleasant natural fragrance. The smell should not be sharp or specific.
- Negative reaction to such a toxic component as hydroxymethylfurfural during the analysis.
Check at home
There are several methods for testing the naturalness of honey. According to professionals, natural honey has a certain smell and color. Installing naturalness yourself at home is easy. It is enough to take into account certain nuances:
- The presence of chalk in honey can be confirmed using regular vinegar. To do this, it is necessary to dilute and, if a precipitate appears, drop on it. acetic acid. If foam forms, the product contains chalk. By adding a little iodine, you can notice blue tint. This means that starch or flour is included.
- To determine the presence of sugar in honey, you need to add lapis. In the case of the formation of a precipitate, it can be concluded that it contains a lot of cane sugar. You can also brew weak tea, strain it with a fine sieve, add a few tablespoons of honey. If a precipitate appears, it contains sugar. If the tea darkens, the products are of high quality.
- Natural honey has a pleasant unobtrusive aroma. artificial product, as a rule, has a sharp, specific smell or does not have any.
- A high-quality sugar-free bee product should crystallize and change color. If there are no such transformations, you have come across fake or honeydew honey, which contains chemical additives.
- There is some sugar in honey if lumps appear when rubbed between the fingers. If the product is absorbed into the skin, it is natural.
- It is important to pay attention to the shade of the product. Honey should be dark yellow, light amber or colorless.
- High-quality honey is characterized by a viscous, liquid consistency. A dense shape and a certain thickness may indicate that the product has begun to crystallize.
diastase number
This method is considered the most reliable. A low number is present in the following varieties of nectar:
- lindens;
- fireweed;
- acacias;
- clover and sunflower.
If a this product natural, then diastasis is lost after heating or in case of long-term storage.
To determine the quality of honey, a special analysis of diastase is carried out:
- an aqueous solution is poured;
- some starch is added;
- infused for an hour;
- cool and add iodine solution.
It is important! If the solution turns blue, the product is not natural. This indicates that it lacks diastase, which is a valuable enzyme.
Viscosity natural
The naturalness of bee products can be determined in accordance with the consistency. Viscosity decreases if honey contains a lot of water. An unripe product contains about 22% water or more. You can determine the viscosity by stirring the honey with a spoon. A quality product sticks to the spoon and does not drip.
Not always enough home check to determine the quality of honey. In some cases, a special examination will be more reliable. For example, a product obtained from the nectar of buckwheat, fireweed or linden has a liquid consistency. A thick consistency is obtained thanks to sunflower and dandelion. Honeydew honey is also considered thick. You can get gelatinous nectar from heather.
Having familiarized yourself with the main methods for determining the quality of beekeeping products, you can protect yourself from an unsuccessful purchase of artificial honey.
Only the beekeepers themselves know how natural and environmentally friendly honey from their apiary is, but any consumer can make a certain analysis. Before buying a large number of of this valuable product, it is advisable to purchase a small jar from the same batch, and carry out the simplest research.
At home, so as not to run into a fake?
What kind of honey is counterfeit?
The history of fake honey began a long time ago, the first mention of its falsification dates back to 1855. Since then, the techniques of fraudsters have improved so much that sometimes it is possible to reliably determine its quality only in laboratories.
What honey is adulterated:
- immature;
- heated (melted);
- honey with additives and impurities.
Most often, sugar honey and artificially inverted sugar are mixed into a natural product, less often starch and beet molasses.
How to determine the quality of honey at home
Let's check maturity first. Some beekeepers, unknowingly or out of selfish motives, seek to start pumping honey as early as possible in order to sell it for the greatest profit.
What is bad raw honey? It will hold more than 20% moisture, it quickly loses medicinal properties, worse stored, often begins to ferment. In the process of fermentation, such a product is formed and becomes unusable.
How to determine the quality of honey? Maturity is determined different ways. The first one is the viscosity test.
At a temperature of 20 0 C, you need to take a spoon with honey, place it horizontally, and start rotating. Mature honey does not have time to drain, but is wound on a spoon. If you drop the end cutlery down, honey flows down from it very slowly, and leaves a tubercle on the surface. Unripe honey begins to drain during rotation, and the surface is quickly leveled. At lower temperatures, the viscosity decreases, at high temperatures it increases.
