Honey is a superfood famed for myriad health benefits due to its high quantity of minerals and nutrients. It can also be an excellent alternative to refined sugar. However, the honey must be high quality to get the most of these benefits. 

It can be hard to find excellent and quality honey. Like other food commodities, adulteration is quite common. Commercial honey can be mixed with other ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup and glucose solution. The best quality honey is raw honey, straight from the beehive. 

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Benefits of Honey

• Combating free radicals in your body, which are one of the critical causes of some chronic diseases
• Soothing a sore throat and reducing coughing
• Helps to improve heart health
• Useful in weight management
• It prevents and helps to control eczema 
• A natural energy drink
• Helps in healing wounds
• It improves your gut health which helps to combat digestive issues
• Boosting your body’s immunity thanks to the numerous phytonutrients present in it. 
• Improves your skin and hair health

Does honey expire?

Honey is the only human food that can stand the test of time. A container with honey can go up to 3000 years without rotting or decomposing. However, adulterations significantly reduce its shelf life and its nutritional value. 

How to Check the Purity of Honey Before Buying

A significant amount of work goes before purchasing honey in your food stores or other retail markets. While you cannot be able to perform any tests at this point, there are some things that you can check to increase the probability of getting pure honey. Here are some of the simple ways you can use to check. 

Checking the Package

Check the package of the product. If the list of ingredients indicates ”contains additives,” there is a high chance of adulteration. 

Price

Although it may not be a good indicator, adulterated honey is cheap and readily available. 

Tilting

Turn the container upside down. By checking on how the honey drips, you may determine whether it is pure or impure. Since pure honey is thick, it will follow a sequence to drain from the bottom of the container to join the rest of the product. 

Color

Checking the color can give you a hint of whether the honey is pure or impure. The color of pure honey ranges from light to dark brown. Another color other than brown may be due to additives and food colors. 

How to Check the Purity of Honey After Buying

Thumb Test

Pure honey is sticky, while adulterated honey is runny. When applied on a surface, pure honey does not drip away. To test whether your honey is pure, put a little amount on your thumb; if it spreads over like other liquids, there is a high chance of adulteration. 

Water Test

Take a teaspoon of your honey and add it to a glass full of water. Impure honey will dissolve in water and form a homogeneous solution, while pure honey will settle right at the bottom of a glass with water like lumps since it has a more dense texture. This is one of the best tests of honey purity and does not require any equipment or chemicals. 

Flame Test

Take a dry match stick and dip it in your honey sample. Then strike the match stick against the matchbox to see if it lights. Pure honey is highly flammable and you should be careful while lighting. If the match sticks lights, know that your honey is pure. If it does not light your honey is adulterated and may contain added moisture. 

Alternatively, you can take a cotton bud, dip it in your honey sample and light it. If it catches fire, it shows your sample is pure. 

Vinegar Test

To perform this test, add a few drops of honey into a solution of vinegar and water. The mixture will start to foam if your honey is adulterated. Pure honey is rarely affected by vinegar. This is an easy way to differentiate the pure and impure honey. 

Heat Test

Pure honey caramelizes rapidly and forms a thick paste when heated and doesn’t become foamy. If your honey doesn’t caramelize and becomes bubbly after heating, it may not be pure honey.  

Paper Test

Take a blotting paper and put some honey drops on it. If the honey is pure it should not get absorbed through the paper. If it gets absorbed and wets the blotting paper, know your honey is not pure. 

Bread Test

Take your honey sample and spread it on a slice of bread. Pure honey will become crunchy( hardens) on top of the bread slice within a few minutes while adulterated honey will make the bread soggy due to the added additives and moisture. 

Crystallization Test

Pure honey tends to crystallize over time due to the presence of glucose oxidase. Adulterated honey does not crystalize or become thick when stored. 

Egg Yolk Test

When pure honey is mixed with yolk and the mixture is blended together, the yolk looks like it has been cooked. For impure honey, it appears raw. Alternatively, you can add the egg yoke in honey without blending. 

Other ways to Test Purity of Honey

Taste

When you taste pure honey, the taste vanishes within minutes in your mouth. On the other hand, adulterated honey remains longer in your mouth due to the presence of added sugars.

Fermenting 

Pure honey does not expire. If you notice that your jar of honey has started to smell or produce a popping sound when opened, then it might be impure. 

Smell or Aroma

If you are experienced, you can differentiate between pure and impure honey by the aroma. 

How to Increase Chances of Buying Pure honey

• Buying from a local beekeeper or farmer’s market
• Buying honey in combs; since they are taken directly from the beehives, the honey is most likely to be pure. However, some beekeepers feed their colonies with artificial sugar or syrup. 
• Buying granulated honey; it is likely to be pure since fake honey containing additives of artificial sugars may not crystallize. 

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FAQs

What is pure honey?

Pure honey is 100% free of added ingredients such as sweeteners, flavors, or oils. In most cases, natural and organic honey is referred to as pure.

What is adulterated honey?

It contains other additives on top of floral nectar. These may include molasses, sugar syrup, corn syrup, glucose, starch etc.

Should you refrigerate honey?

Putting honey in a fridge will only increase the process of crystallization. You just need to store it in a cool environment in a tightly sealed container away from direct sunlight. 

What is the best time to consume honey?

You can take honey at any time of the day. In the morning it gives you an ideal energy boost for the day, while at night it helps you have a good night sleep and helps relax your body and mind.