Most commonly people tend to buy cheaper products in order to save some money, but you should know that those products aren’t 100% organic. For instance, when you buy the cheapest honey In the store, it means that it is not pure at all. Sadly, there are many falce advertisings that make people think whatever honey they buy is a pure one.
You should know that a lot of honey products have been through numerous alternation and contain chemical substance to lower the price.
Food safety news conducted a study which showed that 76% of all honey available in the market have been subjected to a process called ultra-filtration. Beside eliminating impurities like wax traces, this filtration process is bad because it also removes the pollen in honey.
Manufacturers claim that this process is necessary in order to prevent crystallizing and extend the shelf life of the product. However, customers do not know that actually, pollen is very important and provide a lot of benefits to our bodies.
Researchers advice to avoid this kind of honey because this process makes it hard to determine the geographical origin of the honey, and in case of pollen contamination, it is very important to trace and analyze the origin of the honey.
For example, Chinese producers process honey with the filtration process and the honey gets contaminated with illegal antibiotics and even some metal, so its origin becomes unknown.
Here are some guide to avoid purchasing honey with lack pollen:
- Honey sold at KFC and McDonald doesn’t contain pollen.
- Honey Winnie the Pooh which you can purchase at Walmart does not have pollen.
- Avoid honey which are sold at Costco, Target and Sam’s Club because 77% of them do not have pollen.
- Never buy honey sold at Walgreen’s and CVS Pharmacy as they do not contain pollen.
Beside the honey that lacks of pollen, there are other types that have been combined with glucose and others that are high in low-quality mead. Honey that are not in its purest form is called adulterated honey.
Ways to Recognize Fake Honey:
- If the honey you buy does not crystalize over some time, it means that it’s not pure.
- Make sure to read the labels when you buy honey because if it contains high fructose corn syrup or commercial glucose, leave it.
- Prepare a mixture with a few drops of iodine and a glass of water and add some honey in it. If the color of your honey turns into blue, then it has been combined with corn starch.
- Add some honey into a mixture of few drops of vinegar and a glass of water. If you see some foam, means your honey has been adulterated with plaster.
- Burn your honey with a match or phosphorus and see if it ignites. Pure honey will ignites under this condition.
- Pure honey does not dissolve in water, so in order to check, just add a spoon of honey into a glass of water and if it dissolves, it means that it’s not pure.
Use the guideline above when you purchase honey in order to avoid buying adulterated honey. In order to get the benefits from the honey, you need to use pure one that still contains pollen.
