How to distinguish good honey from fake honey that is nothing more than sugar

Honey is one of the most consumed products in the world. It is natural and ancestral, made by bees and with great nutrients. It is a natural sweetener much healthier than sugar, in addition to being very tasty and having properties of all kinds.

Of course, unfortunately, many times they try to sell us cat for hare. Many of these products are not real honeys but are adulterated and are nothing more than sugar. In this way, today we are going to learn how we can distinguish good honey from fake honey.

What is pure honey?

Before we know if the honeys we buy are adulterated or not, we must know the definition of what quality honeys are. It is a 100% natural product, manufactured by bees and without any type of addition or process, simply taken from nature.

The original is simply collected and packaged, sold as is. In some cases, it can be heated to high temperature obtaining a pasteurized product, but in any case, nothing is added.

There is a large part that is adulterated.

 

This is something that few people know, but most of the honey sold is completely adulterated. Some people say that 75% of what is sold is adulterated, a really high figure. Generally, a large amount of sugar is added, it is lowered with water or with substitute syrups with poor quality.

It is done because it is much cheaper, because the real one costs at least 3 euros per kilo its production. The problem is that, although the taste may be similar, its properties change a lot. The natural sugar in honeys is exchanged for refined sugars, which are not good for health.

Detect adulterated honey by reading labels

In this case, the first thing we must do to detect the quality of the product is to look at the label. Here, if we read correctly, we will know if it is an original product or a substitute with a lot of sugar.

Normally you’ll find it as “high fructose syrup” or commercial glucose” This basically means sugar, only quirky names are used to confuse people. In the end, honeys can’t do anything other than that. If you have anything else to put on the label, it is that we are not facing a natural product.

Observe with the naked eye

Many times, we can easily tell if honey is pure or not just by looking at it. It has nothing to do with the product that is extracted naturally, to which it is bought in the supermarket. First of all, the natural product is opaquer and a darker colour, so if the product is too light, be wary. Likewise, sometimes you can find impurities such as wax or pollen from bees. Another thing to keep in mind is that the aroma is different.

Another characteristic is the density and low humidity, as it is usually thicker than the one that has been processed. In addition, it ends up crystallizing inside the boat. In the following sections, we are going to teach some tricks that serve precisely to detect the density of the product and know if it is really original or if they are giving us cat for hare.

The trick of the glass of water

The first trick is that of the glass of water. What you have to do is pour honey into a glass with hot water. Now, we must stir for a long time. If we see that it has dissolved, it is that it was adulterated with sugar, but if we see that most of it is still at the bottom is that there is a good chance that it is a natural product.

In addition, it can also be checked with unremoved water, seeing how the product falls. You pour a tablespoon into the glass and if it falls to the bottom with lumps, it is a pure product. On the other hand, if it is mixed with easy water, it is adulterated.

Use a simple piece of paper to know it’s pure

This is another of the simple methods to know the purity of the product, and the best thing is that we can do it in 1 minute. What you have to do is pour a little honey on a piece of paper, with a drop will be enough, and wait a minute before removing it.

Once we have removed it, we must look at the paper. In the 100% natural product, it is normal that it is practically dry, just a little sticky. On the other hand, in the adulterated product, we will see how it has been wet, something that means that it has been lowered with water.

Know the quality of honey with vinegar trick

Vinegar is present in every house and will let you know if the product is pure. What you have to do is pour a little vinegar into the honeys you want to check. If nothing happens, it is pure, but if there is a kind of foam, it is adulterated.

The reason why this happens is because it has been adulterated with other elements, such as plaster. This will cause a reaction that will cause the foam to come out quickly. If it has been altered with flour or starch and you have iodine, you can do the same and know if it was modified.

The stale bread trick that will tell you what it’s like

If you have stale bread at home, the one you haven’t eaten in two days, you can also use it to know if the honey is pure or not. What you have to do is put the stale bread in the honey jar, so that it is submerged.

In the event that it remains hard, it is a pure product. Of course, if it softens, we are facing an adulterated product. The reason is that it has been lowered with water and the humidity will cause the bread to become soft.

The spoon to know the purity of honey

Many times, the simplest methods are the most effective and the one with the spoon does not usually fail. You will only need the spoon to know if the product you have bought is pure or if it has been adulterated with syrup or water.

In this case, we must place a little of the product in a spoon, so that it stays stuck. Next, let’s put the spoon upside down and wait for it to fall off. Quality honeys take time to fall, but those that have been adulterated with water, will fall very quickly.

Other methods to know if it is pure

There are many other methods that we can use to know if honey is pure. The first is common sense, as pure honeys are usually more expensive than adulterated ones. One of the most used is that of fire, that is, try to burn the product and see if it burns. The pure product burns easily and those adulterated with water do not do so because of the humidity.

The expiration date is another thing to take into account, because the one that is natural never expires, but the adulterated one will have a preferential consumption date, because it has been adulterated. A more famous trick is to put the jar inside the fridge for a couple of days. If these days it has not crystallized, it is that it is an adulterated product.

The entry How to distinguish good honey from fake honey that is nothing more than sugar appears first in Merca2.es.

 Source MSN News – Merca2.es – Ruben A.

 

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