Counterfeit honey and how to recognize it

How to distinguish real from counterfeit and/or artificial honey? How can you be sure that the honey you bought is of excellent quality?

First, always buy from a retailer you know, preferably directly from the producer. This way, you essentially create your own guarantee that the honey is real, local, and of good quality.

Real honey is usually more expensive, which can at least alleviate some of the initial suspicion. However, that is no guarantee of quality. Natural honey is made from raw honey, adulterated honey contains natural honey but also other ingredients, and artificial honey is made from sugar syrup or corn syrup, additives, and colors.

Also, you will always receive some honey as a gift, from business partners, relatives, friends... So how do you recognize that this honey is not counterfeit?

Real honey is usually more expensive. However, there are three types of honey to distinguish: natural (pure), adulterated, and artificial. Natural honey consists of raw honey, adulterated honey contains natural honey but also other ingredients, and artificial honey consists of sugar syrup or corn syrup, additives, and colors.

First, read the label on your honey. Manufacturers should list all the ingredients it contains. If the honey is not pure, it should be listed on the label, including the percentage of real honey it contains, if any.

The second thing beekeepers do first is turn the jar of liquid honey “upside down”. This creates an air bubble that rises from the bottom. The speed of the rise, or slowness, is an indication of quality. The slower the air bubble rises, the greater the likelihood that the honey is real and ripe.

The organoleptic way is that if you put a spoonful of real honey in your mouth, you should feel the density and notice that you cannot swallow it as a liquid but must chew it in order to swallow it "bite by bite". Counterfeit honey "runs down the throat" much more easily - and does not have to be chewed as much.

Next, it is recommended to do a small test. Rub a little honey between your index finger and thumb until it crumbles. Some of the honey will be absorbed into the skin, if there is honey, because pure honey is good for the skin. Natural honey is not sticky. If what you rub is sticky, it means that there is sugar or artificial sweeteners in it.

Also, put a few drops on a piece of paper or paper towel. Pure honey will not penetrate the paper for a long time, as it does not contain water.

Mix a little honey with the egg yolk. If the honey is pure, when you beat the yolk, it will look like it's cooked.

Fill a glass with water and add 1 tablespoon of honey. Pure honey will clump and sink to the bottom, while fake honey will start to dissolve.

Spread honey on a slice of bread. Natural honey will harden the bread in a few minutes. Artificial honey will make the bread soggy due to its water content.

Real honey will give you a tingling sensation in your mouth just before you swallow it. Fake honey cannot achieve this.

Also check to see if the honey will crystallize over time. Counterfeit honey will remain smooth as syrup, no matter how long it is stored, while real honey will crystallize.

Here are some tips for checking the quality of honey, but we repeat - it is best to buy it directly from the producer.

By the way, if you buy honey in stores, it is important to know this. According to research, as much as ten percent of honey in Croatian stores is fake. In milder cases, it is honey that does not contain enough pollen grains of a certain plant and should not even be declared as honey obtained from that plant. However, there have been cases in which a small amount of real honey was mixed with sugar syrup or poor quality imported honey was sold as domestic. As much as a third of the tested samples were honeys with excess hydroxymethylfurfural, which should not be eaten straight from the jar, but should only be used as an ingredient in industrial production.