Buying honey always requires special vigilance. When choosing a bee product, you need to use all your senses as much as possible: smell, taste, study color and texture. Although, let's be honest, these methods do not give the buyer complete confidence in the quality of the purchased goods. Modern falsifications look very natural, therefore, it is possible to expose an unscrupulous seller without the involvement of experts only with the help of ordinary iodine. How to do it correctly, as well as what the results of the experiment can be - we will tell later in the article.
Unpleasant surprises in honey
Today, many seek to improve their health with natural products. Consequently, the demand for honey is growing, in the unique composition of which the entire periodic table is collected. A pot of this fragrant delicacy, for sure, can be found in every kitchen. 
Did you know? In ancient Greece, the immortality of the gods was explained by their addiction to ambrosia. This drink consisted of honey, milk and bee nectar. Pythagoras, Hippocrates and Aristotle spoke about the fact that sweetness produced by bees prolongs life.
Based on this, unscrupulous sellers breed high-quality bee products with various improvised impurities, thus increasing its quantity. In the market, you can be assured of the authenticity of the product, its high quality and omnipotent healing power from all diseases. You should not believe such fairy tales, it is better to see for yourself that you are dealing with real honey.
Indeed, when checking, particles may turn out to be counterfeit:
- starch;
- flour;
- semolina:
- gelatin;
- boiled or raw water;
- sugar syrup;
- powdered sugar;
- molasses;
- saccharin;
- dandelion syrup;
- dried gum (tragacanth);
- wax;
- ash;
- soda;
- paste;
- clay;
- chalk;
- famous fluff;
- food thickeners and baking powder;
- plaster.
Each of the added third-party ingredients has its own mission in reducing the cost of the bee product, which will be sold at the price of natural. The fact is that these impurities do not have pronounced taste qualities and are easily transformed into a consistency convenient for the merchant. In addition, these are cheap and affordable carbohydrates. Experts call the most harmless way of honey fakes "regrading". Important! The easiest way to fake light varieties of honey.
This is when cheap varieties of honey are passed off as expensive ones. Often in this role, under the guise of sainfoin, you can be sold a less healing product. Worse, when they begin to dilute it with food and non-food additives. Especially popular among them are starch and flour, which contain amylose polysaccharides. Upon contact with iodine, they form blue clathrates. That is why this medicinal product is preferred as a test indicator.
How to test honey with iodine
If you do not have your own apiary and you go to the market or to the store for honey, then you definitely need to arm yourself with the following knowledge:
Important! High-quality natural honey must comply with the national standard DSTU 4497:2005, which includes only fine particles of dead bees, their larvae, honeycombs, pollen, plant fibers, ash and dust from third-party impurities. In the presence of other impurities, the product is rejected..
Video: how to check honey with iodine
What you need
To conduct this elementary experiment, you need to prepare:
- honey, the authenticity of which we will check;
- glass cup;
- distilled water;
- vinegar.
Checking honey
When this set is assembled, you can proceed to direct verification.
It is carried out as follows:
- Warm up the water to 25-30°C.
- Fill a glass with it.
- Add a tablespoon of bee product and stir until completely dissolved. It is important that there are no lumps or clots in the container.
- Drop 2-3 drops of iodine into the vessel. Watch what's happening. The outcome of this experiment may be the appearance of a slightly blue color in the honey liquid or specific stains. These are clear signs of previously added starch or flour, which were used to increase the weight of the product or mask its spoilage.
- Finally, put a few drops of table vinegar into the glass. The hissing and foaming of the liquid will confirm the guesswork about chemical impurities. In this case, we are talking about the presence of chalk, soda, gypsum, lime.
Important! When buying honey, never be tempted by its cheapness. Keep in mind that the process of making this delicacy involves a long cycle and certain costs. Therefore, a priori, such a product cannot be cheap.
Take into account that polysaccharides have a complex molecular structure. Often its terms can be separated from each other. Therefore, the reaction with iodine does not always occur. Often this happens when honey diluted with starch or flour is subjected to pasteurization. 
