To choose honey when buying High Quality, it is useful to know at least the main signs of its naturalness.

The most beneficial for health is mature honey, in which important biochemical processes: it is saturated and the richest in useful substances.

Such honey is pumped out of the honeycombs, having previously allowed it to ripen, to brew.It is important to remember that mature honey is never liquid. Liquid, pouring honey can be of high quality only in the summer season and in the event that the bees collected it from a white acacia or clover. If the honey is fluid even in autumn, it means that it was prematurely removed from the honeycomb and it has excess moisture.

Another important sign quality honey - smell. It should be pleasant, unobtrusive. A falsified product may not have a smell at all, or vice versa, the aroma appears sharply, it seems “chemical”. True, some exotic varieties of high-quality honey, for example, honey collected from willow tea, may also be odorless, but they are extremely rare to find on sale.

Even in high quality honey there should not be any foreign particles - bee chitin, bee bread, wax, pollen. Honey, which contains air bubbles, is also better not to buy. Unscrupulous sellers sell last year's honey in this way - they heat it up and filter it in order to “remove” crystallization and pass it off as honey from a new crop.

Such honey can initially be of very high quality, but after these procedures it is completely deprived of all biologically active substances.In culinary terms, he is second to none. fresh honey from the apiary, however, it is useless to use this honey as a prophylactic and tonic.

How to determine the quality of honey?

Firstly, honey must be mature. After all, bees work on nectar for about a week: they evaporate water, enrich it with enzymes, break down complex sugars into simple ones.

During this time, honey is infused. The bees seal the finished product with wax caps - it is this honey that has all the properties and can be stored for a long time.
Very often, beekeepers pump out honey during honey collection, without waiting for it to ripen, due to lack of honeycombs. The water content in such honey is sometimes twice the norm, it is not enriched with enzymes and sucrose, and quickly turns sour.

To determine the maturity of honey, it is heated to 20 degrees, stirring with a spoon. Then the spoon is taken out and rotated. Ripe honey wraps around her. It can dry out over time, which is normal. If you want to return it to its previous state, warm it up slightly in a water bath. But sometimes it provokes further souring.

With simple tests, you can determine , whether honey is falsified. Flour and starch are determined by adding a drop of iodine to a small amount of honey diluted with water. If the solution turns blue, honey with flour or starch. If the solution sizzles when adding vinegar essence, there is chalk in honey. If in 5-10 percent aqueous solution honey, when a small amount of lapis is added, a white precipitate falls out - sugar has been added.

How can you determine the quality of honey?

by color
Each type of honey has its own unique color. Flower honey - light yellow, linden - amber, ash - transparent, like water, buckwheat has different shades of brown. Pure honey without impurities, as a rule, is transparent, no matter what color it is.
Honey, which has additives in its composition (sugar, starch, other impurities), is cloudy, and if you look closely, you can find a sediment in it.

By flavor
Real honey has a fragrant aroma. This scent is incomparable. Honey with an admixture of sugar has no aroma, and its taste is close to the taste of sweetened water.

Viscosity
Take a sample of honey by dropping a thin stick into the container. If it is real honey, then it stretches after the stick with a long continuous thread, and when this thread breaks, it will completely fall, forming a turret on the surface of the honey, a pagoda, which then slowly disperse.
Fake honey, on the other hand, will behave like glue: it will profusely drain and drip down from the stick, forming splashes.

By consistency
In real honey, it is thin, tender. Honey is easily rubbed between the fingers and absorbed into the skin, which cannot be said about a fake. Forged honey has a rough structure, and lumps remain on the fingers when rubbed.
Before buying honey in the market in reserve, take the product you like from 2-3 regular sellers. To start with 100 grams. Do the recommended quality tests at home and only then buy it for future use from the same sellers.

Check if water and sugar are added to honey

To do this, drop honey on a sheet of low-grade paper that absorbs moisture well. If it spreads over the paper, forming wet spots, or even seeps through it, this is fake honey.
Determine if honey contains starch. To do this, put a little honey in a glass, pour boiling water over it, stir and cool. After that, drop a few drops of iodine there. If the composition turns blue, it means that starch has been added to the honey. This is fake honey.

