The range of beekeeping is quite large, but one product stands out from the total mass - honey, it has many useful vitamins and is used in folk medicine.

It is worth noting that only natural honey has such qualities. If you are a beekeeper yourself or you know beekeepers, then you are very lucky. And if you are an ordinary person who has never encountered beekeeping, what should you do, how to buy high-quality honey?

Honey varieties

Have you probably found yourself in a situation more than once when cheap products were presented to you as expensive? This is exactly what happens with honey; less popular varieties are sold at the price of expensive ones.

Each species has its own taste, which directly depends on the plant being pollinated. Insects never pollinate just one place; bees like to move to different places. From this we can conclude that a pure type of honey will never be obtained - any type will turn out to be mixed. Professional beekeepers have learned to distinguish which flowers predominate in the finished product.

What types are there, their colors

All species differ in appearance, each has personal properties.

1. Lime. This type is recognized as the most effective remedy for colds. Medoc is usually amber or light yellow in color.
2. Buckwheat. This species is dark brown in color, has a red tint and a pronounced taste, in which a slight bitterness is felt.
3. Forest. Has a standard taste. The most common color is light yellow.
4. Lugovoy. Light color.
5. Acacia. This type of honey has an almost transparent color. If you sugar it, it will be almost white.
6. Clover. Honey has a rich taste and aroma, and is often found in an amber hue.
7. Crimson. As much as I wouldn’t like it, this species has a light tone, which is not at all similar to the shade of berries.

Determining the quality of a product by appearance

When you come to the market, you will not be able to carry out various operations that will help you find out the quality of honey. Don't forget about the seller, who will be very “happy” about your actions. So how should you behave if you need a quality product? Only the external signs of honey will help you with this, which you must understand well.

1. If you see bubbles on top of the honey, this means that water was added to it to enhance fermentation. Natural honey necessarily has wax and pollen, which are present in any type of product. If the product is too transparent, it means it is artificial.
2. Real honey is always absorbed into the skin.
3. Any variety should have astringency and a slight burning sensation, its sweetness should be moderate. The product should not have a caramel taste, otherwise know that the honey has been additionally processed for a more presentable appearance. This is one of its significant disadvantages, since most of the beneficial properties simply disappear, sometimes such honey cannot be consumed at all.
4. Natural honey always produces a strong aroma; the artificial version has virtually no odor.
5. If suddenly the honey becomes sugared, then do not worry, because this is a sign of high quality. Real honey always crystallizes.

How to test honey for additives at home

Product maturity and viscosity. The most delicious and high-quality honey will be the one that has been fully processed. Any variety must reach a minimum moisture threshold. Many beekeepers want to sell the product as quickly as possible and do not think at all about its quality. Often, such honey is stored for only a short time, its aroma is less bright, and its taste is very weak.

You can check the maturity of the product quite simply; all you need is a regular tablespoon. Pour more honey into it and turn it over so that there is a small stream. If it flows continuously and forms a slide, then the honey is mature.

The second method is almost the same. Again, put more honey into the spoon, hold it horizontally and twist it around its axis. If the honey is ripe, it will not spread. Otherwise, the mass will be liquid, which indicates poor quality.

Honey weight. On average, a 1 liter jar should weigh approximately 1.4 kg with the product. If the indicator is significantly lower, then the honey is diluted with water.

Several ways to check sweet foods

How to identify a fake you can look at the photo

1.Take 1 tsp. honey and place the product in warm water. After an hour, a precipitate should form or floating flakes should appear.

2.Make tea with honey. If you get a dark liquid, then the product is of high quality.

3.The next test will be with bread. Dip the crumb into honey for about 15 minutes. If the bread becomes hard, the quality of the honey is good; soft bread will indicate that the product is diluted.

4.Take paper that absorbs moisture and pour honey on it, then spread it on it. There should be no wet marks, otherwise you should know that the honey has been diluted with syrup.

5.An interesting method of checking using improvised means. You will need stainless steel wire, which needs to be heated and dipped in honey for 1 second. If the wire is clean, then the product is free of impurities.

6.The last method is to heat a teaspoon over the fire. If the honey is of poor quality, it will catch fire. This product will char slightly.

Detection of other impurities

If the shelf life of a product is approaching, sellers resort to various tricks that will help them get rid of the product soon. The buyer will not be able to distinguish a good quality product from a damaged one by appearance. If the seller cheats and adds something to the honey, then the product, on the contrary, will become more attractive.

One of the tools that can identify additives in a product is iodine. Drop just a couple of drops into honey and watch the chemical reaction. If nothing happens, then the product is real. If a reaction begins during which the honey turns blue, it means the seller has added starch to the product as a thickener.

A bite can reveal the presence of chalk in iodine. Pour half a glass of water, add 1 tsp. honey, then add vinegar. If the water does not hiss, it means there is no chalk.

