Honey is not only tasty, but also a very healthy product. It is the healing properties that are so important to consumers. To obtain a large amount of natural product requires significant costs. And therefore unscrupulous merchants very often resort to the falsification of honey. By purchasing a fake, you will not get the desired effect from the use of the product, since there are no and cannot be any beneficial substances in it. In our article we want to talk about what methods of falsifying honey exist and how to check the naturalness of a product so as not to become a victim of fraud.
Products used for cheating
Honey refers to those products that are most often faked. True value lies only in a substance of natural origin. An ordinary consumer is not always capable of recognizing a fake, which is what dishonest merchants use successfully. To get a real useful product is not an easy task. The falsification of honey has long been a very frequent occurrence in the market. It is difficult for unenlightened consumers to even imagine the whole range of those substances that merchants add.
To fake honey, they use the addition of sugar syrup, starch and beet molasses, saccharin, chalk, flour, sawdust and other substances. There is no need to talk about the benefits of such a product. In the best case, it will not do any harm to the body.
Very often in the markets, artificial honey is given out as natural honey . Although it is similar in color and smell, it does not bear any healing properties.
Sugar Syrup Honey
One way to fake honey is to try to increase the volume of the product obtained by feeding the bees during the honey collection period with sugar syrup. In this case, the finished mass does not have great healing power, since the use of the substance directly depends on the properties of the plants from which honey is collected. To protect themselves from the falsification of honey by sugar, experts recommend purchasing it from trusted beekeepers you trust. The probability of getting counterfeit from dealers is very high. Conscientious beekeepers usually value their reputation very much. Quality natural honey can be purchased in sealed honeycombs. In this case, you can be 100% sure of the product.
How to determine the "sugar" honey?
It is the "sugar" honey that consumers most often take as natural. As we already mentioned, it is obtained by processing by bees of ordinary sugar syrup. Unfortunately, determining this type of falsification of honey is very difficult. This is due to the fact that some varieties of flower product have all the qualities that are characteristic of a “sugar” product. Even in laboratory conditions, it is very difficult to determine the falsification of honey. Characteristics such as diastase number, water content and ash content are not reliable indicators in this case. Partially determine the fake can be pollen composition, crystallization, color, total acid index.
The falsification of bee honey can be most accurately determined by the amount of sucrose and the amount of simple sugars, aroma and taste. Analyzes are carried out in well-equipped laboratories. Knowing about such difficulties, counterfeiters most often use crystalline sugar to make honey.
Kinds
There are different types of falsification of honey. Among them may be not only coarse, easily detectable fakes, but also more complex ones, such as feeding the bees with syrup, which we talked about earlier. For coarse counterfeiters, various impurities of chalk, flour and other fillers are used. Moreover, far from always used substances are harmless to the human body. It is for this reason that it is important not to purchase a fake.
Conventionally, falsifications can be classified as follows: assortment, quantitative, qualitative, value and information. The most commonly used species and quality fakes. High-quality and assortment falsification is carried out by replacing the true product with an analogue.
Depending on the means used, fake methods are divided into:
- Partial replacement of a natural substance with water.
- Adding all kinds of substitutes to the product that mimic a natural product.
Substitutes
The identification and falsification of honey are two inextricably linked concepts. In order to be able to identify a fake, it is worth understanding what substances are used for its production. With assortment falsification, food and non-food substitutes are used. The most dangerous are the second.
Nutritional substitutes are the cheapest products that do not have special nutritional value, but they are very similar to a natural product in several ways.
Non-food substitutes are organic and mineral substances that are not suitable for consumption as food.
Counterfeit Calculation Methods
There are different methods for determining the falsification of honey. Most often, it is the microscope method that is used. Using it, you can very quickly determine if the product contains icing sugar, sand, mushrooms, pollen, and yeast.
To clarify the presence of impurities in honey, a thin layer of the substance is applied to the glass slide and the image is enlarged using a microscope. If the product contains sugar, then this will be noticeable by the presence of large lumps in the form of rectangles or squares. Natural has the right crystals in the shape of a star.
If the round elements on the glass slide have a dark border, then this indicates a product falsification, in which a significant amount of granulated sugar was added to liquid honey.
However, it is worth knowing that laboratory methods cannot determine a fake prepared on the basis of heated honey, in which sugar syrup is added. Such a product will be light and liquid. In addition, the aroma and taste of counterfeit is different from real honey.
Diastase enzyme
To determine the falsification of honey, a very important indicator is the enzyme diastasis. It is necessarily present in a natural product. But in the fake it is not. Inside the honey, the enzyme appears after the nectar is collected by bees and secreted by salivary glands. Quantitative indicators of diastases indicate the quality of the product. When sugar is added, its value is significantly reduced.
But it is worth remembering that there are varieties of honey that initially have a low level of enzyme. These include clover product, acacia, cypress and sunflower. With prolonged storage and heating of honey, diastasis can disappear altogether.
Nevertheless, experts say that diastase is the main indicator of a quality product. Moreover, only its presence indicates the natural origin of the substance.
How to choose honey?