Find out if there are other impurities in honey To do this, take a red-hot wire (made of stainless steel) and lower it into honey. If a sticky foreign mass hangs on it, this is a fake honey, if the wire remains clean, honey is natural or, in other words, full-fledged

What should I pay attention to after buying honey?

Honey cannot be stored in metal containers, since the acids contained in its composition can give oxidation. This will lead to an increase in the content heavy metals in it and to a decrease - useful substances. Such honey can cause discomfort in the stomach and even lead to poisoning.

Honey is stored in glass, earthenware, porcelain, ceramic and wooden utensils.

Honey contains 65-80% fructose and sucrose, it is rich in vitamin C, in addition, it contains almost all minerals. Therefore, when using honey with warm water or heating candied honey, do not bring the temperature to 60 degrees - this is the limit after which the structure of honey disintegrates, the color changes, the aroma disappears, and vitamin C, which can live in honey for many years, is destroyed by half or more.

How to distinguish a fake?
In a cup of weak warm tea, add a little of what you bought under the guise of honey. If you are not deceived, the tea will darken, but no sediment will form at the bottom.

You can dilute a little honey in a small amount of distilled water and drop 4-5 drops of iodine there. If the solution turns blue, then starch was used to make this product. Obviously not bees. And by dropping a few drops of vinegar essence into the same solution instead of iodine, you will check the honey for chalk content. If it is there, the solution will sizzle.

Over time, honey becomes cloudy and thickens - and this is a sure sign. good quality. And not, as many mistakenly believe, that honey has deteriorated.

If even after years your honey has not thickened, it means that it contains a large amount of fructose and, alas, does not have healing properties. Sometimes honey during storage is divided into two layers: it thickens only from below, and remains liquid from above. This suggests that it is immature and therefore should be eaten as quickly as possible - unripe honey only lasts a few months.

Careless beekeepers do not take out bees to collect nectar, but simply feed them sugar. Sugar honey is not natural. There is nothing useful in it. Such honey is unnaturally white.

What kind of honey is better - mountain or, let's say, lowland honey?
Do not fall for the bait when they try to convince you that mountain honey better than that, which is collected by bees in our open spaces. Mountain honey has no special advantages over "plain" honey. The quality of honey and the concentration of useful substances in it depends only on the decency and knowledge of the beekeeper, as well as on the ecological situation in the honey collection area.

Here, however, there is a difference between honey, collected in a clean environment, and what the bees collected from the flower beds industrial enterprise. But here it all depends on the beekeeper. Conscience should not allow him to earn on "industrial" honey.

Can I buy honey from my hands? T Only if you are sure you are buying. The most common honey adulterant is sugar syrup. The same syrup is often diluted with unripe honey to give it the missing sweetness.

There is no water in real honey. Honey with syrup has high humidity - this can be checked in the following way. Dip a piece of bread into honey, and after 8-10 minutes remove it. Bread will harden in high-quality honey. If, on the contrary, it softened or completely spread, then in front of you is nothing more than sugar syrup.

But no one on the market will allow you to conduct such experiments, but they will give you a try. Often honey is dripped onto a small piece of paper for tasting. This is quite enough to conduct another experiment. When going to the market for honey, take a chemical pencil with you. Smear honey on a paper with a pencil, you can smear it with your finger, and try to write something on the "honey" strip with an indelible pencil.

If after a few seconds an inscription or stains will appear of blue color, you can confidently and loudly tell the seller (so that other buyers can hear) that starch or flour is present in the product. If there is no chemical pencil, a drop of iodine will do. The same blue hue of the proposed honey will unmistakably determine the starch and flour in the product.

Sometimes to achieve density real honey in syrup or unripe honey can add anything. Flour, starch, starch or beet molasses and even chalk. To prove the presence of these substances in honey, it is enough to dissolve it in water (1: 2).