Using ammonia you can detect molasses in honey. To do this you need to take 2 tbsp. water and 1 tbsp. honey, mix everything, then drop a little alcohol and shake vigorously. The color should not change in any way, and there should be no sediment.

And finally, we’ll tell you a few words about sugaring the product. It all depends on the specific variety. For example, mustard honey can begin to sugar a week after collection, from acacia after six months. On average, other varieties begin this process a couple of months after harvest.

How to test honey for naturalness at home using iodine

Iodine can easily identify the starch present in honey. To conduct the experiment, you need:

1. take a little more than 100 ml of water, heat and dissolve 1 tsp in it. honey
2. stir until smooth.
3. add a couple of drops of iodine to the sweet mixture.
4. Watch how the color changes.
5. If you observe blue spots, you can confirm that you have purchased a counterfeit product.

How to check whether honey is natural or not at home using paper

For the test, you can take any paper napkin. Place just a little honey on a piece of paper and watch to see if it spreads. If you see a wet spot under the honey, this indicates poor quality, and syrup or water was added to it. To fully verify the quality of the product, you can set fire to the paper with honey. If the product is without additives, only part of the paper will burn. Poor quality honey will begin to char and will also smell like burnt sugar.

Testing with water

Take a saucer and add 1 tsp. honey into it. Now pour about 1.5 tbsp. water at room temperature and shake the saucer in a horizontal position. If you see a pattern that looks like a honeycomb, then this is a sign of high-quality honey.

How to check the quality of honey using bread

Take a piece of bread (preferably stale) and dip it in honey. After 5 minutes, take it out and look at the result: if the honey is real, then the bread should remain just as hard. If the bread becomes soft, we can say that the product is not real.

You can also spread honey on bread and see if it spreads. A high-quality product will not flow down the edges; the bread should turn from soft to more stale.

Bottom line

If you don’t have time for all the experiments described above, then just add honey and after a while the picture will become clearer. Literally in 2-3 months the real product will begin to crystallize. When there is too much fructose in honey, it remains liquid even after a long period of time. If after a while the honey is divided into 2 layers - thick and liquid, then know that you purchased an unripened product. In this case, there is nothing to worry about. The only disadvantage of this honey is its short shelf life.

We really hope that our article will help you make the right choice when buying honey. Now you can easily see through all the beekeepers’ tricks!

In order to choose high-quality honey when purchasing, 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 have taken place: it is saturated and richest in nutrients.

This kind of honey is pumped out of the honeycomb, after allowing it to ripen and brew.It is important to remember that mature honey is never liquid. Liquid, flowing honey can only be of high quality in the summer season and if the bees collected it from white acacia or clover. If the honey is still runny in the fall, this means that it was removed from the combs prematurely and has excess moisture.

Another important one sign quality honey - smell. He should be pleasant and unobtrusive. A counterfeit product may have no smell at all, or, on the contrary, the aroma appears sharply and seems “chemical”. True, some exotic varieties of high-quality honey, for example, honey collected from fireweed, may also have no odor, but they can be found on sale extremely rarely.

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

Such honey may initially be of very high quality, but after these procedures it is completely deprived of all biologically active substances.In culinary terms, it is in no way inferior to fresh honey from the apiary, but it is useless to use this honey as a preventive and restorative remedy.

How to determine the quality of honey?

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

During this time, the honey is infused. The bees seal the finished product with wax caps - this is the kind of 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 mature, due to a lack of honeycombs. The water content in such honey is sometimes twice the norm, it is little enriched with enzymes and sucrose, and quickly sours.

To determine the ripeness of honey, it is heated to 20 degrees, stirring with a spoon. Then the spoon is taken out and started to rotate. Ripe honey wraps around her. It may become sugary over time, this is normal. If you want to return it to its previous state, heat it slightly in a water bath. But sometimes this provokes further souring.

With the help of simple tests you can determine , is the honey adulterated? 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 hisses when adding vinegar essence, there is chalk in the honey. If a white precipitate forms in a 5-10% aqueous solution of honey when adding a small amount of lapis, sugar has been added.

How can you determine the quality of honey?

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

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

By viscosity
Take honey for testing by lowering a thin stick into the container. If this is real honey, then it stretches after the stick as a long continuous thread, and when this thread is broken, it will completely descend, forming a tower, a pagoda on the surface of the honey, which will then slowly disperse.
Fake honey will behave like glue: it will flow abundantly and drip down from the stick, forming splashes.

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

Check if water and sugar have been added to honey

To do this, drop honey on a sheet of low-grade paper that absorbs moisture well. If it spreads across the paper, forming wet spots, or even seeps through it, it is fake honey.
Determine whether honey contains starch. To do this, put a little honey in a glass, pour boiling water, stir and cool. After this, add 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 hot wire (made of stainless steel) and lower it into the honey. If a sticky foreign mass hangs on it, you have fake honey, but if the wire remains clean, the honey is natural or, in other words, full-fledged.

