Some Trials on Natural honey

The term "adulterated honey" refers to honey in which glucose, dextrose, molasses, corn syrup, sugar syrup, inverted sugar, flour, starch, or other similar products that do not flower nectar collected, processed, and stored in bee hives have been added. Laws and requirements for food products, including pure honey, and assessments of honey adulteration vary widely internationally, and some may not meet the needs of every global consumer.

For some, it can be almost impossible to distinguish bad honey from good honey when picking it up in the store, simply by looking at the honey content in the bottle or by analyzing food and nutrition labels. Everyone knows that the label "natural honey" in no way guarantees that the honey has not been diluted with water and additionally sweetened with corn syrup, but only promises that it contains real natural honey, without specifying its quantity.

The law does not currently require that labels of "pure honey" indicate how many tons of natural honey is contained in a bottle. some honey producers in supermarkets do not provide any lists of ingredients, and this is enough to make me suspicious about the exclusivity of the honey. In addition, the price is usually not a prominent indicator of the exclusivity of honey. In the case of food fraud, producers may also mix different honey blends and advertise them as more expensive honey, including Manuka honey. And what is called "local honey" is not ecological honey of domestic production and processing, but low-grade honey that is imported from different countries of the world, but bottled and sold locally

A common misconception is that granulated or crystallized honey is a sign of sugar water falsification. The fact is that natural honey is a rich sugar reaction and can granulate regardless of whether it is adulterated or not, so crystallization is common, especially in temperate regions. In addition, honey from some flower sources is mainly responsible for crystallization, so buying honey is one way to ensure yourself a premium product. However, in order to increase honey production, some irresponsible beekeepers feed sugar syrup to the bees so that the bees convert the syrup into "honey". The bees produce fake honey that is very clear and watery like syrup.

Some sites say that ants now don't like smooth honey and won't hover around it. I don't fully understand this and don't think there is any reason why ants choose processed sugar over honey. I also wonder how to invite ants to decide on honey (does "ant-free" mean natural honey?). The reason why sweet liquids are more attractive to ants than others may also be related to the density of the liquid, and we understand that the viscosity of natural honey varies depending on the type of flower. Every other test that is often mentioned on the Internet is the flame test, which involves dipping a cotton bulb into honey in the form of a flame. The honey will burn if it is far from pure. I try out this technique, usually using branded honey varieties, some of which I'm pretty sure are natural honey (such as honeycomb honey), but the results I get have proven to be erratic and seem to depend a lot on how well the honey has infiltrated and how long the honey is exposed to the flame.

There is another simple way I tried to test the purity of honey: watch the liquid honey flow into a glass of water. Natural honey does not dissolve in water instantly; it can be said that it takes some effort to dissolve the lumps, just as sugar tends to dissolve into dirt without any problems when it is dropped into water. However, the end result of the experiments is now sometimes not so obvious, because the different forms of honey have a certain viscosity, some thicker and denser than others, and the creamy form of tea honey, although adulterated with miles of other substances, does not dissolve as easily as liquid honey in water.

However, since there are too many varieties and blends of flowers, and not enough adulteration to affect the taste and aroma of honey, despite the fact that I consume honey frequently, I am still not 100% sure of my suspicions from time to time.

So, it is difficult to be absolutely sure about the authenticity of honey unless you can conduct scientific laboratory tests such as spectroscopy at home,