Fake honey solution will be cloudy and iridescent, after a while a precipitate will appear at the bottom of the glass. If you want to know for sure what was added to the honey, add a few drops of vinegar to the sediment. Foaming sediment (isolation carbon dioxide) directly indicates chalk in solution.

Sellers useful product there are several tricks.
First, plug your ears and don't listen to what they tell you. Of course, one honest seller can fall into a bunch of liars, but how do you know that the one who is standing in front of you is honest? Try honey not only from above, but also from the bottom of the jar. Feel free to put your spoon in the jar and don't listen to the salespeople who start yelling "Don't ruin the product!"

Honey is an antiseptic and a clean spoon in a jar can't ruin it. Another thing is if it was not honey at the bottom.

Do not buy honey on the market without checking or rolled up. The fact that honey is better stored rolled up with a tin lid is a myth.

Crystallization is a natural process of honey, which does not affect its quality and composition of nutrients. Don't let crystallized honey fool you. Do not come the next day to the seller who promised you uncrystallized honey. They will bring the same, but warmed up. You can't heat honey. Those who prefer honey in liquid form should take this fact into account. Put a jar of honey in warm water. When the water cools down, change it. Gradually the honey will melt.

Real honey has the following characteristics:

1. Quality honey does not roll off the spoon too quickly. Take a tablespoon of honey and turn the spoon over several times in a quick circular motion. Honey will wrap around it, almost not flowing into the jar.

2. Immerse the spoon into the honey container. Pulling out a spoon, evaluate the nature of the flow of honey. A good one will form a ribbon, sit down in a hillock, and bubbles form on its surface.

3. All types of honey have a sweet taste, but some of the varieties have specific taste. For example, tobacco, chestnut and willow varieties have a bitter taste, while heather is astringent. Any deviations in the taste of honey indicate its poor quality.

Other taste defects may be due to the presence of impurities. Excessive acidity may be associated with the onset of fermentation, the aroma of caramel is the result of heating, obvious bitterness is incorrect storage conditions for a low-quality product.

4. The color of honey depends solely on the variety. And there can be all shades of brown and yellow flowers. Do not be afraid of pale yellow, slightly hazy honey - this is normal for acacia

Which honey to choose
Lime:
excellent honey, light yellow, crystallizes easily, has a characteristic smell. Used for illness respiratory tract, including in the form of inhalations. It has a beneficial effect on the gastrointestinal tract, kidneys. From one linden, bees can collect about 40 kilos of honey.

Acacia:
also one of the best. It is transparent, light, more liquid, with a slight aroma of acacia. Crystallizes slowly. It is recommended for diseases of the cardiovascular system, gastrointestinal tract, female inflammatory diseases, including it is used topically, due to its bactericidal properties.

Fruit honey:
polyfloral, with berry and fruit crops. Light amber, with a delicate smell and taste. It has exceptional dietary qualities.

Clover:
colorless, almost transparent, and a faint aroma causes buyers to doubt its naturalness.

Buckwheat:
bright, almost brown color, with a characteristic smell and slight bitterness. Used in confectionery. Field and meadow: polyfloral, with a pleasant smell and taste. It is light amber brown in color. It has all medicinal properties.

Dandelion:
with a characteristic color and smell, slightly bitter, thick. It has wound healing and anti-inflammatory action.

Sunflower:
golden yellow, pleasant to the taste, quickly crystallizes. In terms of medicinal properties, it is inferior to the main honeys.

Buckwheat treats diseases of the stomach, blood and skin
sweet clover - heart ailments
lime is good for colds and flu
clover increases potency.
At the same time, honey, like any medicine, must be stored and consumed strictly according to the rules.

It is necessary to take honey according to science.

If done at the wrong time and in the wrong way, even the best honey can cause a rash, vomiting, or indigestion. If the acidity of the stomach is normal, you can take honey at any time, but not immediately after eating. If the acidity is low, honey should be eaten ten to fifteen minutes before meals. Wash down cold water. If the acidity is high - an hour or two after eating, and drink warm water. Taking honey on an empty stomach is not recommended.
Honey mixed in tea is no longer a medicine, but just sugar.

