Honey can be a great alternative to refined sugar, a source of empty calories. This amazing, natural ingredient can not only sweeten your life, but is rich in minerals, nutrients and living enzymes. You will consider its cleaniness before buying if you want to enjoy the benefits of using honey. Honey’s consistency is the biggest problem. To find pure and healthy honey can be a challenge. Adulteration is common as many other foodstuffs.
The best quality of honey comes from bees and not factories and so, a good starting point would be to read the ingredient label. Look out for words like ‘raw’, ‘natural’, ‘forest honey’ or ‘organic’ – they may be safer than regular honey.
But, since food regulations remain a bit dodgy, you can never be too sure and this may not be a foolproof way. So, can you really tell the difference between real and fake honey? To know the truth, test it at home. Here are some easy tricks to check its purity and ways to spot adulterated honey.
1. The Thumb Test
Place a small amount of honey on your thumb and check if spills or spreads around like any other liquid. If it does, it may not be pure. Pure honey is thick while impure honey will be runny. Pure honey sticks to the surface it is applied to and doesn’t drip away. Moreover, the taste of impure honey may linger due to the presence of added sugar.
2. The Water Test
Take a teaspoon of the honey and put in a glass full of water. Fake or adulterated honey will dissolve in the water while pure honey which has a more dense texture will settle right at the bottom of the glass as lumps.
The same is the case with blotting paper or a white cloth. If you pour pure honey on the two, it will not get absorbed or leave stains.
3. The Flame Test
You may have not known this, but pure honey is inflammable. Although, we’ll request to you observe utmost caution while performing this test and do it at your own risk.
Take a dry matchstick and dip it in honey. Strike the matchstick against the matchbox. If it lights, your honey is pure. If it doesn’t light, it may be adulterated and may also contain some amount of moisture added while contamination.
4. Use vinegar
Mix a tablespoon of honey, some water and 2-3 drops of vinegar essence together. If this mixture foams up, there’s a very high chance that your honey may be adulterated.