Heat treatment for some time gives the surrogate naturalness and uniform consistency, and also prolongs its shelf life. After its expiration, this fake is most likely to ferment. It should be understood that there will be no benefit from such honey, since even that small amount of useful substances obtained from a natural product is destroyed in its composition when heated.
How to check honey without iodine: evaluate the appearance
Once in the mall, it is unlikely that you will begin to conduct experiments on the authenticity of the goods with the participation of iodine. Therefore, it will be a good habit to check the product certificate. From these documents you can find out about the quality, variety, timing of collection and the geography of origin of the delicacy. Also scrupulously examine it by external signs and do not refuse the sample.
Did you know? According to legend, the aged Democritus decided to arbitrarily die, denying himself food. To postpone his death for the holidays, he ordered to put a bowl filled with honey in front of him. Inhaling this aroma, the ancient Greek sage was able to live up to 107 years without water and food.
Video: how to check the quality of honey at home
Here are the main characteristics of a bee product that you should check before buying:
Smell
Natural honey has a pronounced fragrant aroma. It can be weak or strong, but always pleasant, gentle and without third-party impurities.
Colour
Before going to the market or to the store, you should find out what varieties of real honey are and their color shades. For example, buckwheat is brown, flower is golden yellow, lime is amber, and mustard is creamy yellow. The unnatural whiteness of the product should alert, which indicates sugar syrup in the bee diet. You should not expect a healing effect from such a product. Moreover, it is dangerous for people with high blood sugar levels. 
According to the requirements of DSTU 4497:2005, natural honey can be colorless, light yellow, yellow or dark yellow and dark with different shades. You can test it for the content of sugar syrup and an increased level of humidity outside the house using a special chemical pencil. For the experiment, you need to drop a sticky substance on your hand and draw a line on the drop. When a blue-violet color appears, the purchase should be abandoned. Please note that sellers who are aware of this verification method do not allow such tests.
Did you know? In Ukraine, honey production annually reaches 70 thousand tons, which allowed the country to top the list of European producers and take 3rd place in the world. China is the world leader.
Transparency
The genuine product is characterized by transparency until crystallization. If in the summer you are offered to buy crystallized honey, look for a viscous liquid substance, since in this case you are faced with last year's product. Please note that a real bee product forms crystals already at a temperature of 30 ° C, which is not enough for a surrogate. 
Be sure to try to rub a drop of goodies with your fingers when buying. In the case of a fake, this can not be done without specific pellets. Such lumps indicate an increased level of moisture. It can also be detected by dropping onto a piece of paper. Then the honey drop will be surrounded by a wet ring.
Consistency
The naturalness of honey is measured by its viscosity. It can be liquid, medium or very dense, depending on the maturity of the product. In any case, when you scoop up a fresh bee product with a spoon, it should not spread to the sides like water. A sign of quality is the formation of a “church” on the surface, which gradually levels off. Each variety has its own texture.
Experts in this regard distinguish 5 groups:- very liquid - clover and acacia honey;
- liquid - linden, rapeseed, buckwheat;
- thick - sainfoin, dandelion;
- sticky - honeydew;
- gelatinous - heather.
Important! The slower the honey flows in the jar, the less water it contains. This is a sign that he will not ferment. Also make sure that there is no white foam on the surface of the product, and light streaks in the depth.
To verify the authenticity of the purchased product right on the spot, take a plastic bottle of drinking water with you and add the honey variety you like inside. If after stirring you get a homogeneous liquid without sediment and lumps, honey is worth buying. 
In the event that the seller tells you about an unusual fashionable variety that is guaranteed to save your family from all ailments, do not rush to buy. First, find out if it is possible in a given area to take bribes from such plants and whether they exist in nature at all. Experts advise buying honey directly from familiar beekeepers. Therefore, if you do not have such acquaintances yet, it is worth acquiring them. Happy shopping and stay healthy!
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. Cunning folk methods include 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 starch syrup, 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
The quality and naturalness of a 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 characterized by a 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 wine alcohol to the mixture. 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 of acetic acid (essence) to the mixture. 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 betrays with its head its suspiciously white color, taste reminiscent of sweet water, lack of astringency, and a 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 the 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.