Storage method

It is enough to store natural honey in glass or plastic containers tightly closed with a regular plastic lid. In a dark and dry place (preferably a living room than a kitchen), honey can be stored in such containers for decades. Direct sunlight is fatal for him (remember how honey stands in the sun in the markets for weeks, if not years).

Beekeepers recommend buying several kilograms of honey at once if you find a natural quality product. It is not worth believing that honey is most useful only for the first year. It has practically no expiration date and does not lose its medicinal and taste qualities.

Heat is bad for honey. At temperatures above +150, the life-giving balm becomes just a mixture of carbohydrates. Honey is afraid of the sun. After forty-eight hours of continuous sun exposure, enzymes are destroyed in it. First of all - inhibin, an enzyme of antimicrobial action.

The environment for honey must be chosen carefully. It instantly absorbs the smells of fish, cheese, sauerkraut. Equally easily absorbs both flour and cement dust. There is too much humidity in the refrigerator for him. The best place for honey where it is dry, cool and smells nothing.

Dishes with honey (preferably a jar of dark glass) must be hermetically sealed, otherwise it will turn sour. If you keep honey in a wooden barrel made of softwood, it absorbs the smell of resin. In an oak barrel - darkens. If the barrel is already linden, birch or aspen. Honey can be stored in food plastic containers for no more than a week. All other polymers are strictly prohibited.

From metal utensils, nickel-plated and enameled are suitable, but without any chips. But galvanized and copper are strictly prohibited. Honey enters with zinc and copper in chemical reaction filled with poisonous salts.

The shelf life of honey is one year. After that, it loses its antimicrobial properties. The amount of glucose and fructose decreases by ten to twenty percent. Vitamins B1, B2 and C begin to break down. The amount of sucrose and acids increases.

Honey is a real treasure for the body. It contains useful minerals and vitamins that have a positive effect on health. In addition, it is also a very tasty delicacy. The scope of application is very diverse. It can be used for the preparation of cosmetics, as an additive to food, or for the treatment and prevention of various diseases. Every person needs to know how to determine the naturalness and quality of honey in order to avoid buying an artificial product substitute.

Honey: what is it like?

There are several main types of honey:

• May. This is the name of the product obtained after the first roll. It should be noted that the name has nothing to do with the characteristics of the honey itself, but is purely philistine in nature.
• Honeydew honey. This is a product that is produced by bees from the sweet secretions of certain insects, and not from flowers. Honeydew honey of plant origin can also be obtained from the honeydew of trees such as maple, linden, spruce, fir, hazel.
• Monofloral honey. This product got such a name for the reason that bees collect it from the flowers of one type of plant.
• Polyfloral honey. A product that bees produce from nectar collected from several plant species.

We figured out the types of product, it remains only to understand how to determine the quality of honey at home.

How to choose natural honey on the market?

Today, on the market, it is very often possible to encounter the fact that sellers are trying to sell a non-natural product to the consumer. Such honey may have been pumped out earlier than expected, diluted with water or starch. Sometimes sellers even melt it specifically to make the product look more presentable. All these actions lead to the fact that honey loses its beneficial properties. And its heating leads to the formation of harmful substances in the composition. How to check honey? Real or not in front of you a product? This is a topical issue today. Knowing just a few simple rules, you can easily distinguish an artificial product from a natural one.

What you need to know:

• To avoid purchasing melted honey, never look for a liquid consistency in late autumn or winter. Even the latest varieties crystallize by this period. If you went to the market in January and see the seller demonstrate that honey flows smoothly from a spoon, never buy such a product, because it is most likely melted. Unfortunately, sellers do this very often in order to make more profit.
• Have you noticed that honey is sometimes sold with foam on the surface? This does not mean that it is fresh. Such a product was either pumped out ahead of time, or simply diluted with water, and this already reduces to a large extent percentage useful substances in the composition.
• When purchasing honey in combs, you also need to be very careful. The main thing is to pay attention to the fact that the cells are tightly sealed. Beekeepers do this in order to preserve the beneficial properties of the product.