When testing, it is necessary to take into account the variety, since different types honey have different viscosities:
- Very (acacia, orange, clover).
- Liquid lime).
- Gelatinous (heather).
- Dense (sunflower, rapeseed, buckwheat).
The second way is to check the ratio of volume and weight. Weight (net) of one liter of mature honey must be at least 1.4 kg.
Third: bubbles. If the honey has a sour smell, an alcohol taste, or bubbles slowly form on the surface, the honey has fermented.
Fourth test: paper. A drop of honey is applied to a newspaper sheet. If the honey is mature, it will remain on the surface. If damp, it will spread, leaving a wet mark.
Fifth the way is fine when the honey is already candied. If it breaks up into two layers of different density, it contains a large percentage of water.
Let's bring impurities to clean water!
To increase the volume and give the product a dubious quality like natural mature honey, it can be added various additives. How to determine the quality of honey? At home, it is quite possible to determine its purity.
1. The presence of impurities is detected simply: diluted in distilled water a small amount of honey. A quality product will completely dissolve. If there are foreign inclusions, they will either precipitate or settle to the bottom.
2. Chalk can be detected by adding acetic acid to an aqueous solution of honey. If the mixture starts to sizzle and foam, there is chalk in the honey.
3. To increase the viscosity, starch and flour can be added to honey. In this case, there is nothing easier than to determine the quality of honey with iodine. Honey must be dissolved in water, and then drop iodine there. If the solution turns blue, it means that starch has been added to the delicacy.
4. Gelatin is detected by adding a 5% solution of tannin to a mixture of honey and water. If present, white flakes will appear.
5. Molasses in honey will show ammonia. A few drops of alcohol added to an aqueous solution of counterfeit will turn it brown.
Definition of baked honey
Often sellers try to sell crystallized old honey under the guise of a new harvest.
How to determine the quality of honey at home if it has been candied and melted? Signs of a fake:
- Heated honey is transparent and homogeneous, while the natural product is slightly cloudy due to the presence of protein compounds.
- The product has a slight aroma, caramel flavor, and it noticeably
- When the temperature drops to +5 0 C, vitreous threads form in it. Natural honey behaves this way only in severe frost.
sugar honey
The taste does not have the characteristic astringency and light perspiration. If you smear a drop on paper and set it on fire, the smell of burnt sugar will appear. In hot milk, such "honey" is curtailed.
Finally
When buying, trust your feelings. Honey should be sweet, slightly tart and fragrant. From him a little and he is very pleasant to the taste. The aroma should be natural, floral. Crystallization is a normal process for a 3-4 month old product and older. Frozen honey in winter should inspire more confidence than liquid and transparent.
Unscrupulous beekeepers often add syrup, starch or chalk to their products. Therefore, it is necessary to understand how to check honey for naturalness. You can carry out manipulations at home or directly upon purchase, which we will talk about today.
How to check honey for naturalness - external signs
Before you determine the quality of honey, you need to know what to focus on when buying. Do not hesitate to try products or check their viscosity, smell, evaluate the consistency.
No. 1. Color
1. The final shade base depends on the variety of the beekeeping product. In particular, honey can be pigmented black, yellow, brownish or even white. However, in all of the above options, it must retain transparency.
2. If there are impurities in the composition, the products will become cloudy or precipitate. The presence of grains white color- a sure sign that starch or chalk is present in honey.
3. An excessively light shade indicates a possible addition of sugar. Acacia honey, which is cloudy in structure, is included in the list of exceptions. This is due to the duration of crystallization. Clover honey, in turn, is whitish.
No. 2. Taste
1. Do not be afraid to try products if the seller offers. Since it will be much easier to check honey for naturalness directly at the point of sale than at home.
2. A high-quality beekeeping product is sweet, sugary, tart. There is no sour aftertaste and bitterness. Real honey will cause a sore throat.
3. If the composition was added sugar syrup, the taste of honey will seem sweet water. In cases where it smells or tastes like caramel, it means that it has been heated.
Number 3. Smell
1. Before you determine the quality of honey by smell, you should know that there are varieties that are not too fragrant. Subsequently, you can conduct several tests at home, but for now, study the properties.
