Honey is the best and amazing alternative to your refined sugar due to it's natural ingredient and nutrients it contains such as living enzymes and minerals. However, the biggest problem that we face when it comes to honey is it's "purity" and "quality" which is very important to know if it's pure or not before buying it.
However, honey like many other canned foods can easily be adulterated because it's mostly for commercial purposes which makes it easily mixed with glucose solution, high fructose corn syrup and other ingredients you may not even know about. Most at times, when you open the jar containing the honey, you hear a little "pop" sound which indicates that the honey has been adulterated due to some fermentation which has already taken place inside of it.
However, it's quite challenging to differentiate between a pure honey from adulterated one but if you want to enjoy it's taste and health benefits then it's very necessary you check it's purity. Here's a clear knowledge of a pure honey and an adulterated home.
1. Pure honey - a pure honey is usually natural and it's made by honey bees that feeds on flowers by sucking nectars from the flowers and converting them to honey.
2. Adulterated honey - an adulterated honey is often referred to as a fake, impure or artificial honey in which molasses, starch, sugar syrup, and glucose are added in it.
The question now is how do you test for a pure honey?
In order for you to get the most of the benefits of a pure honey, here are some simple tests and experiments that you can perform at home to verify the purity of your honey.
1. Water test
To carry out a water test, follow the steps below:
a. Fill in a glass with water
b. Then add one tablespoon of the honey into the glass of water
c. If adulterated or artificial honey, it will dissolve in water and you will see it around the glass.
d. But for pure honey, it will settle right at the bottom of the glass.
2. Thumb test
To carry out this test correctly, all you need to do is:
a. Firstly place a small amount of honey on your thumb
b. Check if spills or spreads around like any other liquids.
c. If it does spills, then it's not pure
d. But if pure, the honey sticks to your thumb as impure honey will be runny. However, pure honey are thick and they stick to the surface it is applied to, they don't drip away.
3. Flame test
This test is 100% effective if you want to know whether a honey is pure or adulterated. It's might shock you to know that honey is inflammable right? Well this is what to do:
a. Firstly take out a dry matchstick and dip it into the honey
b. Then strike the matchstick against the matchbox
c. If it lights, then your honey is pure
d. However if it doesn't light, then the honey may be adulterated and also contains some mixture you know not about.
4. Ants test
Here, all you need to do is
a. Place a few drops of the honey into a plate near some ants, watch and leave it for some time.
b. However, if you see a number of ants around the honey plate then the honey is impure.
c. But if no ants are found then the honey is pure. You know why? Well it's because honey bees while building their hives on trees, they add an additive to the honey in order to protect it from small pests like ants, beetle and other insects.
5. Freezing test
This is one of the easiest and best method to detect a pure honey from an adulterated one. The truth is that pure honey doesn't freeze and just to be sure, take out your honey jar and place it in a freezer, you'll notice that it becomes harden and not frozen or crystallized. Even when you add the honey to your milk and tea, there's no change in it's taste.
6. Heat test
This test is also an effective method and all you'll need to do is take out some quantity of the honey and heat. If pure, the honey will caramelize and no foam will be formed. But when adulterated, the honey may not caramelize and may foam.
7. Paper test
All you'll need to do here, is to take out a paper or a napkin and place some drops of the honey into it just to test it's purity. If pure, the honey will remain solid and doesn't easily get absorbed by the paper. But if adulterated, it will easily get absorbed and wet the paper.
Content created and supplied by: Kingjoan (via Opera News )
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