How to determine the quality of honey by external signs?

Before you determine the quality of honey at home, you first need to buy it. At the market, it is not always possible to figure out whether a natural product is in front of you or not. But there are a few signs, paying attention to which, you can buy good honey.

What to pay attention to?

• Color. The first thing a person is interested in looking at the counter is the color of honey. Of course, depending on the varieties, shades may vary. However, there is a general rule. If the honey is fresh, then there will be no sediment in it. If the product is cloudy, this means that there are some impurities in the composition. If you notice a few dark spots, then the honey has been heated, perhaps even more than once.
• The consistency of natural honey should be slightly viscous. If you twisted the jar in your hands and noticed that the product pours too quickly, then this means that it is either diluted or melted.
• weight and taste. It is known that a jar with one liter of honey weighs about 1.5 kilograms. If you notice that it is much lighter, then the product has been diluted with water. Now as for the taste. Honey itself is sweet, but some sellers add extra sugar to it. Try the product on the tip of your tongue. If it is cloying, then the seller sweetened it.

Checking honey at home by dissolving the product in water

If you are interested in how to determine the quality of honey at home, then one of the most effective ways it will dissolve in water.

Take a small cup of boiling water, add some honey there. After it dissolves, the liquid will become slightly cloudy. It is important to know that this should not leave a residue. If it appears, it means that there are impurities in the product. If after adding honey the water remains clear, it means that sugar syrup was added to it.

A sheet of paper is an easy way to check the quality of honey

In order to conduct this test, it is better to take low-grade paper, and not thick white paper. Even a thin napkin or plain toilet paper will do. Drop a small amount of honey on it and carefully observe how it behaves. If the honey begins to spread or seep through the tissue, then the product is unnatural or diluted. A good product will be one after which there will be no wet spots around a drop of wet spots on the napkin.

This method is great for determining the quality of honey at home. The test is carried out very quickly and gives you a clear answer whether the product in front of you is natural or not.

Home quality test using vinegar

Vinegar is in the arsenal of every housewife. Are you wondering how to determine the quality of honey at home using it? In fact, everything is very simple. Take some honey and dilute it with water, then add vinegar to it. Now let's see what happens next. If the consistency began to bubble or foam formed, then this is a very bad sign, which makes it clear that there is chalk in the composition.

iodine test

Now we check the quality of honey at home with the help of iodine. This test will help to find out if there are additional impurities in the composition of the product, namely flour or starch.

Take a small amount of honey and dilute it in water. Water should not be hot, let it be boiled at room temperature. Mix everything well so that the honey dissolves. Then add a few drops of iodine. If the solution turns blue, it means that the product contains flour or starch.

Wire method

You don't know how to test honey? Whether the product is real or not in front of you, ordinary copper wire will help determine. This test involves two simple steps:

• We heat the wire until it turns red.
• We lower it into a container with honey and hold it there for literally 10-15 seconds.

After you take out the wire, see if it remains clean. If so, then you have a truly natural product. However, if a sticky mass remains on the surface, then there are impurities in the honey or it has been diluted with water.

bread dough

Checking the quality of honey at home does not take much time, but you can be completely sure which product you use: natural or not.

One of the most effective tests is the bread quality check. Pour enough honey into the bowl to cover a piece of white bread, then lower the bread itself. Leave it there for about 10 minutes. If you see that the bread has softened or begun to spread, it means that there is sugar syrup in honey, and this already indicates that the product is not natural. Real, pure honey helps harden the bread.

Now you know how to test honey at home. All possible ways that give a clear result have been presented above. Never buy a large jar on the market at once, take a little to sample first. Spend at home simple tests, and you will see what you purchased: a fake or a natural product. If it turns out that honey is good, then you can already buy more, but you will be sure of its authenticity.