2. So, first you need to find as much information as possible about the variety that you like. Smell is especially important.
3. The main types are fragrant and odorous, but not overly sharp in aroma. At the same time, the fake product has almost no smell. Also, if impurities have been added, the smell will be distorted.
No. 4. Consistency
1. Completely natural honey is soft, delicate, similar in texture to cream. Definitely homogeneous. When distributed over the skin, it is absorbed in a short time, you just need to rub it in. A fake, in turn, accumulates incomprehensible grains and lumps.
2. When deciding how to check honey for naturalness, you need to take into account the season of the year. When stored at home, the product is already candied by winter, while in spring and summer it is liquid. From this it is worth concluding that it is simply impossible to buy a liquid product in winter. If you succeeded, the honey melted.
3. If the honey is really of high quality, it is enough to wind it on a spoon. You will see how a viscous and dense spiral literally forms art, and the form itself changes slowly as it drains. If the composition is excessively liquid, it will drain in a short time (such honey quickly deteriorates).
No. 5. Viscosity
1. A real beekeeping product descends from a spoon in an elastic stream. In the bowl where it falls, a hill appears, which spreads very slowly and noticeably.
2. If the jet breaks when putting honey into the bowl, it will become like a spring. That is, it will gently pull itself up to the base of the spoon, gather in a large drop, and again try to pull itself down.
3. But sugar honey not endowed with all these characteristics. It falls with splashes and drops, without forming a slide in the saucer and, moreover, without imitating a spring.
The best ways to check honey for naturalness
The following methods will allow you to both check honey for naturalness and stock up on some knowledge. Each method is suitable for implementation at home, it remains only to choose the appropriate option.
No. 1. Iodine
Mix together 230 ml. slightly warmed water (28-30 degrees) and 20 gr. honey. When the solution becomes homogeneous, drop iodine into it (1-2 drops). If the product is made with the addition of flour/starch, the honey will turn blue.
No. 2. Vinegar
Prepare a solution of 15 gr. honey and 130 ml. water. After stirring, pour in 10 ml. vinegar. If the contents of the cup hiss, then the product is of poor quality.
Number 3. Water
How to check the quality of honey, now we will tell. At home, the implementation of the plan is quite simple: in hot water enter 15-20 gr. bee product. If it lies in a “slide”, you have fake honey in front of you. If it melts quickly, the quality is excellent.
No. 4. Bread
Fill a small saucer with honey, send a square of bread crumb inside. If the honey is natural, after 25-30 minutes it will be absorbed by the pores of the bread. The slice itself will remain intact and gain partial hardness. If the seller diluted the honey, the bread crumb will soften.
No. 5. Indelible pencil
If there is a prohibited "rarity", use a chemical pencil. Because it will be faster to check honey for naturalness. At home, the procedure is as follows: grease a piece of paper with honey, draw a line with a pencil and evaluate the result. In the presence of bluish stains, the beekeeping product is stuffed with chalk or starch.
Other ways to check honey for naturalness
Many amateur beekeepers give their bees sugar syrup. Workers' nectar is made in any case, but it is devoid of value. In such a situation, it becomes necessary to check products for sugar.
So, how to check if honey is real?
No. 1. Napkin/newspaper
Lay out a piece of newspaper, tissue paper, or blotting paper. Drop honey on the surface, detect for 25 minutes. If after this period the circle around the droplet becomes wet, you have a low-quality product. This method allows you to detect a fake by 99%, but 1% of natural varieties of honey is included in the list of exceptions and leaves a wet mark.
No. 2. Wire
You will need stainless steel wire. Heat it up with a lighter or hold it over a gas burner. Dip it in a container with honey, take it out and evaluate the result. In the presence of sugar, the sticky mass will turn black, pure honey does not leave behind soot.
Number 3. Hot milk
Another sure way to check honey for naturalness. Its implementation at home is extremely simple. Warm up the milk, dip a spoonful of beekeeping product into a glass with a drink. If he curled up, you have a clear fake.
No. 4. ammonium chloride
Connect 60 ml. water with 30 gr. honey, add a drop of ammonia. If you notice that the solution has become brownish, the bee product contains molasses on starch.
No. 5. Tea
cook warm tea medium or low brew. The drink drops 20 gr. honey and stir. If it's not fake, the honey will make the tea darker and won't precipitate.
