Is the honey you're buying really pure? How can you tell? Consumers should be able to trust the labels, but this doesn't mean we can, at least not 100 percent of the time. In this short video, Dr. Vidya Gita (MD) Ayurveda, shows you how to perform a simple test. All you need is a cotton bud, a little of your honey and a flame. This test can't give you specific details, but it can tell you whether you've been had or not.

My Notes

Consumers are always getting ripped off, oftentimes with products they least expect. Honey is one of those products that we need to be especially cautious with. Until recently, they only hope was that the product was exactly what it said it was on the label. In short, blind faith was the only hope of shoppers. Well, that was then and this is now.

Researchers have since developed of a simple test. It's a way to distinguish 100 percent natural honeys from adulterated or impure versions. It's a sad fact that impure or adulterated honeys are foisted off on consumers. It's a problem that's only getting worse over time too.

Honey gets most of its natural sweetness from:

• Monosaccharides fructose ( fruit sugar)
• Glucose

In its raw form, a lot of honey has about the same comparative sweetness as granulated sugar (every-day table sugar), but it's much healthier.

Why the Deception?

Honey's high price and limited supply has seen some beekeepers and food processors take on sneaky practices. They are fraudulently making and selling honey that is impure. It seems that they dope the products with inexpensive sweeteners to get more for less. A typical sweetener used is corn syrup. These are nothing less than illegal knock-offs. To the lay consumer, they can be indistinguishable from the real thing. This is why scientists need a better way to identify adulterated honey.

The Test – How it Works

Researchers now have a new, highly sensitive test to check honey. It uses a special type of chromatography that can separate and identify complex sugars. It does this based on their characteristic chemical fingerprints.

Scientists ran their tests using three different varieties of pure honey from one beekeeper. They then prepared adulterated samples of the honeys. They did this by simply adding just one percent of corn syrup to the product. They were then able to show how their new technique worked with total accuracy. They could easily distinguish the impure honeys from the pure ones. The test results showed the differences in the sugar content of the honeys.

You can read the full report below:

Sweet Deception: New Test Distinguishes Impure Honey From The Real Thing
American Chemical Society | May 16, 2009

Summary

Consumers need to be constantly vigilant on the honey they buy. Some of those jars of honey you see in the supermarkets might not be all that they appear. Perhaps some of the golden liquids are just syrup that tastes something like the real thing. There are some manufacturers that continue to find ways to sell their fake honeys around the world.