The topic of the falsification of honey and methods for its detection is relevant for all consumers. After all, each of us is faced with the problem of choice during the acquisition of goods. Unfortunately, laboratory methods for determining the quality of a product are not available to ordinary people.
Therefore, experts give a number of recommendations that will help determine the fake using external signs:
- The natural product must have a real honey aroma.
- White honey should alert you, as such a product may contain a lot of sugar.
- A dark brown hue indicates that honey is honeydew.
- The caramel flavor of honey should alert. It may indicate the unnatural origin of the product or its melting.
- An important indicator is the density of the mass, which should correspond to the variety of honey.
- The natural product is well wound on a spoon. Poor liquid honey flowing down from a spoon indicates the unavailability of the substance. Too watery product should not be stored for a long time. He can roam.
- In winter, any honey should be thick. If you saw a liquid product on sale, it is highly likely that it is diluted or warmed up, which means that there are no more useful substances in it.
- Pay close attention to whether a beekeeping product is roaming. To do this, it must be prevented. If at the same time there are bubbles, foam, sour smell or the consistency of the substance is liquid, then all this indicates that honey has already fermented.
- It is very important to pay attention to the label on the package. It should contain information about where the honey was received. A white label indicates high product quality. But the blue one indicates that the substance is of padde origin.
- You should not buy honey that is collected from plants near the track or road, since such a product contains lead elements accumulated in flowers.
- Real honey is easily rubbed between the fingers. But the fake does not absorb at all, but rolls up in lumps.
- To determine the substance of water and sugar, it is necessary to drop it on a piece of paper. If you notice that a wet circle has formed around the drop, you are dealing with falsification.
Impurity determination
How to determine the presence of impurities in honey? To do this, you need to take a jar of product and pour distilled water into it. If honey dissolves well, and sediment appears at the bottom, this indicates a high content of impurities.
You can independently determine whether honey contains starch or flour. To do this, in a glass jar you need to mix honey with water and drip a little iodine. If starch is present in the product, the solution will turn blue.
Also, the presence of starch syrup can be judged by the stickiness of honey. Such a product does not sugar. Sometimes honey is checked with alcohol. If impurities are present in it, the solution will acquire a milky hue. After the mixture has stood a little, a precipitate may appear in it, confirming the presence of impurities. If the honey is natural, the solution should remain clear.
You can check for falsification with methyl. After adding it, the precipitate may turn yellow, which indicates the unnaturalness of the product.
Mistresses recommend at home checking honey for naturalness using blotting paper. A little substance is applied to its surface. If a stain appears on the back, the product is not natural. But such a method sometimes fails, so its reliability is not 100%.
Color characteristics
To determine the counterfeit by external signs, parameters such as smell, color, taste and texture are taken into account. The shade of the product plays an important role. Different varieties of honey have a different color:
- Acacia is white.
- Lime - amber.
- The cadet is dark.
- Buckwheat is brown.
By taste and aroma, you can also judge the quality of the product. The smell should be honey, but not caramel. The aroma of caramel is characteristic of the mortar product. It is difficult for an ordinary buyer to distinguish natural smell from synthetic fragrances. But experienced beekeepers cope with this task very simply.
It is also worth remembering that natural honey is transparent, but slightly unclear. But a fake product will always be very clean and transparent. The presence of slight turbidity only indicates the content in honey of such beneficial substances as minerals, dextrin, nitrogen elements, which are necessary for normal crystallization. But in a non-natural product all these elements are absent, and therefore it cannot be sugar.
It is very difficult to determine the fake by consistency. It is very important to remember that if honey reminds you of liquid syrup, you should not buy it, because its low quality can be hazardous to health.
Inverted Sugar Definition
Very often, invert sugar is used to obtain counterfeit. It is usually used to make artificial honey. But with its help perfectly imitate a natural product. This substance is obtained from cane sugar when treated with acids. It consists of equal parts of fruit and grape sugar. This mixture in chemical composition is very similar to natural honey. It is not so easy to determine the presence of inverted sugar, it is impossible at home. For this, ether is used.
Gelatin Definition
For the preparation of counterfeit gelatin is also used, which gives the mass additional viscosity. Determine its presence as follows. Water is poured into the container and honey is dissolved in it (1: 2 ratio). 7-10 drops of Tamina solution (5%) are added to the solution. The appearance of white flakes confirms the presence of gelatin.
Recommendations of specialists
Defining a fake with the naked eye is not so simple. More accurate information on the quality of the substance can only be obtained in laboratory conditions. But for ordinary buyers, this method is not available. Therefore, you can use the old folk ways. One of them is called the chemical pencil method. It consists in the following. A layer of honey is applied to a spoon or paper. From above, a chemical pencil is drawn along it or lowered into the mass. It is believed that a colored trace from the stylus should remain in the mass with impurities and water. How true this method is is difficult to say. Most often, to determine the naturalness of honey, mistresses still use blotting paper.
But experts recommend that before buying a thorough study of the external characteristics of the variety of honey (literature on this subject is currently quite a lot), which you are going to purchase. Only then can you determine by external parameters whether to take the product or not. If in doubt, do not make a purchase. You should never buy too liquid honey. The unusual consistency is most likely an indicator of the immaturity of honey.