Varieties of honey and their benefits
Before checking honey for naturalness, decide on the variety that you plan to purchase. Then, at home, proceed to authenticate.
No. 1. Lime
Honey has shown itself well as a remedy with antipyretic effects. The product has a diaphoretic effect. It has excellent expectorant and bactericidal properties.
No. 2. Chestnut
To bypass cardiovascular pathologies and eliminate problems with the digestive system, consume chestnut honey regularly. It has good antimicrobial activity. This variety helps men fight impotence.
Number 3. Buckwheat
Buckwheat honey is considered effective means in the prevention and treatment of beriberi, anemia and cardiovascular pathologies. The bee product quickly restores strength after blood loss and improves blood composition.
No. 4. fireweed
Systematic consumption fireweed honey will allow you to bypass the development of beriberi and seasonal colds.
No. 5. Floral
Such honey should be eaten by women. It has a positive effect on the reproductive system, it is possible to prevent or cure gynecological problems. flower honey has analgesic and sedative properties.
No. 6. with bee bread
Honey is famous for its immunostimulating effect. It is recommended to consume it after recent operations or protracted illnesses.
No. 7. Lugovoi
To cope with constant headaches and normalize sleep, it is worth systematically taking meadow grass honey.
We figured out how to check honey for naturalness. It is worth exploring a few more tips that will come in handy at home.
1. It is easy to understand how to know the quality of honey. When stored at home, the product begins to crystallize after only six months. If during such a period the honey has not been candied, it is not real. Keep the product in a dark room in a glass container.
2. Upon purchase fresh composition from the apiary, pay attention to whether there is foam at the top. If it is, honey will soon ferment. The product of beekeeping must be infused in the combs for a certain period. So he is recruited natural antibiotics.
3. We learned how to test honey. But there will be no difference whether it is real or not, if the apiaries are located along a busy road. Such a product is harmful to humans due to the accumulation of toxic substances. Avoid such purchases.
4. Honey is considered immature if after some time the contents of the container have stratified. That is, part remained liquid - the other was sugared. The product is recommended to mix thoroughly and consume in the near future.
5. When buying, always trust only yourself and do not trust the seller. Remember that honey is measured in kilograms, not liters. Therefore, only 1 liter. treats will weigh about 1.5 kg. If the mass is significantly less, then the honey is diluted.
How to check honey for naturalness, you already understood. Decide on a variety. Men are advised to purchase dark varieties. Women, on the contrary, it is better to feast on light honey. Also, when storing at home, follow simple rules.
Probably everyone has heard about the benefits of bee products. Such natural gifts can heal the body, prevent a variety of diseases and pathologies, and even treat some of them. Medications based on bee products can be purchased at any pharmacy or prepared at home. And honey is rightfully considered the most popular of them - tasty and very healthy treat. But, unfortunately, today it is very difficult to find really high-quality honey. Therefore, the topic of our today's conversation will be honey fakes and how to determine them, let's talk about how to distinguish a fake honey from a real one.
Fake honey can be purchased anywhere - both from resellers and from manufacturers. At the same time, the average consumer will not even be able to distinguish them from each other. Let's try to understand not only the differences between real honey, but also the variety of existing fakes.
What are fakes?
The most "natural" fake is honey with various additives, for example, with essential oil. Such a trick helps unscrupulous sellers pass honey off as another variety.
Also, for the manufacture of fakes, starch, molasses or sucrose and other components can be used. In some cases, honey is faked so professionally that to find out on their own just impossible. So unscrupulous beekeepers feed bees with sugar syrup, which increases the productivity of insects. In this case, only a laboratory helps to identify a fake.
Therefore, in order to get one hundred percent high-quality honey, it is better to buy it from beekeepers you trust.
How to distinguish natural honey from a fake by eye?
Sometimes too low a price indicates a fake. If you suddenly have the opportunity to buy honey cheaper, think about the reasons for the reduced price. Saving, you can buy only a part of real honey, mixed with sugar syrup and tinted with tea.
The liquid consistency of honey may also indicate a fake. This natural sweetness remains liquid for only a few months, then it gradually thickens. So in winter it is almost impossible to find liquid honey if you come across just such a honey - perhaps it is diluted or heated.
