How to Test Purity of Honey At Home SIZ Talent Hunt

Hello! My dear SIZ members hope so you be enjoying your good health and Ramadan Kareem.
As everybody knows very well about the importance of Honey and use it in their daily life. But how to recognize either the honey you are going to purchase would be pure or not. So I am going to discuss some of the important things about honey and ways to test its purity. Lets start...
What is Honey?
A natural, sweat and viscous food product manufactured by tiny labors (honey bees) working together, sucking the nectar in their stomachs after having visit on several hundreds flowers. Allah Almighty has blessed honey bees with a unique quality of having two stomachs one for honey preparation and other one for normal functioning of the bee. Honey is a great wonder of nature, is credited to female working bees living in beehive along with Queen bee. There is no doubt about importance of honey as in Holly Quran Allah Almighty says
“ There cometh forth from their bellies a drink divers of hues, wherein is healing for mankind. Lo! herein is indeed a portent for people who reflect. (Qur'an 16:68-69)”
It means that Allah Almighty says people to eat honey because He keeps Shifah (healing) for people in it.

Image source: Pixabay
How Honey is made By bees?
After imbibing nectar(a transparent liquefied substance containing 80% water and 20% complex sugars) from flowers honey bees fill their stomach and honey making process begin there in stomach by the action of digestive enzymes (catalase, glucose oxidase, amylase and acid phosphorylase). Then in 20 minutes of regurgitation process bees spit the nectar into the mouth of other bees one after other, making their end product more nutritious due to exchanging of digestive enzymes with each other to take part. Finally bees start fluttering their wings to reduce moisture contents of honey from 80% to less than 20% making it safe range from microbial attack and then these tiny bees store the honey in honeycomb's cells covering with wax.

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Classification of Honey
i. Monofloral Honey
This type of Honey is produced by single type of flowers
Also known as Single Flower Honey or Single floral honey (Badi makhi ka shaid in Pakistan)
It is produced by civilized bees during flowering season.
It is less expensive than multifloral Honey

Image source:Pixabay
ii. Multifloral Honey
This type of Honey is prepared by several different types of flowers
Also known as Thousands Flowers honey or Wild flower honey(choti makhi ka shaid in Pakistan)
It is produced by wild type bees don’t stick themselves to only single type of plant rather bees used to wanders around on numerous flowers to collect the nectar.
It is expensive due nutritional diversity.

Image source:Pixabay
Simple Detection Method to Check purity of Honey
Honey is a prized gift from nature containing amino acid,cartenoids, enzymes,organic acids,minerals,vitamins and other therapeutic substancees. We can imagine the importance and limited availability of honey from this fact that it takes about eight bees their entire lifetime to make only one single teaspoonful of honey. So it’s limited availability has led culprits to adulteration for gaining more profit. Nowadays honey is being adulterated by glucose, dextrose, molasses, sugar syrups, invert sugar and also sometimes by starch and flour to cheat end-users as pure honey. The adulterated/fake honey causes various diseases in consumer instead of giving valuable health benefits like Pure honey. There are following simple ways to detect either your honey is pure or fake.

1. Heating
   • Pure Honey
   Pure honey does not produce foam and caramelize quickly upon heating in a container.
   • Fake Honey
   Adulterated honey tends to produces form and bubbles upon heating due to added sugar syrups and moisture.
2. Thumb Test
   • Pure Honey
   Put one drop of honey on the nail of your thumb. Pure honey will not spread and remain intact at one point.
   • Fake Honey
   After putting on the nail of thumb it will spread around owing to the presence of moisture contents in it.
   
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3. Fire Test.
   • Pure Honey
   Take a matchstick or piece of cotton.
   Dip well in pure honey.
   Pure honey will burn quite easily.
   • Fake Honey
   A matchstick or piece of cotton dipped well into pure honey will not ignite quite as pure honey.
   

Bread test
• Pure Honey
Its application on bread makes it harden after few minutes.
• Fake Honey
It moisturized the bread surface upon application owing to added additives such as High Fructose Corn syrup(HFCS).

Image source: Pixabay

Water test
• Pure Honey
Add a spoon of honey in a glass of water.
Pure honey will be settled at the bottom, remain intact as lumps and does not disintegrate as early as fake honey.
• Fake Honey
When added and mixed in water it will disintegrate and dissolve quickly.

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Iodine Test
• Pure Honey
Take a spoonful of honey into a plate and add some water and few drops of iodine if not available then pyodine solution can be used.
If there is no any change in color then honey is pure.
• Fake Honey
If after addition of iodine(if not available then pyodine) the color of turns blue to black then it has been adulterated by starch

Vinegar Test
• Pure Honey
Take equal amounts of honey and water in a glass or test tube.
Then add few drops of vinegar(grapes vinegar) in it.
If very thing layer of foam appear on the glass/tube surface it is pure honey.
• Fake Honey
If after addition of vinegar in honey a thick or larger layer of foam is formed on the glass/tube surface containing honey, then it is impure honey.

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Absorption test
• Pure Honey
It does not leave stains when poured on white piece of cloth or blotting paper.
• Fake Honey
Adulterated honey leaves stains when it is applied on white piece of cloth.

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Crystallization
• Pure Honey
Generally pure honey is tended to be crystallized which is a natural phenomenon depends upon type of flowers from which honey is made, period of mobility and ratio of glucose verses fructose. It is well known by everyone that Honey produced in Egyptian pyramids has remained safe for Human consumption for 3000 years due to crystallization.
• Fake Honey
Generally it is considered that crystallization is a sign of adulteration as honey becomes solid that is not true.
Impure honey will not crystallized owing to the presence of certain chemical sweater, corn syrup. However sometimes pure honey does not crystallized for several years as described earlier it depends upon type of flowers, and stirring.

Image source: Pixabay

Taste
• Pure Honey
It’s taste vanishes in a matter of minutes.
• Fake Honey
Taste buds keeps taste for longer period of time due to presence of sugar syrups and other artificial sweeteners in impure honey.
Advanced laboratories Methods
All the test mentioned above makes a general perception regarding Honey’s purity. For exporting purpose scientist has designed many advanced detection methods i.e Near Infrared Transflectance(NIR) Spectroscopy, Gas Chromatography (GC), High performance Anion Exchange chromatography with pulsed Amperometric Detection(HPAEC-PAD), Liquid Chromatography (LC), Fourier Transform Infared(FTIR) with Attenuated Total Reflectance(ATR) and Stable Carbon Isotope Ratio Analysis (ACIRA).
Conclusion
Honey is a wonder of nature that provide countless health benefits when taken in its pure form. Hence it is essential to ensure pure honey in your plate in order to enjoy it’s benefits because when adulterated honey is taken it causes sever health hazard especially for diabetic patients. So while purchasing honey always try some of the above given methods to ensure its purity status. Hope so all of the valuable SIZ members will give a read to my blog and will get a few amazing things and inspection criteria for honey inspection.