Almost everyone loves honey. This is a universal product, it has a huge amount of vitamins and minerals. Since ancient times, knowledge of its healing properties has come down to us.
Today, you can buy it in any store or in a market where beekeepers often sell their own honey. In order to get a really high-quality product, sorting out the varieties is not enough, it is important to know how to check honey for counterfeit.
Honey is considered falsified, in the composition of which a product was mixed in order to increase the initial mass. It can be regular sugar, molasses, starch, sugar syrup and even semolina. They do this in order to benefit, since it is a rather expensive product.
Of course, you can ask experts how to check honey, even better if you yourself learn to define quality.
To begin, consider the signs of the "right" honey:
- the real product, when rubbed between the fingers, is completely absorbed into the skin and does not leave grains after itself;
- it has a pleasant smell, slightly tart, depending on the origin of the product, there may be a smell of flower, linden, buckwheat, and so on;
- the “correct” honey, when scooped up with a spoon, flows down a slide back into the container and wraps around it if you twist the spoon around the axis;
- with a careful examination of the thick, you can notice grains of pollen and wax;
- real honey should melt in the mouth and not leave behind grains;
- the foam on the surface does not mean that it is a spoiled product, it is formed as a result of pumping honey from honeycombs.
Now we will answer the question - how to check honey? There are several ways. Let's consider some of them.
- This method is the simplest of all and can be done at home or before purchase. For analysis, you need a glass of pure water and a teaspoon of honey. Stir it thoroughly in a glass of water; a quality product gives a slight haze. If it is falsified, a whitish precipitate will appear at the bottom, which means that flour or semolina has been mixed into it.
- Surely you are interested in how to check honey with iodine. This method makes it possible to determine the falsification of starch. To check, you need a solution of honey, for this half a teaspoon of the product is dissolved in half a glass of warm water and add a drop of iodine. If the color has not changed - this is a natural product before you, if the color has turned bright blue - they are trying to sell fake honey to you with starch. It is better to check honey immediately before purchase than to regret it after.
- Another fairly simple way is with a chemical pencil. As everyone knows, it changes color when it gets wet. Therefore, with this pencil you can easily check whether honey is diluted with water or not. It is enough to immerse the tip in a mass of honey and look at the reaction, if the pencil is colored - you have a product that has been diluted with water. It is better to refrain from such a purchase.
- Often manufacturers mix chalk in order to increase the mass of marketable honey. Its presence can be easily checked with vinegar essence. To do this, drop a drop of essence into a teaspoon with honey - if bubbles begin to appear, you will see counterfeit.
- You can easily check the fake sugar syrup. To do this, scoop up the honey in a spoon and watch how it flows - if a trickle, and at the same time a pea forms, the product is normal, if in droplets - it is definitely mixed with sugar syrup.
These are the simplest rules by which cheating can be avoided. Now you know how to test honey, you can safely share your experience with family. Try to take honey from trusted sellers, even better if you have relatives in the village that contain an apiary, they certainly won't let you down.