Also, a fake may be indicated by the presence of too much white in such a product. This phenomenon may indicate that the sweetness was diluted with sugar syrup.
Insufficient quality honey may look too dark, and it may also have a caramel flavor. A similar phenomenon indicates that the sweetness was warmed up or straightened. So, for example, dark buckwheat honey can be melted and sold as fresh.
Please note that the crystallization of honey is a natural phenomenon. In the event that such sweetness is stored for a long time, it may well be that potato molasses was mixed into it or spent heat treatment in the past. Usually this feature becomes apparent after the purchase, but if you find it, you will be able to refrain from buying from this beekeeper in the future. It should be noted that in autumn you can still buy liquid honey - chestnut and white acacia honey.
Also, fermentation, stratification of honey or the acquisition of an ugly forked texture by it can also indicate a fake.
You should not focus on the presence of bee corpses, pieces of wax or grass in honey. They do not indicate the naturalness of the product, because the seller can add them to the product on purpose.
How to identify fake honey at home?
Every year, manufacturers of "fake" bee products invent more and more new methods of masking fakes. However, there are several methods that will help you find out how high-quality honey is in front of you.
mechanical research
Try rubbing honey between your fingers. Quality treat sticks well, it forms a sticky film. If you get a fake in your hands, you may have a feeling of excessive moisture. Also, a fake can form a lump that can be rolled in your fingers.
When falling from a whisk or spoon, honey will not splatter. Just put a small drop on a napkin - it should not spread. In this case, the honey will stretch from the spoon with a thin thread, and the last drop will spring and pull up.
A high-quality honey mixture will lie down in a slide, and only then it will spread.
A simple method with iodine and water (or vinegar)
Pour some honey into a glass, pour some water into it. Mix well. If there are additives in the honey, they will sink to the bottom.
Drop a couple of drops of iodine into a glass and stir. If the mixture suddenly turns blue, then starch is present in the honey.
You can also drop a little vinegar into the solution. If suddenly something hisses, it means that there is chalk in the honey.
Some more chemical experiments
Prepare a five to ten percent solution of honey and combine it with medical alcohol in a ratio of 4:1. When white sediment it is possible to draw conclusions about the presence in the solution molasses.
You can also add to the honey solution methyl alcohol- when a yellowish-white precipitate appears, one can draw conclusions about the presence of impurities in honey.
The spoon method
This is a simple test method that can be performed in a fairly warm room - with a temperature of at least twenty degrees. Take an ordinary spoon and wind honey around it, making quick rotational movements. The all-natural product will behave like caramel - it will wrap around the spoon and won't drip. If you have a fake in your hands, it may start to flow from a spoon, bubbles or blotches of some other color may appear in it.
paper method
To determine the naturalness of honey using paper - put a small amount of honey on a piece of paper and wait for five minutes. In the event that on reverse side there was no wet spot on the leaf, the honey is really high quality and it has not been diluted. It is quite possible to resort to this method of verification at the fair - take some honey on a stick and put it on a piece of paper.
fire method
This method of determining the quality of honey will help to determine the authenticity of crystallized honey. Set fire to a small piece and carefully watch how it burns. In the event that you have one hundred percent high-quality honey in your hands, it will simply melt. If you come across a fake, it will crackle and hiss (this is how other foreign components will appear).
The bread method
This method allows you to find out if there is sugar syrup in honey. Just take a small slice of bread and dip it in honey. Wait for ten to fifteen minutes, then remove and inspect a piece of bread. A really high-quality product will not soften the bread, and if it contains sugar syrup, the bread will get wet.
advice from beekeepers
When choosing honey, give preference to its thicker varieties. If the product has a transparent consistency, it may well be that it was warmed up by the seller.
What varieties of honey do not exist?
Many beekeepers, as well as resellers, invent varieties of honey or distribute those that are especially rare. Let's take a look at the more troubling options.
honey from royal jelly. It is very difficult and almost impossible to obtain such honey in such a volume that it would be possible to sell it. One mother liquor contains no more than two hundred grams of milk, and special efforts are needed to create a dessert. But sellers of sweets with such a big name have a reason to put an especially high price on it.