How to determine the quality of honey at home, absolutely everyone should know. Do not be fooled, always check the product for quality and the presence of impurities. And the methods listed above will help you make the right choice.

On August 14, Russia celebrated the First Spas, which was also called Medov - by this day the honeycombs should be filled, and the beekeepers begin to get the contents. In temples, from that day it was allowed to eat it - they made honey gingerbread, pancakes with poppy seeds and honey, gingerbread and other pastries. Honey fairs in Russia begin in May, when beekeepers begin to extract the first honey. On beautiful counters lined with a variety of jars, you can find honey for any, the most demanding taste. True, sometimes buyers are faced with the fact that for a lot of money they bought not a “natural product”, but it, and they can only hope that this honey is not dangerous to health.

For an unscrupulous manufacturer, the most important thing is to increase the mass of the product or even mix some kind of substance that should resemble honey as much as possible. Most often, sugar syrup is added to honey. Thus, it is possible to increase the mass and make unripe honey sweet. In addition, starch, beet or starch syrup, invert sugar, sucrose can be added - as long as your imagination is enough. We have collected tips on how to distinguish real honey from a fake at home.

1) Tensile test Natural honey is by no means watery. It must be tenacious. Warm the honey to about 20 degrees, stirring with a spoon. Then remove the spoon and begin to rotate it - if it is of a normal consistency, then it should wrap around the spoon, and not drain. Then watch how the honey will flow back into the container - it should slowly lie down in a slide, forming bubbles on the surface.

2) Checking with a newspaper Drop some honey on a piece of paper (a piece of newspaper or toilet paper) - the paper should remain dry. If the honey has spread and formed a wet trail, then it has water in it.

3) Check on bread Another test for the presence of water, which should not be, can be done with a piece of bread. It just needs to be dipped in honey for 10 minutes, then removed. In natural high-quality honey, the bread should harden, but in fake it will soften.

4) Checking with iodine In order to detect impurities in honey, you will need to conduct a simple experiment. Dilute a little honey with water and add a drop of iodine there. If the liquid has turned blue, then it contains starch or flour.

5) Checking with vinegar essence To do this, you also need to make a solution of honey with warm water. If, when adding vinegar essence, the solution hissed, but it contains chalk.

6) Checking with a lapis pencil For the next experiment, you will need a lapis pencil, which can be bought at a pharmacy for less than 150 rubles. Make a 5-10% solution of honey and dip the pencil into it. If a white precipitate forms, sugar has been added to the honey.

7) Checking with an indelible pencil To determine if there are foreign liquids in honey, take a chemical pencil and a piece of paper with you to the fair. Smear a small amount of honey on the paper and try to write something through the layer of honey with a pencil. If after a few seconds you see an inscription or blue-violet streaks, it means that water or syrup was added to the delicacy.

8) Wire test Take a stainless steel wire, heat it on fire (you can use a regular lighter) and immerse it in honey. If a sticky mass sticks to the wire, then this is a fake. If the honey is natural, the wire will remain clean. And in general, as in the sensational case with combustible cottage cheese in St. Petersburg (journalists checked the quality of the “natural” cottage cheese bought in the store and found that it can burn for more than 10 minutes), you can try honey and set it on fire - you never know what it was made of . Good honey simply will not burn. A fake can change color, such as turning brown, melting, starting to give off a caramel or chemical smell.

8) Sediment check Stir a spoonful of honey in a glass of warm tea and leave for an hour. If after that a sediment remains at the bottom of the glass or on the surface, the quality of your purchase leaves much to be desired.

9) Testing with ammonia Mix some honey with water in a ratio of one to two. Then add a few drops of ammonia there and shake the resulting solution. If it turns brown, it means that starch syrup has been mixed into the honey.

10) Smell test Natural honey is always very fragrant. If it does not smell, then most likely it is not natural.