All materials on the website Priroda-Znaet.ru are presented for informational purposes only. Before using any means, consultation with a doctor is MANDATORY!
Floral comes from processed flower nectar. Honeydew - from the sweet liquid secreted by aphids, bugs that feed on plant sap. Honeydew is shed on the leaves and stems of plants as a result of exposure to these insects. Mixed is much more common.
Honey obtained from one type of plant is called monofloral, from several - polyfloral. The latter is much more common. Therefore, specific varieties (for example, fireweed, sweet clover, etc.) can be distinguished only conditionally.
According to regional characteristics, several varieties are also distinguished: for example, Altai, Bashkir, etc.
Honey in combs is valued for its healing properties and original taste.
On a technological basis, they distinguish:
- centrifugal - pumped out in a honey extractor;
- cellular - in natural honeycombs;
- sectional - cut into pieces about half a kilogram and enclosed in newly made plastic or plywood frames;
- pressed - obtained through squeezing with a press from honeycombs;
Types and color
Honey can be different in appearance, taste, aroma, texture. It differs in its properties, in its effect on health. The qualities depend on which plant was a honey plant for bees.
Honey has different shades depending on the honey plant
- Lime. Light golden in color, sometimes with a slightly greenish tint, has pronounced bactericidal, anti-inflammatory and expectorant properties, well reduces fever, helps sweating.
- Buckwheat. Better than all varieties affects the composition of the blood, it is used even in the treatment of anemia. Has a good reputation in the treatment of atherosclerosis, heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases. Especially useful for men.
- Forest. It can be absolutely any color: the shade depends on which trees and shrubs the nectar is collected from. The most famous of the forest ones is Altai: it is very tart, spicy, with a pronounced taste. It has a wide range of healing properties: it is especially useful for pathologies of the cardiovascular, circulatory systems and gastrointestinal tract.
- Meadow, flower. Golden color, fragrant, collected from herbs. It is believed to help with headaches and sleep disorders. It is recommended for women for the prevention of gynecological problems and in the treatment of infertility.
- Cyprus. Contains a large amount of vitamin C, so it is effective for colds.
- Donnikovy. It has anti-inflammatory and analgesic, sedative properties. Useful for nursing mothers, as it enhances lactation.
- Chestnut. Good for the digestive and cardiovascular systems.
- Crimson. It has the properties of an immunostimulant, helps with beriberi, neurosis and mental overload. It is recommended for diseases of the upper respiratory tract, gynecological ailments and inflammation of the mucous membrane, including stomatitis.
- Acacia. Very delicate in taste, without characteristic bitterness, almost transparent and liquid, like water, immediately after pumping - to fine-grained, greenish. These signs depend on the variety of acacia from which the nectar is collected. The high content of fructose allows this api-product not to crystallize for up to two years, unlike all other varieties. Useful for diabetes, hypertension and dermatitis.
- Clover. Delicate amber color, with a slightly candy aftertaste. In liquid form, it resembles syrup, it crystallizes rather quickly. Used for hypertension, atherosclerosis. heals wounds and ulcers well, fights even bacteria resistant to antibiotics.
External check
A quality product can be identified by one or more external features. Having extensive practical experience, one can conclude the authenticity of honey according to several criteria.
Taste
Genuine honey has a pronounced tart, sometimes with a slight burning bitter taste. Suspiciously tasteless, with a sugary aftertaste - this is a fake, diluted with sugar syrup. The grains remaining after dissolution on the tongue also indicate the presence of impurities in the product.
Colour
Real honey can be absolutely any color: from dark brown to almost colorless. But in the liquid state, it should always be transparent, regardless of the shade: turbidity immediately after pumping means the presence of foreign additives.
Aroma
The product should smell specific, tart, and may slightly smell like wax. There should be no sour tint, such that accompanies fermentation processes.