What should you pay attention to after purchasing honey?

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

Honey is stored in glass, clay, porcelain, ceramic and wooden containers.

Honey contains 65-80% fructose and sucrose, it is rich in vitamin C, in addition, it contains almost all minerals. Therefore, when drinking 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?
Add a little of what you bought under the guise of honey to a cup of weak, warm tea. If you were not deceived, the tea will darken, but no sediment will form at the bottom.

You can dilute with a little honey in a small amount of distilled water and add 4 - 5 drops of iodine there. If the solution turns blue, it means starch was used to make this product. Clearly 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 hiss.

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

If even after years your honey has not thickened, This 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 at the bottom, and remains liquid at the top. This indicates that it is unripe and should therefore be eaten as quickly as possible - unripe honey only lasts for a few months.

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

Which honey is better - mountain honey or, let's say, lowland honey?
Don’t fall for the bait when they try to convince you that mountain honey is better than what bees collect in our open spaces. Mountain honey has no special advantages over plain honey. The quality of honey and the concentration of nutrients in it depend only on the decency and knowledge of the beekeeper, as well as on the environmental situation in the area where honey is collected.

Here, however, there is a difference between honey, collected in a clean environment, and those that bees collected from the flowerbeds of an industrial enterprise. But here too everything depends on the beekeeper. His conscience should not allow him to make money from “industrial” honey.

Is it possible to buy honey by hand? T only if you are sure what you are buying. The most common honey adulterator is sugar syrup. Unripe honey is often diluted with the same syrup to give it the missing sweetness.

Real honey contains no water. 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, take it out. High-quality honey will harden the bread. If, on the contrary, it has softened or completely spread out, then this is nothing more than sugar syrup.

But no one on the market will allow you to conduct such experiments, but they will let you 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 to buy honey, take a chemical pencil with you. Smear the honey on a piece of paper with a pencil, you can smear it with your finger, and try to write something on the “honey” strip with a chemical pencil.

If after a few seconds If an inscription or blue streaks appear, you can confidently and loudly inform the seller (so that other buyers can hear) that the product contains starch or flour. If you don't have a chemical pencil, a drop of iodine will do. The same blue tint of the proposed honey will unmistakably identify the starch and flour in the product.

Sometimes to achieve thickness Anything can be added to syrup or unripe honey with real honey. 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).

Adulterated honey solution it will be cloudy and shimmer rainbow-colored, and a little later a sediment will appear at the bottom of the glass. If you want to know for sure what was mixed into the honey, add a few drops of vinegar to the precipitate. Foaming of the precipitate (emission of carbon dioxide) directly indicates chalk in solution.

Sellers of useful products have several tricks.
First, close your ears and don't listen to what they tell you. For a bunch of liars, of course, one honest seller may fall for one, but how do you know that the one standing in front of you is honest? Try honey not only from the top, but also from the bottom of the jar. Feel free to put a spoon into the jar and don’t listen to the sellers who start shouting: “Don’t spoil the product!”

Honey is an antiseptic, and a clean spoon in a jar cannot spoil it. It’s another matter if it’s not honey at the bottom.

Do not buy unchecked or rolled honey from the market. It is a myth that honey is best stored with a tin lid.

Crystallization is a natural process of honey, which does not affect its quality and composition of nutrients. Don't be fooled by crystallized honey. Do not come the next day to the seller who promised you non-crystallized honey. They will bring the same thing, but warmed up. But you can’t heat honey. Those who prefer honey in liquid form should take this fact into account. Place the 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. High-quality honey does not roll off the spoon too quickly. Take a tablespoon of honey and turn the spoon several times in a quick circular motion. The honey will roll over it, almost without draining into the jar.

2. Dip a spoon into the container with honey. When pulling out the spoon, evaluate the nature of the swelling of the honey. A good one will form a ribbon, sit in a mound, and bubbles will form on its surface.

3. All types of honey have a sweet taste, but some varieties have a 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 flavor 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 due to incorrect storage conditions of a low-quality product.

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

Which honey to choose
Lime:
excellent honey, light yellow, easily crystallizes, has a characteristic smell. Used for respiratory diseases, including in the form of inhalations. Has a beneficial effect on the gastrointestinal tract and kidneys. Bees can collect about 40 kilos of honey from one linden tree.

Acacia:
also one of the best. Transparent, light, more liquid, with a faint acacia aroma. Crystallizes slowly. Recommended for diseases of the cardiovascular system, gastrointestinal tract, female inflammatory diseases, including its use locally 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:
It is colorless, almost transparent, and its weak aroma raises doubts among buyers about its naturalness.

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

Dandelion:
with a characteristic color and smell, slightly bitter, thick. Has wound healing and anti-inflammatory effects.

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

Buckwheat treats diseases of the stomach, blood and skin
melilot - heart ailments
linden 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.

