If you want to enjoy most of the benefits derived from honey. The purity of honey is what you should consider before buying. There are some simple tests and experiments that can be performed at home, to verify the purity of honey. Find out which tests you should try!
Before carrying out any of tests, one basic and extremely simple “how to check the purity of honey” method is to read the label on the jar of honey, prior to its purchase. Manufacturers are required to mention the additives and additional substances that have been added to the produced honey. So you can make out, if it is organic or extra sweet or artificial flavorings have been added, simply by scrutinizing the label. If you are buying honey straight from a beekeeper, then the honey is of a raw and unprocessed quality as you are purchasing it straight from the source. We recommend you to learn the difference between fake and pure honey before doing tests.
Conducting tests for purity of honey at home
Honey’s wonderful, delicious variety works against you when you’re trying to find a simple test. Different types of pure honey can cover a large range of density, flammability, and other characteristics. While the following tests are based on true principles, in practice your results may be inconclusive. Try several of these tests to see if the honey fails or passes consistently. In many cases, you can get nothing more than a good guess. Ever stop to think about what’s in a bottle of honey?
In order to check the purity of honey at home, here’s what to do:
Thumb Test
Here’s the procedure to do a thumb test:
- Put a small drop of the honey you have on your thumb
- Check to see if it spills or spreads around
- If it does, it is not pure
- Pure honey will stay intact on your thumb
The Water Test to Spot Fake Honey
Here’s how to do the water test:
- Fill a glass with water
- Add one tablespoon of honey into the glass
- Adulterated or artificial honey will dissolve in water and you will see it around the glass
- Pure honey on the other hand will settle right at the bottom of your glass
The Flame Test to Know Pure Honey
Did you know that organic honey is flammable? Here’s a test to know 100% pure organic honey.
- Take a dry matchstick
- Dip its tip right into the honey
- Strike the stick on the matchbox as if to light it
- If the honey is pure, the matchstick will light with ease
- The flame will also keep burning off the honey
- However, if it is with impurities, it will not light because fake honey contains moisture as one of the impurities
These are some of the simple and common ways to test pure honey at home. Another common method to tell the difference is as follows: add some water and 2-3 drops of vinegar essence into the honey and mix well. If the solution becomes foamy, that is definitely adulterated honey.
Drop honey on blotting paper or a paper towel
If honey has been diluted with water, it may be absorbed or leave a wet mark on an absorbent material such as blotting paper. Pure honey should not be absorbed, but unfortunately, neither will honey diluted with most sugar syrups.
There are also other ways to test for honey purity but they have raised debates. One major test that is controversial is the “ant test”. A group of individuals argues that ants are attracted to fake honey due to its sugar content but not attracted to pure honey due to a component that is a natural pest repellent. Not a lot of information exists to support this test and in addition, there is no known reason why the little creatures (ants) would favor processed sugar over real honey not forgetting the ants may not always be “available” at all places for a honey assessment. The reason why a sweet liquid is more attractive than another for the ants could also be due to other factors such as liquid density, flavors which vary depending on the floral types.
If you want to be sure that your honey is top quality, maybe you should consider buying organic honey.
