The term “adulterated honey” implies that glucose, dextrose, molasses, corn syrup, sugar syrup, invert sugar, flour, starch, or any other similar product other than floral nectar collected, processed, and stored has been added to the honey. in the comb by honey bees. Legal standards and requirements for food, including honey quality, and honey adulteration testing vary widely between countries and some may not meet the wishes of all consumers around the world.

Personally, when selecting honey at the store, I find it nearly impossible to tell the bad from the good just by looking at the honey content through the bottle or studying food and nutrition labels. My opinion is always: go for the most trusted or well-known brands. We all know that a “pure honey” label is by no means a guarantee that it won’t be diluted with water and then sweetened with corn syrup; it only promises that there is real pure honey inside, without suggesting its quantity.

The law does not require a “pure honey” label to say how much pure honey is in the bottle. Some brands of honey that you get in supermarkets do not have any ingredient list at all and this is enough to make me suspicious of the quality. Also, prices are not always a good indicator of the quality of honey. In cases of food fraud, manufacturers may mix different floral honey blends together and sell them as more expensive varieties, such as Manuka honey. And so-called “local honey” may not be local honey produced and processed locally, but cheap, low-quality honey imported from other countries but bottled and distributed locally.

A common misconception is that granulated or crystallized honey is evidence of adulteration with sugar water. The truth is that honey is a supersaturated sugar solution and can granulate whether or not it is adulterated, so crystallization is normal, especially in temperate climates. Additionally, some honeys from certain floral sources are especially prone to crystallization. Buying honey in a comb is a way of ensuring a quality product. The honeycomb is sealed in the hive by the bees; therefore, consumers can be sure that the honey has not been adulterated with sugar water. However, to boost honey production, some irresponsible beekeepers feed their bees sugar syrup so that the bees can turn the syrup into “honey.” What these bees produced is adulterated honey, very clear and liquid, like syrup.

Some websites teach that ants do not like raw honey and will not hang around for it. I don’t understand or believe this, there is no reason why ants would prefer processed sugar to honey. Also, I was wondering how to invite ants for a honey evaluation (does “ant-free” mean pure honey?). The reason why a sweet liquid is more attractive to ants than another may also be due to the density of the liquid and we know that the viscosity of honey varies depending on its floral type. Another test that is commonly discussed on the internet is the flame test, which involves igniting a cotton swab dipped in honey with a match flame. It is believed that honey will burn if it is pure. I’ve tried this method many times using different types of honey, some of which I was pretty sure were pure honey (comb honey for example), but the result I got was never consistent, and seemed to depend a lot on how much it was dipped. the honey and how long the honey was exposed to the flame.

There is another simple way that I have tried to check the purity of honey: Observe how liquid honey descends in a glass of water. Pure honey does not immediately dissolve in water; you’ll notice that it takes a bit of effort to stir it in the water to dissolve the lumpy bits, whereas sugar tends to dissolve easily in a jiggery when you drop them in the water. However, the test result is sometimes not so clear because different varieties of honey have different viscosity, some are denser and thicker than others, and obviously honey in cream form, even if it is adulterated with another substance, it will not dissolve as easily as liquid honey in water. .

It is suggested that people who are used to tasting honey may be easier to spot any added sugar. But frankly, because there are too many varieties and floral mixtures, and the amount of adulteration may not be enough to affect the taste and aroma of the honey, even though I do drink honey frequently, I’m still not 100% sure about my suspicion. sometimes.

Therefore, it is difficult to be absolutely sure of the authenticity of honey, unless at home you can carry out scientific laboratory tests such as spectroscopy, a method that uses the principle of interaction of light with matter to differentiate substances or make carbon isotope ratio analysis to determine if sugars were added to the honey (don’t be upset if this jargon sounds totally foreign; as a consumer, I’m not familiar with it either). However, of all the forms of verification discussed above (labels, pouring, dissolving honey, etc.) if you have reason to suspect that the honey is diluted and corn syrup has been added to it, my stance is: stay away from it. those marks. It’s better to err on the side of caution than sorry… well, chances are you won’t get sick from eating adulterated honey, but you know that adulteration with cheaper sugars reduces the natural value of honey and this doesn’t. helps justify the amount of money you pay.