How to distinguish real honey from fake. That's what you need to watch out for!

How to choose the right honey

Bee honey - a product that is partially nibbled in the goiter of the honey bee (Apis mellifera). Honey contains 13-22% of water, 75-80% of carbohydrates (glucose, fructose, sucrose), and also vitamins B1, B2, B6, E, K, C, carotene (vitamin A provitamin), folic acid in small amounts. By origin, natural honey can be floral and padeevy.

It does not matter where you buy honey - in the store, or at the hands of the beekeeper, no one is immune from buying fake honey. For the sake of money, many sellers are ready to go to baseness and even sacrifice the health of others and use components of dubious quality when creating such a fake. But those who really care about themselves and their loved ones, should know how to choose the right honey . About how to distinguish natural honey from counterfeit, everyone must know. After all, this product is used not only for flavoring dishes and drinks, but also for raising the immunity.

How to distinguish between natural honey and fake honey

How to choose the right honey

1

Real honey, besides sweet taste, should be a little bitter and cause a choking in the throat . When buying honey on the market, be sure to try it.

2

Necessarily smell honey . He must have a delicate floral scent. The fake smell is often absent, or vice versa it is too bright and intrusive.

3

Color is not the last thing you need to pay attention to. Unnaturally light honey is obtained when bees are fed with sugar syrup or molasses. Such a product will not benefit the body.

How to recognize artificial honey at home

How to choose the right honey

1

If the honey is natural and mature, then scooping it with a spoon and turning it, it will be wound with a tape layers. And if it drips from a spoon, then it should not be taken.

2

Dissolve a tablespoon of honey in a glass of water. The water will become cloudy, but without sediment. In the presence of impurities, the precipitate is always formed.

3

To determine if there is flour and starch in the product, add a drop of iodine to the honey, diluted with water. If the solution turns blue, then these additives are present.

4

You can add a little acetic essence. If the honey hiss, then there is chalk in it.

5

Drop a drop of honey on the tip of the match and set it on fire. If the honey ignites, then it is natural.

How to choose the right honey

Types of honey by origin

By origin, natural honey can be floral and padeevy:

  • Flower honey is produced by bees in the process of collecting and processing nectar, which is allocated by nectaries of plants both flowered and non-flowered.
  • Honey bees are produced by collecting honey (sweet extracts of aphids and some other insects) and honey dew from leaves or stems of plants. Honeydew honey contains an increased amount of minerals, so it is not left for bees to winter: an increased amount of indigestible substances leads to overflow of the intestines of bees, diarrhea and weakening, down to the death of families.

Types of honey in consistency

By consistence, centrifugal honey can be liquid or crystallized ("sat down"):

  • Liquid honey is a normal state of fresh honey after pumping out honeycombs (usually honey of the current beekeeping season). Liquid honey has a different degree of density (viscosity). The viscosity of honey depends on the greater or lesser content of water in it and partly on the temperature of the ambient air. Liquid honey can also be obtained by heating crystallized honey, while some useful properties of honey may be lost, as well as the content of oxymethylfurfural in it. Too liquid honey may indicate insufficient exposure in honeycomb, it is called "immature".
  • Crystallized ("sat down") honey - is formed naturally from liquid honey. Honey from the dandelion flowers "sits down" most quickly (from about 2-3 days to 1 week), mixed herbs (depending on the honey-plants from which it was harvested) "sits" two or three months after pumping out honeycombs. Sowing honey does not lose its properties as a result of crystallization. In sowing honey, depending on the size of the crystals, a coarse-grained, fine-grained and greyish-shaped cage is distinguished. In coarse-grained honey, splices of sugar crystals are more than 0.5 mm in diameter, in fine-grained - less than 0.5 mm, but still visible to the unaided eye. Sometimes crystallized honey has so small crystals that the mass of honey seems to be uniform, salty.

Types of honey by color, transparency, taste and smell

The color of honey is divided into light and dark with numerous transitional shades from white to reddish-brown. The color of honey depends on the plants, of which honey is obtained from the nectar: ​​relatively light honey species are obtained from the inflorescences of lime, sunflower, acacia, and relatively dark - from buckwheat, milkweed.

Transparency of liquid honey depends primarily on the amount of perga that got into honey during pumping. Honey may become turbid as a result of the process of its crystallization that has begun.

Natural honey, as a rule, has a sweet taste. A sharp sour taste is inherent only to the spoiled, fermented honey. The aroma (smell) of honey is determined by the characteristics of a particular plant. Honey, collected by bees from one particular plant, usually has its own characteristic taste and aroma. With a certain experience it is possible, for example, to accurately determine buckwheat honey. A peculiar aroma has honey lime, tubby, collected from sunflower flowers. The aroma of mixed honey is extremely diverse and often does not provide an opportunity to determine its origin.

To obtain the desired color and aroma, different kinds of honey can be mixed.

Composition and quality of honey

The main components of honey:

  • Fructose: 38.0%
  • Glucose: 31.0%
  • Sucrose: 1.0%
  • Water: 13.0-20.0%
  • Other sugars: 9.0% (maltose, melitsitose, etc.)
  • Ash: 0.17%
  • Other: 3.38%

There are several directions for assessing the quality of honey and products, which are called "honey". The basis for quality assessment are standards (national and international):

  • GOST 19792-2001 for natural honey (from January 1, 2013 in place of GOST 19792-2001 GOST R 54644-2011 "Honey natural - technical specifications") was put into operation.
  • An important indicator is the diastase number , which is regulated for each region, region, republic ("Rules of veterinary and sanitary examination of honey," 1978).

In the US honey is evaluated for a number of characteristics, such as water content, taste and aroma, absence of impurities and transparency. Honey is also classified by color, although color is not a criterion in the scale of assessments.

Variety Water content Flavor and flavor Lack of admixture Transparency
A <18.6% Good - it has good, pleasant taste and aroma, mainly floral, no carmelization, smell of smoke, fermentation, chemical and other causes of odor. Virtually no impurities affecting the appearance or food properties. Transparent - may contain air bubbles, traces of pollen and other fine particles that do not affect the appearance.
B <18.6% Good enough - almost without caramelization, without the smell of smoke, fermentation. Insignificant - do not significantly affect the appearance and taste. Practically transparent - it can contain air bubbles, pollen and other fine particles that do not affect the appearance.
C <20.0% Good enough - almost without caramelization, without the smell of smoke, fermentation. Insignificant - do not significantly affect the appearance and taste. Practically transparent - it can contain air bubbles, pollen and other fine particles that do not affect the appearance.
Defects > 20.0% Defect Defect Defect

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