Honey (Shahad) is one of important and necessary food in our daily life. From new born baby to old one, every member needs it on some time or another. Used as health suppliment, to make better taste in food or as a medicine, it has number of uses. But market is flooded with fake / duplicate honey. You must learn how to check purity of honey at home before giving it to your near and dear ones.
But first, understand something about fake honey. Fake or duplicate honey is just liquid sugar i.e. sugar mixed with water and some color and fragrance. While pure honey is a gift from Honey bees.
In this article, we'll discuss 5 ways to check purity of honey at home.
Fire Test to check purity of Honey
Put some honey on cotton wicks. Then keep them above the flame of a candle. Pure honey will burn. While, impure honey will give cracked noise while burning as it has a high water content.
Bread Test to check purity of Honey
Spread it on a slice of bread. Natural honey will harden the bread in minutes. Adulterated and artificial honey will wet the bread because of the water content.
Water Test to check purity of Honey
Stir some honey into a glass of water. Pure honey won’t dissolve, but rather form a lump and sink down to the bottom of the glass. Impure honey will easily dissolve in the water.
Paper Test to check purity of Honey
Use a blotting paper, coffee filter or tissue paper. Put some honey on them. If it’s impure honey the honey will be absorbed by the paper, if it’s pure honey it will not. It means it doesn’t have any water added.
Starch Test to check purity of Honey
Dissolve one part honey in one part water and add 1 drop of standard iodine. If the color of the solution does not change (doesn’t turn blue), then starch syrup is not mixed up. It’s pure. It can also be done with ethanol. In an aqueous solution of honey (1:2) add 96% ethanol and stir. If the solution remains clear there is starch syrup added.
Fake honey properties
- Foams
- It has runny texture
- Has clumps
- Separates into layers
- Has a sour smell or doesn’t smell at all
Real honey properties
- It has a soft texture
- Doesn’t separate in layers
- Doesn’t make foam
- Trickles in a stream and is always thick
- Has the usual honey aroma