There is a science behind taking honey.

If done at the wrong time and incorrectly, 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. Drink with cold water. If the acidity is high - an hour or two after eating, and wash it down with 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 rather than a kitchen), honey can be stored in such containers for decades. Direct sunlight is harmful to it (remember how honey sits in the sun for weeks, if not years, in markets).

Beekeepers recommend buying several kilograms of honey at once if you have found a natural, high-quality product. You shouldn’t really believe that honey is most beneficial only for the first year. It has practically no shelf life and does not lose its medicinal and taste qualities.

Warmth is harmful to honey. At temperatures above +150, the life-giving balm becomes simply a mixture of carbohydrates. Honey is afraid of the sun. After forty-eight hours of continuous solar irradiation, the enzymes in it are destroyed. First of all, inhibin, an antimicrobial enzyme.

The environment for honey must be chosen carefully. It quickly absorbs the smells of fish, cheese, and sauerkraut. Equally easily absorbs both flour and cement dust. The humidity in the refrigerator is too high for it. The best place for honey is where it is dry, cool and does not smell.

The container with honey (preferably a dark glass jar) must be hermetically sealed, otherwise it will turn sour. If you keep honey in a wooden barrel made of coniferous trees, it will absorb the smell of resin. In an oak barrel it gets dark. If it’s a barrel, then it’s linden, birch or aspen. Honey can be stored in food-grade plastic containers for no more than a week. All other polymers are strictly prohibited.

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

The shelf life of honey is one year. After this, 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.

Some sellers of beekeeping products, trying to earn more money, come up with various ways to increase sales by passing off fake honey as natural honey. For these purposes they use sugar, flour, water, starch and even chalk. Such a product may not harm human health, but the healing properties will be minimal or completely absent.

The purpose of this article is to reveal the secrets of the “miracle alchemists”, to help determine the quality and make the right choice of honey that will benefit your health.

First of all, if you need to check honey for naturalness, for example, on the market, and you do not have the necessary means for this, you can use the simplest visual check for consistency, smell, taste, color.

Appearance

Apply a little concentrate to the skin of your hand and rub the area. Natural honey, which has a pleasant, delicate texture, should be completely absorbed. Carefully examine the structure of the nectar. It always contains particles of pollen, wax and other impurities.

Absolutely pure honey is a sign of an artificial product. If it is cloudy, then this indicates the presence of impurities. Bubbles, foam, and fermentation indicate the possible presence of water.

Please note: natural honey, or rather most of its types, crystallize by winter.

Honey from:

• fireweed;
• linden;
• acacia;
• buckwheat

This kind of honey is easier to fake. Counterfeit is usually liquid, which means that it is heated and has dark spots. When heated above 40 degrees, the bee product not only loses its beneficial properties, but can also be harmful.

If you see candied honey in the summer, it means it is from last year.

Taste and smell

The quality of honey can be determined by testing. It harmoniously combines sweetness with light sourness, slightly burns and tingles. Some types of honey have a slight bitterness, when heated, caramel shades, and a pleasant aftertaste. Unnatural honey does not have such qualities; moreover, if it is cloyingly sweet, it means that sugar has been added.

Natural dessert has a pleasant fragrant aroma, while artificial dessert has no smell. Some sellers add flavorings to confuse the buyer, but you can still distinguish a fake by smell.

Color and viscosity

Honey has a huge palette of colors and depends on the variety. Color can range from white to brown, including a variety of yellows and browns. Knowing the characteristics of colors and varieties will help you make the right choice.

Honey colors depending on the variety:

• linden – light yellow;
• May - yellow;
• chestnut – dark brown;
• from sunflower – bright yellow;
• from acacia - transparent, when it begins to crystallize - white;
• burdock - olive;
• raspberry – light shades;
• from hawthorn – brown;
• floral – golden yellow;
• buckwheat – amber brown;
• sweet clover - almost colorless;
• from clover - shades of amber;
• mustard – cream with a yellowish tint;
• motherwort - golden.

The fresh product is transparent, uniform in color and has no sediment.

You can check the quality of honey by viscosity. Usually sellers have sticks for testing. Dip the stick into the dessert and slowly pull it out. A thin thread should stretch. If it flows or drips, then it is counterfeit.

The texture of the surrogate is rough, it is not absorbed into the skin, but rolls up and forms lumps. If there are no sticks, then twist the jar. Diluted or heated honey will overflow. The correct consistency should be quite viscous. At home, you can rotate the spoon, as if wrapping honey around it, it will not spill.

Check by weight

To make the product weigh more, dishonest sellers often use water and various impurities. A standard liter jar weighs about one and a half kilograms. If you see that the weight is much higher, it means the honey is diluted.

If you are in doubt about a purchase, you can determine the quality of honey at home in more detail.