It is impossible to purchase honey from wild rose, corn, hazel or poppy. The flowers of these plants do not produce nectar. It is also impossible to get chamomile honey.
You should be alerted and honey from strawberries, blackberries or blueberries. To get natural honey using nectar from these shrubs, you need to spend a lot of time and effort, because they give very little nectar. But unscrupulous beekeepers can feed bees with berry juice, and insects process it like nectar. The resulting honey is not as useful as natural, but the sellers do not talk about it.
Also, do not buy honey from milk thistle, pumpkin and silver sucker. Mentions of the so-called "wild" honey or the predominance of "flower" varieties of honey from the seller can also alert.
More tips from a beekeeper
Be sure to taste honey before buying, and also smell it. Feel free to ask clarifying questions - about when the honey was collected, and about where the apiary is located. Bee products cost a lot of money, so you have the right to full information.
High-quality honey has a pleasant floral smell, as well as sweet and pleasant taste. There are varieties of bee products that are characterized by quite original taste. If you are going to buy just such, find out before that what taste and aroma they should have.
But most often, honey smells like honeycombs from beehives - wax, nectar and pollen, as well as sweetness and, of course, honey. A low-quality product may have a particularly strong smell, sometimes there is no fragrance at all.
When swallowed, honey can sting a little in the throat, and also give a slight bitterness.
Be sure to ask about the weight of the purchased honey - one liter of a quality beekeeping product weighs an average of 1.4 kg.
Store the purchased treat in a dark or opaque glass or ceramic container. Close the jar tightly with a lid, because honey can absorb an extraneous odor. It is best that the storage temperature is between five and twenty degrees. In no case should you store honey in the sun.
The healing properties of honey have been known since ancient times, and since then this bee product has been incredibly popular among the population.
Honey is widely used in the treatment of acute respiratory viral infections, colds, coughs. In addition, the product is very useful for overweight people. In this case, it is recommended to use it with the addition of cinnamon, which will allow you to get rid of extra pounds in a short time.
Traditional medicine has huge amount recipes based on this unique bee product, however, it must be said that healing properties possesses only natural honey.
Now, more and more often, unscrupulous businessmen, in pursuit of profit, have begun to engage in falsification honey delicacy and pass off some incomprehensible substance as a real bee product. So how can you not fall for the bait of these unfortunate merchants and buy really real and high-quality honey?
How to check the quality of honey at home?
Many ordinary people are interested in the question: how to check honey for naturalness? Natural product or not can be determined according to several criteria. To begin with, it is recommended to purchase a small amount of the bee product and check it yourself by all means available to you.
How to determine the quality of honey by external criteria?
An ordinary buyer can determine the quality and naturalness of a product by organoleptic indicators: color, smell, taste. When tasting honey, you should pay special attention to the following properties:
When determining the naturalness of a treat, you the following indicators should alert:
- Complete absence of smell;
- you do not have a feeling of acid and sore throat;
- honey has a color uncharacteristic for this variety;
- liquid honey mass in the autumn-winter period.
Quality bee product viscous, viscous and dense. The moisture content of natural honey is below 20%, that is, it corresponds to the norm. Take a ladle (or spoon), scoop up a treat, lift it up and look at the falling stream. It should descend in a continuous ribbon, forming a hill on the surface. When transfusing a large volume of honey mass, a characteristic creaking is heard. A treat with a low viscosity does not form a hill, but a small funnel.
If you rotate a spoon with natural bee products from side to side, you can see that honey with high humidity does not linger on cutlery and flows down. While a viscous delicacy, on the contrary, wrapped around a spoon.
If the bees were fed with sugar syrup, then it is rather difficult to check whether the honey is real. A fake treat has all the features natural product and is characterized by low acidity, a high percentage of sucrose, as well as a lower content of macro- and microelements and pollen grains. So how do you tell if honey is natural or fake?
There are the following differences between this product and sugar:
- At long-term storage honey mass becomes gelatinous and thick, crystallization is often fat-like;
- such a delicacy has a weak aroma, does not cause a burning sensation, does not sour and has a bland sweet taste.
The organoleptic characteristics of a fake honey treat can be quite weak. Unscrupulous beekeepers practice the joint pumping of frames with natural honey and the so-called sugar frames. Wherein appearance and the taste of the surrogate improves, making it difficult to test honey at home. And yet, is it possible to accurately determine the quality of a sweet medicine at home? Of course, yes, you just need to know how to do it.
