"How to determine the quality of honey?" - quite a reasonable question when choosing this useful product. Testing honey for naturalness is not difficult. But it must be borne in mind that even laboratories will be powerless to determine a fake, if entrepreneurial businessmen force the bees themselves to mix nectar and sugar, leaving them among the flowers and placing trays of syrup in the same place.
Better to buy honey harvested from wild uncultivated plants - it will not contain pesticides. After all, honey plants grown by humans are necessarily sprayed, protecting against diseases and pests.
Natural honey can be identified by its taste and smell. Sugary, without a characteristic floral scent - practically useless.
How to check the quality of liquid honey
Since the first way to check the quality of honey is also the longest (this process can take several minutes - from two or more), it is probably better to start with it. You will need any kind of tissue paper or even just toilet paper. We put a drop of honey on paper and leave it for observation. In the meantime, we determine the naturalness of honey in two other ways. When after a while we return to a drop not on paper or a napkin, then with a real, high-quality product, we will find honey in its original state - a drop-tubercle. If, instead of honey, they ran into sugar syrup, then just a spreading spot will be found, as if it had been dripped with water.
When buying liquid honey, pay attention to the trickle. We scoop it up with a spoon and watch how it flows down. When the trickle flows down, a hill should form. This means that the honey is ripe. When stored properly, it will not ferment and can be stored for a very long time. Unripe honey, when transfused, does not form a hill, but rather a hole.
Then we check the quality of honey for sugar, observing the same trickle. When the trickle ends, in natural honey it seems to break off, spring and return back to the spoon. The last drop always remains on the spoon. If sugar is added, then the honey simply flows down in a continuous stream, does not spring, does not return to the spoon, does not remain on the spoon.
How to check the quality of thickened honey
Autumn is the time for thick honey. Closer to winter, only acacia and chestnut honey will remain liquid.
The first method is quite simple: we take the very drop of honey, apply it to the hand and rub it in. Can be applied to back or wrist. The honey must be completely absorbed. There should be no lumps. It is not necessary to take a large portion for the experiment, otherwise the process will take a very long time. You can check the quality of honey in this way right before buying. A counterfeit product with impurities will roll off in white lumps.
You can determine the naturalness of thickened honey using water. It is important that the water is clean, so it is better to take bottled water from a kettle or from the tap. This method is simple but will take more time. Dissolve a little honey in water at room temperature (about half a teaspoon). Since the product is thick, particles may remain at the bottom, which will also dissolve a little later. We are interested in what is on the surface of the water. If honey is with dyes, additives or flavors, then all loose components will float. The water should not be cloudy. In the case of buckwheat honey, it will be slightly darker, but still transparent, and there are no impurities at the top. Small particles are acceptable, but there should be no whitish bloom.
And the third way to check honey for quality is to determine the presence of starch in it. Why is starch added to a falsified product? To increase weight and thickness. After all, many people choose natural honey based on the fact that a liter should weigh about one and a half kilograms. You need to drop a little iodine into honey water. If there is no starch, then the liquid will turn brown; if present, it will turn blue.
Thus, you can check the quality of honey either at home, or just before buying.
