How much does honey benefit us? Honey has become a miracle cure for us, and a great way for scammers to make money.
Despite the fact that honey is not the cheapest pleasure, we are ready to pay and trust the producers. We always believe on our word of honor and buy a vaunted product, but it would be worth looking into the papers, if there are any documents for honey at all.
How to tell if honey is natural?That there is no deceit in honey - no starch, clay and chalk, no sawdust and paper, no molasses and sugar syrup and other additives.
Here are 10 ways to identify fraud in honey, so as not to buy a fake.
1. Take some honey and rub it between your fingers.
Natural honey will be absorbed completely without residue, it will be soft and tender. A coarse texture, roughness and the presence of lumps that appear will mean that there are additives in the honey.
The most harmless additives in honey are water and sugar. They are defined as follows.
2. Take a napkin and put a small drop of honey on it and lift it up, tilt it slightly.
If honey flows over the surface, then you have unripe (unripe) honey or honey that has been diluted with sugar syrup.
Unripe honey always has 20% more moisture, it can ferment and deteriorate. Also, it does not have the full range of useful substances that mature honey has.
3. Apply a strip of honey to paper and write on it with a chemical pencil.
If the pencil leaves a violet-blue trail on the honey, then this honey has been diluted with sugar syrup and it is unnatural.
Fake honey made with sugar syrup does not have the beneficial micronutrients that we value honey so much. Therefore, it is better to take a little honey for a sample, check it, and only then confidently buy quality honey.
4. Apply a drop of honey to a tissue or toilet paper.
A fake will surely give itself out and wet the paper. In a minute, the first wet traces will begin to appear. And after 20 minutes, a clear wet spot from water and sugar will appear near the drop of fake honey.
Often beekeepers feed bees with sugar water so that they do not starve to death (for example, in winter). Also, the syrup is used for falsification to reduce the cost of honey production.
5. Take paper, put honey on it and light it.
When burning, natural honey will melt.
If honey is charred on paper and smells of burnt caramel, then you have a fake.
Unclean producers add more than sugar syrup to honey.
There were cases that sawdust and crushed paper were found in honey, gelatin and molasses were added for viscosity, starch and flour for density, and chalk, clay and even sand for weight.
6.Dissolve some honey in a glass of hot water (the water must be clean).
If honey is natural, then it will dissolve completely, and the solution will be clean.
If sediment remains at the bottom, and inclusions floated to the surface, then such honey contains various kinds of impurities.
If such a solution is filtered, even sawdust, paper and sand can be found.
7.Put honey on a plate, add a little water and add 1-2 drops of iodine.
If after mixing the honey has darkened, then such honey contains starch.
8. Dissolve some honey in warm water and pour in vinegar.
If foam and hissing appear, then a reaction has begun. This honey contains chalk.
9. Pour yourself a cup of tea and add a spoonful of honey, stir.
If the tea becomes cloudy, it means that the honey contains various kinds of impurities and it is unnatural.
10. Dip a spoonful of honey in a glass of rubbing alcohol.
It is good if the alcohol becomes slightly cloudy, and most of it remains transparent, then natural honey. A cloudy solution indicates the addition of molasses.
These were 10 ways to test honey for cheating. Share your methods of checking the quality of honey in the comments.
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