Before you go shopping for honey for the whole year, be puzzled by what varieties there are and what color they differ in - this can also play into your hands in your search for natural honey. For example, buckwheat honey should be brown, flower honey should be golden yellow, lime honey should be amber, and mustard honey should be creamy yellow. The unnaturally white color of honey is a reason to think, because some producers do not take out bees to collect nectar, but simply feed the unfortunate creatures with sugar. The resulting honey, of course, does not have any valuable properties.

HOW NOT TO SPIT HONEY

When shopping is done, remember that honey should not be stored in metal containers. The fact is that the acids contained in honey can oxidize and cause the valuable product to lose some of its useful properties and can even lead to poisoning.

If you like to drink tea with honey, do not add honey to boiling water. Already at 60 degrees, the structure of honey disintegrates, and it loses its properties. Over time, honey necessarily becomes thick and cloudy, so if honey bought in summer remains liquid and transparent until winter, it is not natural. If the honey thickens from below, but remains liquid from above, this means that the honey was collected immature, and such honey can be stored for only a few months.

HEALING PROPERTIES OF DIFFERENT HONEY

Linden honey used as an antipyretic, it has a diaphoretic property. In addition, it is bactericidal and promotes expectoration of sputum.

Buckwheat honey especially appreciated in the treatment and prevention of anemia, with hypo- and beriberi, useful for people prone to cardiovascular diseases. Such honey favorably affects the quality of blood and restores the body well after blood loss.

chestnut honey good for disorders of the digestive system and, like buckwheat, for problems with the cardiovascular system. In addition, it has an antimicrobial effect.

fireweed honey useful for the prevention and treatment of colds. It contains a lot of vitamin C.

flower honey women need to eat. It is useful for the female reproductive system, is used for the prevention and treatment of gynecological diseases. With erosion, ladies are recommended to use sainfoin honey. And during the breastfeeding period, breastfeeding is useful sweet clover honey which promotes milk production. This type of honey also has anti-inflammatory, soothing and analgesic effects.

chestnut honey useful for men with potency problems. In general, men are advised to buy dark and bitter varieties of honey, for example, buckwheat.

Honey with perga (pollen rammed by bees) has a pronounced immunostimulatory effect. It restores immunity well, including after illnesses and operations.

Meadow forbs honey helps with insomnia and headaches.

Maria Al-Salkhani

Probably, many lovers of bee products have repeatedly thought about how to check honey at home for naturalness, to determine natural honey or not. And this is not surprising, the end customer wants to receive high-quality bee nectar, which will only benefit him and his family.

Often, sellers dissolve natural honey in order to give it a marketable appearance. Moreover, if the conditions were met when heating the candied product, and this heating temperature is not higher than 40 ° C, then valuable substances will be preserved. A sign of natural honey in such a situation will be its repeated sugaring after 2-4 weeks.

If this temperature indicator is exceeded, a valuable bee product turns into a simple dessert that lacks vitamins and other useful components. Heated honey at a high temperature later no longer crystallizes, it will remain liquid.

It is believed that the maximum of useful substances in the bee product is preserved during the first year of storage after pumping. Therefore, candied honey at the height of the summer season should arouse suspicion, most likely that the product is from last year.

Another sign of how natural honey can be identified is its consistency. It should not drain like water, even when freshly picked, it reaches for a spoon with a stream. Ask the seller to scoop up some of the treat and wrap it around the spoon a few times. The natural product will stratify, please note that dark varieties of bee products have a denser consistency than light ones, this feature is more pronounced in them.

In the process of draining, the bee product forms a hill on the surface of the container with honey, which disappears only after a few seconds.

Checking a bee product at home for the presence of additives

It is always recommended to check the naturalness of honey! Unscrupulous sellers for profit increase the volume of honey with the help of various impurities, these are sugar, starch, molasses and others. Next, we will tell you how to independently check the quality of honey, and describe the various ways to check it.

Determine the admixture of molasses

Honey can be tested using the following method. Dissolve part of the nectar in 2 parts of water, pour in a couple of drops of hydrochloric acid and 25 g of wine alcohol. The appearance of turbidity indicates that molasses was prevented from delicacy.

