How to Test for 100% Pure Honey 2014 Postings

I grew up in a paradise forest island where millions of honey bees roving around some trees near our house. I can prove that when its a pure honey, ants don't hover around a bottle of honey. Another test I can suggest is drop a match stick into small amount of honey for a few mins. then light it. if the light comes out well its pure honey bee. Another is at a glance and taste and smell you can prove if its pure or not. PURE HONEY leaves a strong taste of nectar in your tongue. pure honey leaves.

There is one way to check your honey, though it is not a perfect test. Put a small amount of your honey in a little jar 1 ounce or so. the whole thing can be as well but, takes longer. Put the test honey into your refrigerator if in 2 days it has began to crystallize you have good honey. Pasteurizing and adding corn syrup helps theses honey products to stay shelf stable. Raw honey will crystallize quickly under 60 degrees. there is a problem however honey's like tupelo are resistant to crystallization and will take much longer. Best to minimize your risk is to find a local beekeeper and buy direct from them.

I am a biotechnologist and non pasturized honey can be checked by projecting yellow light bulb on one side of honey jar without sticker & with aid of magnifying glass observing tiny pollen grains indicate honey is from flowers and not sugar syrups.

Testing a honey needs one thing: A Clean Throat yes, your THROAT will have a burning effect akin to that of black pepper to some extent.

My husband is a bee keeper, not sure how to test for pure honey but i understand that water is an enemy to honey i've seen a jar of honey that got some water in it and it started furmenting. Honey comes in different colors from clear to dark like molasses. In early spring we pull off honey which is very light color and it comes from the black locust trees near our hives, then we pull honey in mid summer and it has a darker color from all different summer flowers. When we pull our honey it goes in a room still in the comb and we check the moisture content we want it to be at a certain moisture count between 16 and 17 % the high count like over 20 the honey is looser or thinner and may spoil the lower it is thicker and will last for ever. if the moisture is high we turn on dehumidifiers to pull the moisture out to the % we want. I've heard that like china they heat it to a point that takes out all the good stuff you want in your honey to destroy the origin from where it comes from cause of the way they store their honey they use different containers which could be led containers or plastics that are harmful to us. Thats why you should buy from your local beekeeper they are proud of their pure raw honey that they work so hard at to get and dont do anything to change that it is pure and raw.

I've always found that pure honey has a slight burn in my throat. And that's ALL honey no matter where the source. Fresh honey from a friend who keeps bees had a stronger burn, while some other local honeys that have been sitting a while are only mildly burning. I bought a couple brands that were known to be adulterated and I got no reaction at all. It could be that I have an allergy but so far it's been a fool-proof method for me!

On a plate put half cup of water then put 1 tbsp of honey then shake it then it will form as beehive so that is pure honey. I am a beekeeper here in the Phils.

I once heard that to test the purity of honey, you have to put a chunk of raw fish in the honey. The piece in real honey will shrunk but not smell, while the one in fake honey will turn black and smell rotten. But I never tried this so I can't say much about it.

Ruth, Thanks so much for the explanation of viscosity, water content, etc. I now believe that the home tests cannot accurately differentiate between pure and impure honey. I bought another brand of honey from a different apiary (a beekeeper who is well-trusted, listed with my state, and who teaches beekeeping classes, and this apiary's honey failed all of the home tests. So the home tests cannot authenticate pure honey. The best advice is to buy from a local beekeeper.

I was told that dogs hate pure honey. They may lick once but never again. Whereas, dogs may lick all impure honey (sugar mixed) & they love it!

Sherry, thickness or viscosity of honey does not indicate in anyway its authenticity or whether the honey has been heated or not. How thick or runny depends on the origin of flower nectar and weather. (Adulterated honey can be easily thickened with other additives.) As for honey clarity, most if not all honeys are strained to take away chunks and bits of wax, bee parts such as legs, wings, etc. The amount of beneficial pollen retained in the honey depends on how fine the filters used by the beekeepers. One way to find out more if the honey is raw, unheated or contains pollen is to check directly with the seller. Get to know your beekeeper. You may be interested to read this: Frequently Asked Information About Honey

I buy my honey at a local Fresh Market. It is from a honey farm in a nearby town. The honey is clear and fairly thick. The taste is nice. It is labeled pure raw honey. Should I assume that it has been strained but not heated?