Determining the presence of sugar

If the dessert is suspiciously white in color, has an unexpressed, sugary-sweet taste, and lacks the usual astringency, you can identify impurities with the following products:

1. Milk. Add a little nectar to hot milk; if it curdles, it is adulterated.
2. We have tea. Dip a teaspoon of honey dessert into lightly brewed tea. If sediment appears at the bottom, then there can be no question of quality.
3. Bread. Dip soft bread into the mixture for about ten minutes. If the bread has not hardened, but has softened, then the composition contains sweetened water.
4. You can check the naturalness of honey for sugar using paper. Use paper that absorbs moisture well. A newspaper, paper towel or napkin is suitable for these purposes. Put some honey substance there. If it smears, soaks in, or leaves moisture, it contains water or sugar syrup.

Test for the presence of chalk and starch

To disguise the poor quality of the product, increase weight and viscosity, unscrupulous sellers add chalk chips and starch. So, how do you test honey for chalky content?

1. To do this you will need table vinegar or essence. Make a water-honey solution. If, when vinegar is added there, hissing, foaming, and bubbles appear, it means there is chalk in the product. It reacts with acetic acid, which is accompanied by the release of carbon dioxide. When the composition settles, a layer of chalk sediment forms at the bottom. A low chalk content is detected only by vinegar essence.
2. To test for starch, use ammonia. The starch content will give off a strong molasses smell. Under the influence of ammonia, a brown precipitate forms, and the honey mixture itself will take on the same shade. Sulfuric acid formed during the processing of molasses reacts with ammonia. For this test, dissolve the concentrate in water (1:2), drop ammonia into it, 2-3 drops are enough.
3. Iodine can also be an excellent aid in detecting adulteration. Dilute honey in plain water and add a few drops of iodine. The composition has turned blue, this indicates the presence of starch or flour. The darker the composition, the more impurities were mixed into it.

Chemical pencil test

Another common means of identifying a surrogate is a chemical pencil test. Always take it with you to the store or to the honey fair. The essence of this method is to change the color of a low-quality product. To do this, you can apply a little substance to a piece of paper and run a pencil over it. The color has changed - this is a counterfeit product.

Checking with improvised means

There are many more different ways to expose a fake.

• A copper wire will help determine the quality of honey at home:
  1. heat the wire red hot;
  2. lower it into the container being tested;
  3. hold for 15 seconds: the wire is clean - the product is real, if there is a sticky mass - there are additives or water.
• Testing with lapis (silver nitrate). Mix honey in water 1:10, add lapis there. The formation of a whitish precipitate indicates the presence of sugar.
• Matches. Light a match and bring it closer to the product; it should melt and sizzle after a while. You can place a little experimental composition on paper, then set it on fire. A good product will not burn or change color. The surrogate will turn brown.
• Using stale bread. Dip a little loaf of bread into the test container for a while; it should remain stale.
• You can check by heating. If the item is not genuine, it will ignite or begin to char.
• If you put a little dessert on a plate, add water and shake horizontally, you will see a honeycomb-like pattern, which indicates that you have not been deceived.

Any choice must be treated very carefully. If desired, you can conduct a consumer examination to determine the safety and quality of honey using organoleptic analyses:

• microbiological;
• for toxicity;
• for compliance with chemical and physical standards.

Honey is recognized by consumers and science as a useful, healing and most sought after beekeeping product, but only if it is natural. Lucky are those who know beekeepers and have the opportunity to buy proven products. What should an ordinary market buyer do, how to protect himself from counterfeits and be confident in its quality?

Honey varieties

Often sellers present a cheap product for which there is no demand as more popular and expensive. For this reason, you should have an idea of ​​​​how to distinguish between different types of honey.

The color, aroma and taste of each variety depend primarily on the plant pollinated by bees immediately before production. But there is no pure honey, since insects have the habit of flying from place to place, often even changing the terrain. However, in each variety it is possible to determine which range of colors predominates.

Types and color of honey

Each type has its own external characteristics and healing properties.

1. Lime. Recognized as the most useful in the fight against colds. Basically, it has a light amber color, but can be yellowish and transparent.
2. Buckwheat. It has a rich taste with a slight bitterness. The predominant color is dark brown or dark yellow with a reddish tint.
3. Forest. The color range ranges from light yellow to light brown.
4. Lugovoy. Has light shades.
5. Acacia. The honey from this plant is almost transparent. The exception is the candied state, when the color becomes almost white.
6. Clover. Amber in color with shades from light to rich and with a special aroma.
7. Crimson. Only the honey took shades not from berries, but from flowers, so the product itself is light in color.

When buying honey, it is not possible to conduct any research, and the seller will not allow you to use additional substances to test your products, but you want to buy a natural and high-quality product. All that remains is to learn how to determine whether the honey is really real by external signs.

