Did you know that there is real honey and fake honey?
Can you tell the difference between pure honey and fake/adulterated honey?
What is real honey?
Real honey is what comes from bees and not from a factory. It is almost impossible to tell whether the honey on the shelves is fake or real.
What is fake honey?
Fake honey is ‘honey’ that has been added glucose, molasses, sugar syrup, dextrose, invert sugar, corn syrup, starch, flour or other similar product, other than "real" floral nectar.
How can you tell the difference?
By examining the physical qualities of honey, its easy to know whether it is pure or not. Here are some of the main differences in properties that will help you distinguish between the real and "fake" honey:
- Crystallization
Real Honey Crystallizes.
If the honey never crystallizes, there is a high probability that it is "fake" adulterated honey.
- Stickiness
Pure Honey: It tends not to be sticky if you rub it between your fingers
Fake Honey: It is fairly sticky because of the high percentage of added sweeteners and additives
- Taste
Pure Honey: The taste will go away very soon in a matter of minutes. If you heat & cool pure honey, it will alter the taste and kill its healing and nutritional values
Fake Honey: Very sweet taste remains because of added sugars and sweeteners
- Smell/Aroma
Pure Honey: You can actually smell aromas of certain flowers and wild grasses.
Fake Honey: There is mostly none or just industrial sour smell.
- Thickness
Pure Honey: It is very thick and takes a good time to move from one side of the jar to the other.
Fake Honey: It is very 'light' and moves really quickly inside the jar - Not dense at all.
- Heating
Pure Honey: Upon heating, pure honey caramelizes quickly but does not make foam.
Fake Honey: Becomes bubbly and forms foam because of the added sugars and moisture-water.
- Dissolving
Pure Honey: Doesn't get dissolved in water immediately and lumps at the bottom. Gets diluted when stirred for a while. Mixing in equal amounts of honey and mentholated spirits, honey settles at the bottom.
Fake Honey: Gets dissolved very fast when added to water because of additives. Dissolves in mentholated spirits while making the solution milky.
- Bread test
Pure Honey: When spread on a slice of bread, the bread will become solid in a few minutes.
Fake Honey: It will wet and moisturize the slice of bread because of additives.
- Flame Test
Pure Honey: After immersing a matchstick in the honey it lights easily with no hesitations.
Fake Honey: the matchstick will not light easily because of presence of moisture.
- Absorption Test
Pure Honey: Few drops poured on blotting paper do not get absorbed. When poured on piece of white cloth, it won't leave stains.
Fake Honey: Gets absorbed in blotting paper. Leaves stains on a white piece of cloth.
- Egg yolk Test
Pure Honey: When poured into a container with yolk alone and the mixture stirred together the yolk appears like it is cooked
Fake Honey: Has no effect on the yolk
- Impurities
Pure Honey: Presence of impurities: dirty-looking particles, pollen and bee body parties
Fake Honey: Absence of impurities
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey
http://durablehealth.net/food-nutrition/test-honey-purity-know-fake-pure-honey/,
http://www.lorebay.com/raw-honey/how-to-check-purity-of-honey-test-real-fake-pure/,
http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/pure-honey.html
http://www.well-beingsecrets.com/health-benefits-of-honey-ultimate-guide/
http://birdsandbeeshoney.com/our-honey/
https://www.mybeeline.co/en/p/how-can-we-differentiate-100-pure-honey-and-adulterated-honey