How to verify the purity of honey
For every 100 percent pure unadulterated honey product on the market today, there are several fake, impure ones. Unfortunately, it is incredibly difficult to tell genuinely pure bee's honey from those that claim to be. Read on to learn a few simple ways to verify the purity of honey.
- Difficulty:
- Easy
Instructions
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1
Dip a cotton wick into the honey and let any excess drip off. Light a match or candle and hold the soaked end of the wick in the flame. If the cotton wick burns, this is a sign that the honey is pure. If it does not burn, this typically signifies that the honey contains water, which will prevent burning. If the honey contains just a small amount of water, it may still burn but you will hear a crackling sound.
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2
Stir a tablespoon of honey in a glass of water. If the honey is pure, it will not dissolve. Instead, it will simply sink to the bottom of the glass as a solid lump. If it is impure, it will dissolve into the water. A variation on this method involves stirring half a glass of honey into half a glass of methylated spirit. Pure honey will simply settle at the bottom without dissolving. Impure honey will dissolve, turning the methylated spirit milky.
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3
Pour some of the honey onto blotting paper. If it is pure, it will not be absorbed into the paper. Alternatively, if you don't have any blotting paper, pour a bit of honey on a piece of white cloth and then wash it. If the honey is pure, it will not leave a stain on the cloth.
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4
Pour the honey very slowly. If the honey is pure honey, it will spin in a clockwise direction as it flows out of the jar or bottle. This is caused by the non-symmetrical structure of the honey's molecules, which have a right-hand bias that makes the stream of honey spin clockwise.
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1
Tips & Warnings
Next time you go to shopping for honey, read the label before you buy it. The American food industry is required to list all the ingredients of their products on the food labels. Read the list of ingredients to check for any additives that the honey may contain. If the jar or bottle of honey does not have this ingredient list, you should select a different brand that does or use one of the methods above to test its purity.