1. If there is foam with bubbles on the surface of the sweet product, this is a sign of fermentation, therefore, water has been added to it. The contents of natural honey contain wax, pollen and other inclusions of natural origin. Transparency and an overly clean appearance indicate that the product is artificial.
2. When rubbed with your fingers, natural honey should be absorbed into the skin.
3. When tasting, you should feel its tartness, slight burning, tingling in the mouth and moderate sweetness. When you feel the sweetness and taste of caramel, there is a possibility that the honey has been “heated”. This technique is sometimes used to add presentation to a product, but the beneficial properties are lost, and in some cases (depending on the heating temperature) the product can even be harmful.
4. Natural honey has a unique fragrant aroma, while its artificial counterpart is odorless.
5. Don't be alarmed when a bee product becomes candied. This is an indicator of naturalness, since it is subject to crystallization, unlike a fake. Knowledgeable buyers do not always strive to purchase honey in liquid form, but its crystallization indicates excellent quality, which is the most reliable test.

Checking bee product at home for additives

Viscosity maturity indicator. A product that has undergone a certain processing by bees, reached a minimum degree of humidity and is sealed by them is considered to be of high quality and mature. Some unscrupulous beekeepers, in pursuit of profit, begin pumping out honey before the process is completed and it reaches maturity. As a result, the product is not intended for long-term storage; fermentation begins in it, and the taste and healing qualities are lost.

At home, checking for ripeness can be done using a regular spoon, with which you should scoop up a little honey and lift it until a wide, elastic stream forms. It should flow continuously and settle in a slide without spreading.

Again, use a spoon to scoop up the result of the bees’ work, lift it and scroll it, holding it horizontally, around the axis. The honey should not drip. This shows his maturity. Otherwise, it will look like a liquid mass and begin to spread over the surface.

The candied product began to divide into liquid and crystallized parts - an indicator of immaturity.

Weight check. Honey is heavier than water. The average weight of 1 liter of honey is 1.4 kg excluding utensils. If this indicator is less, then a significant portion of water is present.

Simple ways to check the naturalness of honey

1. Dissolve one teaspoon of honey in warm water and leave to stand for an hour. An adulterated bee product will leave sediment at the bottom of the glass or flakes floating on the surface.
2. Drop some honey on a piece of paper and set it on fire. A quality product will remain unchanged on burnt paper. The fake will turn brown, like burnt sugar, and leave a corresponding smell.
3. An effective way to check the naturalness of honey and convenient even when purchased at the market is a chemical pencil. When it comes into contact with moisture, it changes color, so by dipping it into a bee product, you can easily determine whether the product they are selling you is real or diluted with water with the addition of granulated sugar.

Sugar is quite often a component of counterfeit products. Beekeepers recommend checking its presence at home in several ways.

1. Dip a little honey into hot milk - if it is fake with added burnt sugar, it will curdle.
2. Tea with natural honey will turn it dark, but the fake honey will not change.
3. Place a piece of bread crumb into the sweet and leave for 10-15 minutes. Hardened bread is a sign of quality; if it softens, then you have honey with the addition of sugar syrup. The white color, close to sugar, also gives out dubious quality.
4. Drop a little honey onto absorbent paper and try to smear it. If it works and there are wet marks left, you can rest assured that the surrogate contains water or syrup.
5. A simple way to check at home for naturalness is the procedure with a hot stainless steel wire. Dip it in honey and take it out. The material at hand must be clean; if traces of the adhesive mass remain, it is not a clean product.
6. Authenticity is easy to determine by heating the honey poured into a spoon over the fire. The counterfeit product will ignite, and the natural product will be slightly charred.

Determination of other additives

Often, a damaged product must be sold by any means necessary, and so that an uninformed buyer does not notice signs of poor quality, sellers resort to various tricks. The quality suffers from the presence of additives not inherent in honey, but it becomes marketable.

One of the determinants is iodine. It is enough to drop a few drops of it on a sweet product, and you can determine the presence of starch added for thickness. As a result of the chemical reaction, the color will change to blue or blue. The more intense the color, the more foreign matter there is. In real honey, the shade does not change.

Added chalk is detected using vinegar essence. To do this, dilute a spoonful of the product in 0.5 cups of water and add vinegar. If the water hisses, it means there is chalk.

They also test for the presence of molasses. Mix 2 tablespoons of water and 1 spoon of honey and add a few drops of ammonia, shake. A change in the color of the solution to brown and the formation of the same precipitate indicate that the additive is still present.

And it may also be useful as general information to know when honey is candied. The process generally begins one or two months after collection. An exception is mustard honey, which can thicken after 5 days if left in an open container. A white acacia product, on the contrary, remains in its original state for more than six months, and if the jar is tightly closed, longer.

Unnatural honey may, at best, not bring any benefit to your health, and at worst, have a detrimental effect on it. So you shouldn’t neglect checking, at least minimally.

Video: how to determine the quality of honey at home

Floral comes from processed flower nectar. Honeydew - from a sweet liquid secreted by aphids, bugs that feed on plant sap. Honeydew is released on the leaves and stems of plants as a result of the action of these insects. Mixed is much more common.

