Today I will first try to show the misconceptions about honey and then why the methods of finding pure honey are not correct.
1. All Bees Make Honey
First, there are about 20,000 species of bees in the world, which are divided into six genera. Only one of these 8 genera has the ability to produce bee honey. Only bees of the genus Apidae can produce honey from nectar.
2. If you heat up the honey and eat it, you’ll poison yourself
First of all, it's both right and wrong. If you constantly heat the honey and cook the honey at 40 degrees Celsius, a negative chemical change occurs. Heat destroys the beneficial properties of honey and buys processed honey, which is already heated to a certain temperature. Heat alone can enable honey to lose its anti-bacterial properties and reduce all the anti-oxidants and nutrients in honey. But there will be no poison.
However, if you want to heat a little heat can be a problem. You don't have to think that it's the end of the heat. Free advice: You can leave it in the sun for a while.
3. Honey does not rot in life and cannot rot in any way
Yes, that's right but not without care. If you take care of it and put it in the fridge again, there is no benefit. Usually raw honey does not rot but if you give it constant heat and leave it in the air then it will not happen.
Honey is hygroscopic, which means when it has very little water in its natural state, unless it is left empty. If honey is released into the air, it will slowly absorb water vapor. If the sweet, sticky substance is stored uncovered, it can absorb moisture and spoilage.
4. If it’s crystallised, it’s spoiled
Although this may seem quite unusual at first, the fact that the crystal is in the honey jar over time does not mean that it is spoiled. This reaction occurs only because raw honey contains relatively high levels of glucose, which is easier in sugar crystals than in fructose.
Considering raw honey contains tiny bits of pollen and propolis (which is mostly responsible for the nutritional value of raw honey), glucose prefers to latch into these particles, making raw honey naturally crystallized faster than more processed, high-fructose honey. If you want your honey to flow again after the crystals, you can always stir it with a spoon to break up the crystals or warm your honey lightly by placing it in a bath of warm water.
5. (Most important) "If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live". - Albert Einstein
Einstein's words are used in many places. The above statement is one of the most used. However, according to the quote investigator, there is no evidence that Einstein ever said this. Although it was published in a French journal 10 years after his death, there is no evidence that Einstein calculated his fate in the absence of the bee.
Bees are certainly important carriers, but they are not the only ones that help pollinate all crops. However, many flowers depend on bees for pollination, which is not possible with other animals. Bees are definitely special from this side. Those plants have a chance to become extinct. Something like 'many birds in one fell swoop' will happen. It will dramatically change people's food systems but will probably not lead to famine.
There are many crops in the world that do not require bees to propagate. The most important of these major crops, maize, wheat, rice, soybean - the lion's share of human calories still come from here. From a biomass perspective, about 90 percent of the world's 12 food crops are pollinated in the air. Most plants are pollinated by air. Such as: rice, wheat, maize, barley, buckwheat, oats, rice, gerberas, buckwheat, rye and potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava or manioc, bananas and coconuts. Another large portion of calories (and protein, etc.) comes from plants that can self-pollinate, such as soybeans. Lettuce, beans are self-pollinated.
Blueberries and cherries depend on the hive for up to 90 percent of their pollination. However the idea is that tomatoes, blueberries, cranberries and most members of the pea family are better pollinated by corn or bee stings than honey bees. Other animals, including butterflies, moths, hoverflies, birds, fruit bats, and Australian sugar gliders, are pollinators, but most flowering plants prefer bees.
Foods that act as bee carriers will become rarer and more expensive. Some important crops will be produced only for hobby. Without bees, the availability and diversity of fresh produce will be reduced and human nutrition will probably be harmed. People's eating habits will also change.
Honey does not contain sugar, no one in BCB thinks it is my belief, so I did not write about such facts.
Many people are looking for home remedies for pure honey and some of them are very beautiful. Most of which do not work. I wrote here in the hope of finding some common misconceptions in this presentation. Methods:
1. Test and concentration of thumb
According to the description: Take a little honey on the thumb. See if it spreads like any other liquid. If honey is not pure, it will spread like any other liquid. But the real honey will be stuck thick. Do not spread easily. Again, if you hold your thumb upside down with a little more amount of honey, it will not fall easily in the form of drops.
What do you mean by this description? Honey is very thick which causes the honey to stick to the hands. But in fact it is not like that at all.
The viscosity of the honey depends on the sweetness of the honey. Honey that has more water is less dense. Honey that has less water is much thicker. There are many differences between desert flower honey and Baor flower honey. The pure honey of the Sundarbans is very thin, and it will feel very thick even after mixing a lot of mustard flowers.
But this is a huge loss to the honey traders. Truth be told, many good honey producers are forced to process honey under the pressure of making pure honey. Processing means reducing the amount of water by heating the honey made by the bees. Sadly, doing so can result in the loss of a number of sweet nutrients.
2. Ant method:
Another great method. Ants like sweet things but do not like honey. There may be a scientific explanation for this, but we will not go that way. Put some honey on a piece of paper and leave it where the ants are. If ants are attracted to this paper, and surround it, then it must be understood that this honey is not real honey! And if the ants don't find it, you'll know it's real honey. Do ants really like honey?
The answer is: No, honey is very dear to them but it is also true that ants come less in honey. Ants are actually attracted by moisture. Pure honey has less than 20% moisture and is less attractive to ants. But if you put pure honey on the table, it will get enough moisture from the air. Even ants will attack towards honey. But it is true that the ants in the adulterated honey will attack from the purest.
3. Here are two more interesting methods:
i. Staining method on clothes:
Take a small amount of honey on a piece of white cloth and wash the cloth after a while. If there are any stains on the cloth after washing, there is adulteration in the honey. And if there are no stains, then the honey is pure. -_-
ii. Water test:
Take one teaspoon of honey in one glass of water. Adulterated honey will soon be mixed with water. But even if the real honey is mixed, some part of it will become thick and float in the water, i.e. it will spread in the water in the form of small lumps. Especially a small part will remain in the bottom. But poor quality honey will become air. However, in this method it is not easy to understand if you mix some adulteration with real honey.
Anyway, let's talk about the most interesting method
The name of this method is: fire test or paper burning.
Different tests but the reasons are the same. So I gave a description. The description of this method is very intriguing. Its description is as follows in most places
Maybe you haven't heard of this method before. Pure honey but a combustible substance. But be careful before lighting a fire in honey. Security must be met. However, the test is very simple. Dip a match stick in honey. Now hit the matchbox to ignite this stick. If it burns, you can be sure of honey. And if the honey is adulterated, the fire will not burn.
Now let's come to an interesting explanation: if you add a little wax to the honey, the honey will go straight under the water and will remain frozen. If you start a fire, the fire will burn. The funny thing is, if you mix this wax with sugar instead of honey, you will get the same result. We have tested the sugar veins in the office by making them thicker. When the sugar veins are thicker, they go straight to the bottom and do not dissolve. As a result, sugar syrup will also catch fire.
Not all sweet colors are the same, everyone knows. But the same sweet color can also be different. It depends on the amount of wax in the honey.
There is another issue. Think of your own home honey. The beehive has been cut in front of you. Now have to collect honey. It is a matter of them or their hands that they can adulterate honey even in your strict gaze. You can ask what is the benefit? His profit is money. That happened to me :)
Naming Credit: Shahidul Bhai. Sorry brother 6 is not being tagged