How to check the purity of honey at home?

If you want to enjoy most of the benefits derived from honey. The purity of honey is what you should consider before buying. There are some simple tests and experiments that can be performed at home, to verify the purity of honey. Find out which tests you should try!

Before carrying out any of tests, one basic and extremely simple “how to check the purity of honey” method is to read the label on the jar of honey, prior to its purchase. Manufacturers are required to mention the additives and additional substances that have been added to the produced honey. So you can make out, if it is organic or extra sweet or artificial flavorings have been added, simply by scrutinizing the label. If you are buying honey straight from a beekeeper, then the honey is of a raw and unprocessed quality as you are purchasing it straight from the source. We recommend you to learn the difference between fake and pure honey before doing tests.

Conducting tests for purity of honey at home

Honey’s wonderful, delicious variety works against you when you’re trying to find a simple test. Different types of pure honey can cover a large range of density, flammability, and other characteristics. While the following tests are based on true principles, in practice your results may be inconclusive. Try several of these tests to see if the honey fails or passes consistently. In many cases, you can get nothing more than a good guess. Ever stop to think about what’s in a bottle of honey?

In order to check the purity of honey at home, here’s what to do:

Thumb Test

 Here’s the procedure to do a thumb test:

• Put a small drop of the honey you have on your thumb
• Check to see if it spills or spreads around
• If it does, it is not pure
• Pure honey will stay intact on your thumb

The Water Test to Spot Fake Honey
Here’s how to do the water test:

• Fill a glass with water
• Add one tablespoon of honey into the glass
• Adulterated or artificial honey will dissolve in water and you will see it around the glass
• Pure honey on the other hand will settle right at the bottom of your glass

The Flame Test to Know Pure Honey
Did you know that organic honey is flammable? Here’s a test to know 100% pure organic honey.

• Take a dry matchstick
• Dip its tip right into the honey
• Strike the stick on the matchbox as if to light it
• If the honey is pure, the matchstick will light with ease
• The flame will also keep burning off the honey
• However, if it is with impurities, it will not light because fake honey contains moisture as one of the impurities

These are some of the simple and common ways to test pure honey at home. Another common method to tell the difference is as follows: add some water and 2-3 drops of vinegar essence into the honey and mix well. If the solution becomes foamy, that is definitely adulterated honey.

Drop honey on blotting paper or a paper towel

If honey has been diluted with water, it may be absorbed or leave a wet mark on an absorbent material such as blotting paper. Pure honey should not be absorbed, but unfortunately, neither will honey diluted with most sugar syrups.

There are also other ways to test for honey purity but they have raised debates. One major test that is controversial is the “ant test”. A group of individuals argues that ants are attracted to fake honey due to its sugar content but not attracted to pure honey due to a component that is a natural pest repellent. Not a lot of information exists to support this test and in addition, there is no known reason why the little creatures (ants) would favor processed sugar over real honey not forgetting the ants may not always be “available” at all places for a honey assessment. The reason why a sweet liquid is more attractive than another for the ants could also be due to other factors such as liquid density, flavors which vary depending on the floral types.

If you want to be sure that your honey is top quality, maybe you should consider buying organic honey. What does it mean when honey is organic?

Interesting, don’t you think? What method did you try in order to check the purity of honey?

How can we differentiate 100% pure honey and adulterated honey?

Did you know that there is real honey and fake honey? What is Pure Honey? What is Fake, Impure or Adulterated Honey? Can you know the difference between fake and pure honey. Without knowing how to check purity of honey, it will be difficult to tell and identify the difference. Here’s a guide what is pure honey and how to test the purity of honey.

If you want to enjoy most of the benefits derived from honey, its purity is what you should consider before buying. Most of the honey in the grocery stores isn’t exactly what the bees produce but fake and impure honey. Without distinguishing the difference between pure and fake honey, you will end up buying bad products. There are a lot of adulteration of honey, which makes it not real yet sold as the real thing. Because of the high demand for pure honey resulting from its medicinal and nutrient value individuals and companies have taken advantage of this (high demand) in a move to make an extra buck by selling fake honey.