Honey obtained from one plant species is called monofloral, while honey obtained from several plants is called polyfloral. The latter can be found much more often. Therefore, specific varieties (for example, fireweed, sweet clover, etc.) can only be distinguished conditionally.

According to regional characteristics, several varieties are also distinguished: for example, Altai, Bashkir, etc.

Honey in combs is valued for its healing properties and original taste.

According to technological characteristics, they are distinguished:

• centrifugal - pumped out in a honey extractor;
• cellular - in natural honeycombs;
• sectional - cut into pieces of about half a kilogram and enclosed in newly made frames made of plastic or plywood;
• pressed - obtained through pressing from honeycombs with a press;

Types and color

Honey can vary in appearance, taste, aroma, and consistency. It also differs in its properties and its effect on health. The quality depends on which plant was a honey plant for bees.

Honey has different shades depending on the honey plant

1. Lime. Light golden in color, sometimes with a slightly greenish tint, it has pronounced bactericidal, anti-inflammatory and expectorant properties, reduces fever well, and helps sweating.
2. Buckwheat. It has the best effect on blood composition of all varieties and is even used in the treatment of anemia. It has a good reputation in the treatment of atherosclerosis, heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases. Especially useful for men.
3. Forest. It can be of absolutely any color: the shade depends on which trees and shrubs the nectar is collected from. The most famous of the forest ones is Altai: it is very tart, spicy, with a pronounced taste. It has a wide range of healing properties: it is especially useful for pathologies of the cardiovascular, circulatory systems and gastrointestinal tract.
4. Meadow, floral. Golden color, fragrant, collected from herbs. It is believed to help with headaches and sleep disorders. Recommended for women for the prevention of gynecological problems and in the treatment of infertility.
5. Fireweed. Contains a large amount of vitamin C, so it is effective against colds.
6. Donnikovy. It has anti-inflammatory, analgesic and sedative properties. Useful for nursing mothers as it enhances lactation.
7. Chestnut. Good for the digestive and cardiovascular systems.
8. Crimson. It has immunostimulant properties, helps with vitamin deficiency, neurosis and mental overload. Recommended for diseases of the upper respiratory tract, gynecological ailments and inflammation of the mucous membrane, including stomatitis.
9. Acacia. Very delicate in taste, without a characteristic bitterness, almost transparent and liquid, like water, immediately after pumping - to a fine-grained, greenish color. These signs depend on the variety of acacia from which the nectar was collected. The high fructose content allows this apiproduct not to crystallize for up to two years, unlike all other varieties. Useful for diabetes, hypertension and dermatitis.
10. Clover. Delicate amber color, with a slightly candy aftertaste. In liquid form it resembles syrup and crystallizes quite quickly. Used for hypertension, atherosclerosis. heals wounds and ulcers well, even fights antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Checking by external signs

A quality product can be determined by one or more external characteristics. Having extensive practical experience, we can draw a conclusion about the authenticity of honey based on several criteria.

Taste

Genuine honey has a pronounced tart taste, sometimes with a slight burning bitterness. Cloyingly tasteless, with a sugary aftertaste - it’s a fake, diluted with sugar syrup. The grains remaining on the tongue after dissolution also indicate the presence of an impurity in the product.

Color

Real honey can be of absolutely any color: from dark brown to almost colorless. But in a liquid state it should always be transparent, despite the shade: turbidity immediately after pumping means the presence of foreign additives.

Aroma

The product should smell specific, tart, and may have a slight waxy aroma. There should be no sour tint, the kind that accompanies fermentation processes.

Density and viscosity

The natural mature product is quite thick: it does not run off the spoon if you scoop up even slightly heated honey with it and begin to quickly turn it around its axis. When poured into a container, the apiproduct does not spread immediately, but first collects in the center in a small mound.

Density and viscosity are some of the signs of natural high-quality honey

It most often remains liquid for 1–2 months, no more. The lack of crystallization in winter honey most often indicates that:

• it was heated, for example, during pasteurization;
• he is not natural;

There are very rare exceptions, and beekeepers usually know about them and warn consumers: honey can remain liquid for a long time if the nectar is collected from certain specific plants, for example, from acacia.

Crystallization does not affect the beneficial properties in any way: crystallized honey retains all the beneficial substances for years. But it is impossible to heat the product and artificially make it liquid: this causes it to lose its healing properties and form carcinogens that provoke oncology.

Uniformity

Any honey gradually crystallizes. But first, crystals form from glucose, then from fructose. Glucose crystals sink to the bottom of the jar, and a product saturated with fructose accumulates on top. Such separation is usually noticeable in those varieties with a high fructose content. These processes do not indicate a deterioration in the quality of honey; one can only assume a high fructose content and, possibly, insufficient ripeness of the product. This does not affect its quality, but only shortens the shelf life.