Detect the presence of flour or starch

How to distinguish natural honey at home from artificial honey using an iodine solution? It's simple, you should dissolve the bee product with water, then add a few drops of a medical preparation. The appearance of blue color signals the presence of flour or starch.

Checking for chalk

Consider how to check real honey yourself for adding chalk. To do this, dissolve the apiproduct with water, then drop a little vinegar 70%. In the presence of chalk, vinegar will react with it, foam and bubbles will appear on the surface of the solution.

Exposing Sugar

The question often arises, how to check bee honey for sugar? To do this, use the following methods:

• place 15 grams of bee products in weakly brewed tea, the formation of sediment at the bottom is a clear sign of falsification;
• sugar is usually added in large quantities to white varieties, for example, it can be recognized by its sugary-sweet taste and lack of honey aroma.

Checking honey at home with improvised means

With the help of iodine

Drop a couple of drops of iodine solution on the surface of the apiproduct, when a blue tint appears in front of you is a fake.

Vinegar

The acid reacts with the chalk, dissolve the nectar in water and pour in the acid, the appearance of foam is a sign of falsification.

Ammonia

It is necessary to mix the apiproduct with distilled water in a ratio of 1 to 2, then add a couple of drops of ammonia, mix. The appearance of a brown tint or sediment indicates the presence of molasses.

Milk

Mix a couple of tablespoons of nectar with hot milk, if curdling occurs, then you bought a fake with the addition of burnt granulated sugar.

With the help of water

Dissolve a couple of spoons of bee nectar, wait a little time, then evaluate the resulting picture. The solution should be clear, without sediment, the latter indicating the presence of sugar.

Slice of bread

Dip a piece of bread in nectar or just spread it on bread, leave it at room temperature for 15-20 minutes. Natural honey will make it hard, and the sugar solution, on the contrary, will soften it, this will help you understand whether or not the bee product is natural in front of you.

Paper

Take a regular sheet of paper and apply a little bee product to the surface. When mixed with water, it will wet the paper, a good API product will not leave a wet mark on reverse side sheet.

stainless steel

Use stainless steel or copper at home to recognize fake nectar. You should heat the wire, then dip it into a container with a treat. The stainless steel must remain clean, the presence of adhering parts on it is not allowed.

Indelible pencil

Consider how to check the naturalness of honey with a chemical pencil. This is a fairly common and yet simple method. When in contact with water, the pencil changes color, and when it comes into contact with a natural product, it will remain unchanged. Therefore, before buying, dip the tip of a chemical pencil to test honey and follow the reaction.

Fermented and double layered bee product

It does not always speak of its damage or forgery. In the case when it is sugared from below, and a more liquid part separates from above, but there are no signs of fermentation, then such a product can be eaten. In this case, it will be useful to use the above methods for checking for added sugar.

In case of delamination, the appearance of foam on the surface and a sour smell, it is not recommended to use the bee product, such signs indicate its deterioration.

When the total mass of the delicacy is divided into light and dark, but does not crystallize, this may indicate the mixing of two different varieties. Nevertheless, the main criterion for the admissibility of eating such a product is the absence of fermentation, a sour smell.

How to distinguish natural honey from artificial

It makes sense when buying to smell and try the product. The aroma should be rich honey, with floral or fruity notes. Fake nectar will smell much weaker, the smell decreases in the process of diluting it with third-party substances.

The taste and color of different varieties are different, so before going to the store, familiarize yourself with the main characteristics, this will allow you to identify high-quality honey. Of course, not everyone has tried rare and elite varieties, but almost everyone can recognize flower honey.

Now you know, simple methods checking honey for naturalness at home. Most of the methods are quite easy and will not take you much time, but you will be sure that you have a real beekeeping product in front of you, and not an artificially created delicacy.

When buying, consider the timing of sugaring, it is recommended to purchase beekeeping products in the middle of autumn, then most varieties are already hardening, and you can easily distinguish a fake in appearance.