The dangers and benefits of honey are debated to this day. In the article we’ll try to figure out what artificial and natural honey is made of and what role bees play in its production.
What bees make honey from
You need to understand that without pollen there would be no bees, as this is the raw material for adults and their babies.
Before collecting bees begin to collect pollen, they must wait for information about where the honey collection began from bee scouts. A scout bee notifies you where to fly several times, after which all those who are ready for work fly after it. In their turn, collecting bees collect pollen on their paws and bring it to the hive to receiving bees. Those fresh nectar are poured into the cells and begin to make honey from it. In addition to nectar, honey mixes with secretion from the mandibular gland, which includes a large number of useful trace elements. At the honey production stage, bees pay much attention to removing moisture from it. No more than 20% of water should remain in the finished product. This is done so that honey can be stored longer. But, unfortunately, in nature there are very few storages where it can be saved. In this regard, the bees have to clog each cell with wax so that neither air nor moisture can leak out. If the wax blockage is broken, honey will begin to ferment in speed and will no longer be of any value. This, perhaps, is all that you should know when considering the question of what honey is made of. Next, we will try to understand the process of its production.
Honey making process
Honey production technology includes the steps from pumping honey to arriving at store shelves. It is very important that when passing through all the stages, such a valuable product does not lose its useful healing properties, otherwise they will have to be improved by artificial methods. But before you start pumping honey, you need to worry about where and how the bees will winter.
Listing of honeycombs and pumping out honey as one of the most important stages of its extraction
Before you start pumping, you must go through the stage of printing cells. This must be done as carefully as possible so as not to harm either the bees or themselves. To do this, most often use a knife, heated in hot water. You can also use chain or needle vibratory knives.
Honey should not be pumped out of all cells in a row. There are convenience stores and brood honeycombs. Pumping from the second is complicated by the fact that they contain a large amount of pollen, which complicates the filtering process. Therefore, it is better to uncork store combs. The place where the product will be pumped out must be clean and free from bees. That is why experienced beekeepers remove the honeycomb from the hive and take it to a specially prepared room. If pumping will still take place on the street, it is important to consider the weather conditions. The day should be sunny and calm.
When extracting honey, everything should be sterile, from the beekeeper’s hands to the dishes into which he is pumped. It is desirable that it be glass or plastic dishes.
The pumping procedure itself can be performed manually or electrically.
For mass apiaries, radial honey separators can be used . With their help, you can simultaneously pump out honey from sixty hundred. For smaller apiaries, a chordal honey extractor is used or the product is extracted manually.
Next, honey should be cleaned of various impurities, wax particles and bubbles. This procedure can be carried out by settling or filtering. This will help keep honey fresh as long as possible and slow down the crystallization process.
The process of heating and blending honey
The product may be heated before it is bottled or before the cleaning process. It all depends on at what stage the crystallization process begins. Various technologies are used to heat the honey, one of which is called dissolution. Dissolution after pumping honey takes from several hours to several days. It is important to maintain a constant heating temperature. The dissolution process can be started directly in the cells. Then the whole procedure will take no more than fifteen minutes.
Having understood what honey is made of, you can proceed to the blending stage. This is when different types of honey are mixed together. The procedure greatly improves its taste.
In addition to the production of natural products, many resort to the manufacture of artificial.
What artificial honey is made of
Many unscrupulous manufacturers, in order to increase their profits, resort to the manufacture of artificial honey, posing as natural. Its production requires less time, and profit doubles at least twice. Such a product is most often used in cooking, where it is very difficult to determine what honey is made of.
In addition, it is less caloric, it can be used by people allergic to a natural product.
Most often, sugar syrup is used for its manufacture, adding formic and tartaric acid to it. In addition, various dyes are added.
How to distinguish “correct” (natural honey) from artificial
The visiting card of this product is its aroma, which cannot be confused with anything. Try it if possible. The taste should be tart, after it it will tickle a little in the throat. “Correct” honey must be transparent, from light beige to amber, without any precipitation. Another important criterion for determining the naturalness of honey is its viscosity. It is enough to take the wand and dip it in honey. When pulling the stick, pay attention to what trace forms the product. If it spreads, then they try to deceive you and slip a fake. “Correct” honey leaves a transparent thread with various figures. This is perhaps one of the most useful products that nature gives us. We hope this article will help to answer the question of what honey is made of and how to choose it correctly.