Density and viscosity
A natural mature product is quite thick: it does not drip off a spoon if you scoop even slightly heated honey with it and start quickly turning it around the axis. When poured into a container, the apiproduct does not spread immediately, but first gathers in the center in a small hill.
Density and viscosity are one of the signs of natural high-quality honey
It remains liquid most often for 1-2 months, no more. The lack of crystallization in winter honey most often indicates that:
- it was heated, for example, during pasteurization;
- he is unnatural;
There are very rare exceptions, and beekeepers usually know about them and warn consumers: honey can remain liquid for a long time if the nectar is collected from some specific plants, for example, from acacia.
Crystallization does not affect the beneficial properties in any way: all the beneficial substances are preserved in crystallized honey for years. But it is impossible to heat and artificially make the product liquid: from this it loses its healing properties and forms carcinogens that provoke oncology.
Uniformity
Any honey gradually crystallizes. But first, crystals are formed from glucose, then from fructose. Crystals from glucose sink to the bottom of the jar, and a product saturated with fructose accumulates on top. Such stratification is usually noticeable on those varieties with a high content of fructose. These processes do not indicate a deterioration in the quality of honey, one can only assume a high content of fructose and, possibly, insufficient maturity of the product. This does not affect its quality, but only reduces the shelf life.
The homogeneity of the bee product can also be slightly disturbed by interspersed with pieces of wax, grains of plant pollen. Sometimes you can find bee wings in it. This is also absolutely normal and indicates naturalness.
A white coating on top is also normal: a small foam appears and hardens on the surface in the form of tiny bubbles.
Honey has a composition rich in useful trace elements and amino acids.
When rubbed between two fingers, the natural product gradually absorbs almost completely into the skin. The fake has a rough structure, remains a viscous sticky mass on the surface.
Simple ways to check the naturalness of honey using improvised means
Honey is most often faked in order to increase the weight of the product or hide its poor quality.
Beekeeping is a labor-intensive process, which is why fakes are so common
An experienced consumer can identify a fake by taste, color and smell. But in order to more reliably verify the authenticity, it is best to test honey with at least one of the methods that are designed to identify specific additives.
- Iodine. Indicates the presence of flour or starch. Apiprodukt is diluted with distilled water and iodine is dripped into it. If the mixture turns blue, then there is definitely either starch or flour.
- Vinegar. Detects the presence of chalk. If you dissolve the product in water, and then drop vinegar into it, or better, vinegar essence, then chalk is detected by the presence of a rapid release of carbon dioxide (hissing and seething of the liquid).
- Of bread. It “calculates” sugar by dipping a small piece of bread into sweetness for just 10 minutes. Hardened bread will indicate the quality of the product, and softened - the presence of added sugar syrup.
- Water. This is the easiest way to find chalk and other impurities. A spoonful of goodies dissolved in a glass of plain water should not give any sediment or flakes after an hour.
- Ammonia. They can determine the presence of molasses. A few drops of it are added to one part of honey and two to distilled water. The mixture is shaken. And if a brown precipitate fell out, and the solution itself also changed color, this indicates the presence of molasses.
- Indelible pencil. It is convenient as a "camping" option and also "finds" sugar syrup. An indelible pencil immediately begins to write purple as soon as water hits it, so if its lead is lowered into a drop of sweetness, then even without paper you will see how it changes color.
- Fire. If you drop honey on a sheet of paper and set it on fire, then a quality product will remain intact, will not change color and will not smell like burnt. Fake with water and sugar will melt, turn black, give the smell of burnt sugar.
- Milk. When you add a fake, it should collapse.
- Paper. it is better to take a piece of newspaper or toilet paper. The point is that it should absorb water well. Sugar dissolved in water will make itself felt by the fact that moisture seeps through.
- Lapis. Pharmaceutical pencil determines the presence of sugar. To do this, it is dipped in a 10-15% honey solution. If a white precipitate appears, then there is sugar.
- Wire. It must be made of stainless steel, and any source of open fire, such as a lighter, is suitable for the experiment. It is heated and dipped in honey: if it remains clean, then the product is real, if something sticks to the wire, then these are any foreign additives.