The uniformity of the beekeeping product can also be slightly disturbed by inclusions of pieces of wax and grains of plant pollen. Sometimes you can find bee wings in it. This is also absolutely normal and indicates naturalness.

A white coating on top is also normal: a small foam appears and hardens on the surface in the form of tiny bubbles.

Honey has a composition rich in beneficial microelements and amino acids

When rubbed between two fingers, the natural product is gradually almost completely absorbed into the skin. The counterfeit product has a rough structure and remains a viscous sticky mass on the surface.

Simple ways to check the naturalness of honey using available tools

Honey is most often counterfeited in order to increase the weight of the product or hide its low quality.

Beekeeping is a labor-intensive process, which is why fakes are so common

An experienced consumer can identify a fake by taste, color and smell. But in order to more reliably verify its authenticity, it is best to test the honey with at least one of the methods that are designed to identify specific additives.

1. Iodine. Indicates the presence of flour or starch. The api product is diluted with distilled water and iodine is added. If the mixture turns blue, then there is definitely either starch or flour there.
2. Vinegar. Detects the presence of chalk. If you dissolve the product in water and then drop vinegar into it, or better yet, vinegar essence, then the presence of a violent release of carbon dioxide (hissing and bubbling of the liquid) will reveal chalk.
3. Of bread. It “calculates” sugar by dipping a small piece of bread into the sweetness for just 10 minutes. Hardened bread will indicate the quality of the product, and softened bread will indicate the presence of added sugar syrup.
4. Water. This is the easiest way to find chalk and other impurities. A spoonful of treats dissolved in a glass of plain water should not produce any sediment or flakes after an hour.
5. Ammonia. They can determine the presence of molasses. A few drops of it are added to one part of honey and two of distilled water. The mixture is shaken. And if a brown precipitate forms and the solution itself also changes color, this indicates the presence of molasses.
6. Indelible pencil. It is convenient as a “travelling” option and also “finds” sugar syrup. A chemical pencil immediately begins to write purple as soon as water gets on it, so if its lead is dipped in a drop of sweetness, then even without paper you will see how it changes color.
7. Fire. If you drop honey on a sheet of paper and set it on fire, the quality product will remain intact, will not change color and will not smell burnt. The counterfeit product with water and sugar will melt, turn black, and give off a burnt sugar smell.
8. Milk. It should curl when you add the fake.
9. Paper. It's better to take a piece of newspaper or toilet paper. The point is that it should absorb water well. Sugar dissolved in water will make itself felt by allowing moisture to seep through.
10. Lapis. A pharmaceutical pencil detects the presence of sugar. To do this, it is dipped in a 10–15% honey solution. If a white precipitate appears, it means there is sugar.
11. Wire. It should be made of stainless steel, and any open flame source, such as a lighter, is suitable for the experiment. It is heated and dipped in honey: if it remains clean, then the product is real, if there is something stuck to the wire, then these are any foreign additives.

Other ways to check quality

1. Heating. This method will help you check whether honey is natural at home by aroma or consistency. The experiment is carried out in simple ways:

• approximately 50 g of honey is placed in a hermetically sealed container and heated for 10 minutes at a low temperature - only 45ºC;
• after the time has passed, open the lid and smell: the natural product is instantly identified by its characteristic tart aroma; there should be no sickly sweet smells;
• Heat the same for about an hour and look at the structure: the fake will not delaminate.

2. Weighing. It helps determine the density:

• you need to take exactly one liter of honey and weigh it, having previously determined the weight of the empty container;
• then the number indicating the net weight of honey must be divided by 1000 - this is the weight in grams of one liter of water;

For example, the weight of a liter of api product without packaging is 1480 g. Divide 1480 by 1000 and get 1.48. The resulting number in Russian conditions should be no less than 1.41. This means it is a natural sweetness.

In addition to honey, bees are capable of producing other useful products, such as bee bread. Read about its beneficial properties in our material:.

How to properly store at home

Honey remains beneficial for a long time. But so that it does not lose its properties, you need to follow special rules for its storage and use.

It is better to store honey with combs in glass jars with tightly closed lids.

1. This should be a cool place, protected from light, but not a refrigerator.
2. You need to choose a sealed container, made of glass, ceramics, or wood. Metal cannot be used: it oxidizes and spoils the product.
3. The healing delicacy should be consumed without heating: temperatures above 60ºC destroy the beneficial properties. There is a theory that carcinogens are also formed. Therefore, it is better not to put honey in hot tea.
4. You cannot store honey in an open container - it easily absorbs foreign odors, losing its own aroma, and easily absorbs water.

Honey is the main and most popular beekeeping product. It is a delicacy, a means of strengthening the body, and an excellent natural medicine against a wide range of diseases. Therefore, when purchasing, it is important to know how to check honey for authenticity and be able to distinguish the real from the fake in practice.