According to me, the colour and stickiness is the thing which changes when something is added to honey. Pure honey is darkest in colour and stickiest.

CAT, The tests mentioned are not reliable enough. They seem to be based on an assumption that real or pure honey has a very low water content. But in reality different varietals of honey from different origins can have very different viscosity levels, that is a runny water can be 100% pure, and a thick, viscous honey can turn out to be adulterated. There exists no simple test form home to test the purity of honey.

I bought some raw, pure honey from a beekeeper in town, and this honey failed some tests. It immediately soaked through blotting paper & a paper towel, dissolved in water, didn't create a flame on the cotton wick that was covered in the honey. Yet the non-local honey I bought from my grocery store passed those tests. So I cannot understand why the raw, pure honey from a local beekeeper failed the above tests. Does this mean its adulterated?

Ants in UK love pure honey. I am a beekeeper and they queue up when I am putting it into jars.

I know a lot beekeepers but none of them know how to make artificial honey. Honey is nothing like diamond , it is cheaper and packaged money is about 5 times more expensive than beekeeper's price. So I don't understand why any company will use adulterated honey and will take risk of business. So I think , you can take honey from any branded company without any doubt.

I am an Ethiopian honey lover and honey business man. I would like to share experience regarding honey. Here in Ethiopia we have different kinds of organic honey. The difference is visible in color, taste, odor, thickness etc. I think it is because naturally I love honey very much, I can easily distinguish Ethiopian honey (by tasting) from which region it is.

Well, my method is that in the absence of a laboratory, I used a middle based test which can be carried out by freezing the honey in the REFRIGERATOR!!! My reason is that, if the honey was mixed with some other substances, it could be in the medium of a water-based liquid, to perhaps give it a proper mixture. And if that be the fact, the WATER WILL block (ice) in the container and cannot come out, BUT PURE HONEY WILL NEVER ICE, it will only be chilly cold and some what thick but will still move out well. The water content in the pure honey cannot ice, because it is produced from the bees.

And again I strongly feel that pure honey has an inflammatory & a minty substance! You will feel this substance when you put a tablespoonful or more in your mouth and leave it there for a while (about 5-10mins). This substance is what is staying the ANTS away and support the easy burning of a stick of match that is dipped into the honey and lighthed!!!

To identify pure honey, take a bun and dip into honey and keep it for a dog. If that dog eats that honey dipped bun then it's impure honey. If it doesn't eat it's pure.

You test by dropping it on the ground. For hours the ants will not pest on it. And if you light it, it will catch fire at once.

I purchase honey in 60 pound pails and keep it for a number of years before it ever is used up. I purchase directly from the bee keepers. In Central America, principally Honduras, we found almost all honey everywhere was corn syrup that was repackaged. It had a citric acidy flavor and no honey flavor that I could detect.

Locally, we dif. btwn pure and impure honey by touching it with finger and then touch a dust lightly. When the drop is covered by the dust, it's impure.

I'm working with a bee-keeper. All the mentioned methods are fruitless, I tried many different kinds of honey from many countries Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt,India, Bangladesh, Yemen, Malaysia, Syria. I have good advice for you. The only one way to know the pure honey only through the labs. When the lab test result refers pure honey then simply keep on buying from the same bee-keeper.

If you have athlete foot, apply what you think is honey to it. Pure honey almost heals it up within 6-8hours.

When pure honey is dropped on a pure white cloth, it does not spread and does get absorbed quickly. Whereas adulterated spreads faster and is absorbed faster.

I have been trying for more than 23 years to find a simple way to test honey's purity. But I couldn't. I don't even know any method (scientific) so far. I simply use to take from my own hive or get it from the village (they are trustworthy).

Another method to test honey is by burning it. If it burns without making a cracking sound, then it's pure, otherwise not.