Other ways to check quality
1. Heating. This method will help to check honey for naturalness at home by aroma or consistency. The experiment is carried out in a simple way:
- about 50 g of honey is placed in a hermetically sealed dish and heated for 10 minutes at a low temperature - only 45ºС;
- after the time has elapsed, open the lid and sniff: a natural product is determined instantly by its characteristic tart aroma; there should be no sugary-sweet smells;
- they also heat it for about an hour and look at the structure: a fake will not give stratification.
2. Weighing. It helps to determine the density:
- it is necessary to take exactly one liter of honey and weigh it, having previously determined the weight of the empty container;
- then the number indicating the net weight of honey must be divided by 1000 - this is the weight in grams of one liter of water;
For example, the weight of a liter of apiproduct without packaging is 1480 g. We divide 1480 by 1000 and get 1.48. The resulting number in Russian conditions should be at least 1.41. So this is natural sweetness.
In addition to honey, bees are able to produce other useful products, such as bee bread. Read about its beneficial properties in our material:.
How to store at home
Honey remains useful for a long time. But so that it does not lose its properties, special rules for its storage and use must be observed.
It is better to store honey with honeycombs in glass jars with tightly closed lids.
- It should be a cool and dark place, but not a refrigerator.
- The container must be chosen sealed, made of glass, ceramics, wood. Metal cannot be used: it oxidizes and spoils the product.
- You need to use a healing delicacy without heating: temperatures above 60ºС destroy the beneficial properties. There is a theory that carcinogens are also formed. Therefore, it is better not to put honey in hot tea.
- You can not store honey in an open container - it easily absorbs foreign odors, losing its own aroma, easily absorbs water.
Honey is the main and most popular product of beekeeping. It is both a delicacy, and a means of strengthening the body, and an excellent natural medicine against a wide range of diseases. Therefore, when buying, it is important to know how to check honey for authenticity and be able to distinguish real from fake in practice.
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 spoiling. 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 can only be distinguished from natural honey 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 has an amber color,
- 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 small amount and, as it were, “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 is 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. When whipping, useful components are lost, and the output is only a sweet cream. In addition, if in a liter jar of fresh honey there is almost 1.5 kg, then whipped honey is half as much. 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.
A 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 a liquid product is sold in winter, it means that it has been exposed to heat. 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.
In winter, the 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 most affordable methods to 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. A quality product will not spill out of a spoon if it is turned over, but if it is sugary, 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, under which a 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.
Plastic and metal utensils are unsuitable for storage, 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.
There are more honey merchants, and less natural honey in the windows! What kind of tricks do not go manufacturers of fake honey. In pursuit of sales volumes and revenue, the quality of the product and its naturalness fade into the background. Consider the types of adulterated honey in more detail.
Types of fake honey
- Natural honey with additives. Sugar syrup tinted with tea, beet molasses, chalk, starch, flour, etc. are added to bee honey. If chemical thickeners and flavors are used, the result can be much more harmful than ordinary sugar and flour.
- Artificial honey. It is produced from beet or cane sugar, as well as from the juice of plants (melon, watermelon, corn), followed by coloring. Such "honey" does not contain useful enzymes, but in appearance and taste it is difficult to distinguish from natural.
- Honey after feeding sugar syrup to bees."Inventive" beekeepers put with hives feeders with sugar syrup. The bees do not bother to extract nectar and ferment honey from sugar. The resulting product is whitish, difficult to crystallize and lacks many useful properties. Sometimes even the laboratory cannot detect a fake in it. Therefore, the reputation of the manufacturer is so important, the decency of which can be no doubt.
- Melted and heated natural honey. To give honey a marketable appearance, last year's "harvest" is melted and deprived of all valuable qualities when heated. Unripe honey can be heated to remove excess moisture. The product after such frauds is distinguished by a caramel flavor, a characteristic brownish color and a strong tickle in the throat. And in the cold, it forms vitreous filaments. Heated honey is pure and transparent, there is no trace of pollen grains and suspended particles, as well as useful enzymes, trace elements and vitamins.