What is real honey?

As you would expect, real honey should not come from a factory but from bees. The most common references to real and pure honey are organic and natural honey. By just looking packaged honey on the shelves, it is almost impossible to tell whether the honey is fake or real. Pure honey is the natural product made by honey bees. Organic honey is made by the bees that were fed only with organically grown flowers.

You will need tests to distinguish between the two since it has been found out that most of products you see in stores are not really the organic product you are looking for. If you want to take healthy benefits of honey you should use real honey, there are many health benefits from honey backed up by science.

What is fake honey?

Also referred to as impure, artificial or adulterated, fake honey is ‘honey’  that has been added glucose, dextrose, molasses, sugar syrup, invert sugar, flour, corn syrup, starch, or any other similar product, other than floral nectar.

How can you tell the difference?

By examining the physical qualities of honey, it is very easy to know whether this is pure or impure honey. We are looking at simple ways by which an average day to day consumer can quickly tell if the honey he/she buying is fake or pure. Below are some of the main differences in properties that will help you distinguish between the real and unreal thing. It is very easy to notice the impurities although this may require some practice first.

Stickiness

Pure Honey:  It tends not to be sticky if you rub it between your fingers
Fake Honey: It is fairly sticky because of the high percentage of added sweeteners and additives

Thickness

Pure Honey: It is very thick and takes a good of time to move from one side of the jar/container to the other
Fake Honey: It is very lightish and moves really quickly inside the jar. Not dense at all.

Taste

Pure Honey: Contrary to a common belief, the taste will go away very soon in a matter of minutes. Also if you heat and cool pure honey, you will alter the taste and kill all healing and nutrional values
Fake Honey: Extensively sweet taste remains because of added sugars and sweeteners

Smell/Aroma

Pure Honey: If experienced, you can actually smell aromas of certain flowers and wild grasses.
Fake Honey:  There is mostly none or just industrial sour smell.

Heating

Pure Honey: Upon heating, pure honey caramelizes quickly but does not make foam.
Fake Honey:  Forms foam and becomes bubbly because of the added moisture, sugars and water.

Dissolving Method 

Pure Honey:  Doesn't get dissolved in water immediately and lumps and the bottom. Gets diluted when stirred for a while. Mixing in equal amounts of honey and methylated spirits, honey settles at the bottom.
Fake Honey: Gets dissolved very fast when added to water because of additives. Dissolves in methylated spirits while making the solution milky.

Flame Test

Pure Honey: After immersing a matchstick in the honey it lights easily with no hesitations.
Fake Honey: Matchstick will not light easily because of presence of moisture.

Bread test

Pure Honey: When spread on a slice of bread, the bread will become solid in a few minutes.
Fake Honey: It will wet and moisturize the slice of bread because of additives.

Absorption Test

Pure Honey: Few drops poured on blotting paper do not get absorbed. When poured on piece of white cloth, it won't leave stains.
Fake Honey: Gets absorbed in blotting paper. Leaves stains on a white piece of cloth.

Impurities

Pure Honey: Presence of impurities: dirty-looking particles, pollen and bee body parties
Fake Honey: Absence of impurities

Egg yolk Test

Pure Honey: When poured into a container with yolk alone and the mixture stirred together the yolk appears like it is cooked
Fake Honey: Has no effect on the yolk
From determining the isotopic composition in laboratories to testing for pure honey at home, there are quite a number of methods you can use to determine or know if honey is fake or pure. Find out more and test honey at home!

Source:
http://durablehealth.net/food-nutrition/test-honey-purity-know-fake-pure-honey/,

http://www.lorebay.com/raw-honey/how-to-check-purity-of-honey-test-real-fake-pure/,

http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/pure-honey.html

http://www.well-beingsecrets.com/health-benefits-of-honey-ultimate-guide/

Image: http://birdsandbeeshoney.com/our-honey/