How to tell if honey is real

Real honey. Color: transparent or translucent.

Smell: Special aromatic aroma.

Taste: Sweet and delicious, with a sticky mouthfeel.

Shape: viscous liquid, drawn viscous filament, continuous flow, low temperature (below 10 degrees) can crystallize.

Specific gravity: times that of water, 1000 ml is about kilograms.

Combustion: Burn thoroughly, with very little powder residue.

Exposure: Thinning after sunburn.

Chewing: Crystalline particles bite like crispy teeth, and melt when you contain them.

Fake honey. Color: cloudy, bright, light yellow or dark yellow.

Odor: No aromatic or pungent odor.

Palate: Light or sweet or salty or astringent, no aromatic flavor.

Shape: There are suspended solids or precipitation, the viscosity is small, it is easy to break the flow, and it falls in the form of droplets with a spoon.

Specific gravity: slightly heavier than water, about kilograms for 1000 ml.

Combustion: more ash, coke-like residue.

Exposure: No noticeable change or more viscous.

Chewing: Crystalline blocks chew like granulated sugar, with a crisp and loud sound.

According to Mr. Zhong Yiming of the Beijing Bee Products Research Institute, there are generally three ways to counterfeit honey: one is to use white sugar to add water and sulfuric acid to boil, and use acidolysis to decompose the disaccharide molecules of white sugar into monosaccharides counterfeit honey; the second is to use caramel and syrup to pass off honey; Third, food crops are processed into syrup (also called fructose syrup) to serve as honey. Counterfeiters also add chemicals such as thickeners, sweeteners, preservatives, flavors and colorings to fake honey, which not only harms the economic interests of consumers, but also harms consumers' health.

On the surface, real and fake honey are beautifully packaged; All are viscous liquids; All have a sweet taste, and it is difficult for consumers to judge their authenticity. So how can you tell if honey is real or fake? Mr. Li Zijian from the National Bee Product Quality Inspection Center introduced several simple identification methods to consumers.

1. Fake honey looks very clear and translucent because it is boiled with white sugar or passed off with syrup, while the ingredients in real honey are very complex, containing some proteins, biological enzymes, minerals, vitamins and pollen of nectar source plants, so it is not very clear. However, if the honey is mixed with starchy substances, it is chaotic and less transparent.

2. Fake honey has a faint smell of chemicals, which smells pungent or has a fruity sugar smell, while real honey has a pure and natural smell, rich honey taste, and a faint floral fragrance.

3. Fake honey has a single sweet taste, and some have a bitter and astringent taste or a strange taste of chemicals when carefully tasted, while real honey has a mellow taste, a long aftertaste, a slightly spicy throat feeling, and a long aftertaste, giving people an aromatic and sweet feeling, or a very slight light sour taste.

Fourth, because the cost of fake honey is much lower than that of real honey, and the sale of fake honey also captures the psychology of consumers to be cheap, so the ** of fake honey is generally very low. Therefore, there is a high probability that the cheaper product is fake honey.

5. Carefully check the label of the product, some products have sucrose, white sugar, fructose syrup, high fructose syrup, etc., and pure honey products are not allowed to add these substances.

In addition, some consumers see white crystals in honey and think that it is adulterated honey, which is actually a misunderstanding. Crystallization is also a characteristic of some honey products, which is the crystals of glucose contained in honey at a certain temperature, which is a normal physical phenomenon, and the honey itself has not deteriorated and does not affect consumption. Depending on the variety of honey, the amount and speed of crystallization are also different.

Fake honey is not crystallized, but the white sugar added to some fake honey will also precipitate under certain conditions and form a precipitate at the bottom of the bottle. The crystallization of real honey and the precipitation of fake honey are easy to distinguish, and the crystals of honey are softer and can be easily twisted when placed on the fingers. The white sugar precipitation precipitated by fake honey is relatively dense, and when it is twisted on the finger, it has a gritty feeling.

The expert also said that the method mentioned above can only be used for the identification of real and fake honey in general, but the means of honey counterfeiting are constantly improving, and some fake honey can only be identified with sophisticated instruments, therefore, if consumers want to really protect their interests, they should go to those reputable shopping malls and buy honey with good brand reputation.