Some beekeepers add various powdered substances (starch, chalk, flour and even sand) to honey to increase the mass of the bee product and its viscosity. If you are interested in the question of how to determine the quality of honey at home in order to detect insoluble impurities, you can just dissolve the product.
To do this, you need to collect in a transparent container warm water and put there 2 tbsp. l. bee product, mix thoroughly. After about an hour, all insoluble impurities (if any) will settle down.
Humidity of honey
Specific gravity of honey mixture determines its quality. How more water contained in the product, the less dry residue it contains, which means that the specific gravity is less. So how do you determine yourself?
In fact, everything is very simple. It is necessary to take a transparent container and weigh it. Then put some kind of mark on the surface of the jar and pour water to the specified level. Carry out the weighing again. The resulting difference is the amount of water. Now, in the same jar (wiped dry), pour the honey mass up to the mark and weigh the product. It is necessary to subtract the figure of the first weighing from the result obtained and in the remainder you will get the amount of honey, which should then be divided by the indicator of the amount of water - this is the specific gravity of the honey delicacy.
Humidity up to 20% is considered normal, which corresponds to specific gravity 1.4 kg. If, as a result of the experiment, you got a lower value, then the product contains a large amount of water, which can cause fermentation.
How to check honey for naturalness at home in non-traditional ways?
In addition to the above, there are also so-called non-traditional methods for checking the quality and naturalness of the bee product. In the beekeeping literature, nothing is said about such methods, so it is impossible to say with absolute certainty that they are reliable. However, you can try.
Of these here non-traditional methods for determining quality honey products include the following:
How to test honey with additional substances?
The naturalness and quality of honey products can be determined using various substances found in almost every home.
How to check honey - real or not - with iodine?
Some unscrupulous beekeepers add starch and flour to honey to create the appearance of a crystallized product. The quality of this honey can be checked reaction to iodine.
In a small amount of water, it is necessary to dissolve a little bee product and add iodine (5 drops) to it. If the composition turns blue, then the sample contains starch or flour.
Testing with ammonia
Sometimes, in order to increase the viscosity, beekeepers add to honey molasses. It can be detected by the residues of sulfuric acid used in the process of saccharification of starch. How, then, to determine the quality of honey products?
Here ammonia will come to the aid of the layman.
- Dissolve honey (1 part) in water (2 parts);
- take 2 ml of solution and add ammonia (8 drops) there.
If the mixture contains starch, it will turn brown, and a brown precipitate containing ammonium sulphate will appear at the bottom.
How to determine the presence of chalk in a product using vinegar?
Some so-called beekeepers add to the product powdered chalk. This is done in order to increase the weight and density of the honey delicacy. Such a mixture can cause serious harm to health.
The presence of chalk in the honey mass can be determined using vinegar essence. A few drops of acid are added to the test sample. If a sizzling reaction occurs with the release of moisture, then the delicacy contains chalk additives.
How to check the authenticity of honey using lapis?
There is also such a method of falsifying a bee product as adding sugar syrup. To detect a fake, you can use a solution of silver nitrate (lapis).
Dissolve honey (1 tablespoon) in ten tablespoons of water and add lapis. If the honey mixture contains sugar, a precipitate of silver chloride, white in color, will fall to the bottom. AT quality product there will be no sediment.
Checking with a chemical pencil
Check naturalness honey product can and with chemical pencil. To do this, put a small amount of honey on a piece of paper and draw a line. If a colored trace remains, then the product may contain various impurities or sugar syrup. In the same way, you can try to determine the moisture content of a honey treat.
However, this method of determining the quality of honey raises some doubts. In 1972, V. G. Chudakov made a simple experiment. He subjected to research 36 varieties of bee products, 13 of which were falsifications. Pencil testing showed identical results on all 36 samples. From this we can conclude that the chemical pencil does not contribute to the identification of a fake.
There are many more ways to check honey for quality. However, they are more difficult to use and cannot be done at home. If you have researched a sweet treat using the above methods and made sure that you have real high-quality honey, you can safely go to the same store and purchase right amount delicious medicine.
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