Honey – fake or real?

It has so many health benefits but how can you be sure the honey you buy is the real deal?

IF IT looks like honey and that’s what it says on the label, can you trust that it’s the real thing? Unfortunately not. Honey is one of the most commonly faked food products in the world, along with olive oil, Parmesan cheese, coffee and saffron. There are two main reasons for this – it’s one of the most expensive forms of sugar around, and it’s incredibly easy to adulterate liquid honey and make a cheaper version simply by diluting the original product.

“Generally, honey can be adulterated by adding either cane sugar or high-fructose corn syrup,” says Mike Miles, chairperson of the South African Bee Industry Organisation. “Basically, the sugar is boiled until it resembles the liquidity and colour of honey, then it’s added to the actual honey to make it go further,” he adds.

According to Miles, the only truly accurate way to differentiate between real and fake honey is to have it tested in a lab with the C4 sugar test.

“Cane sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are composed of C4 sugars and the test can determine the percentage of C4 sugars in honey. The international standard for honey is that the C4 sugars shouldn’t be more than 7%.”

There’s some debate around the C4 test because some plants have high C4 sugar levels, says Miles, but generally the flora in South Africa is below the 7% international standard.

“If the test shows C4 sugars are at 30%, for example, it indicates that processed sugars have been added to the product and it’s adulterated,” he explains.

But the problem we have is the C4 test can currently only be done internationally – mainly in Germany and Italy – as there are no accredited laboratories in SA that are set up for it. There are plans to establish such facilities locally, Miles says, but this is still in the pipeline.

Honey is one of the most commonly faked food products

HOW ACCURATE ARE DIY TESTS? Let’s get real – even if you could, it’s not as if you’re going to have a sample of honey tested every time you buy a jar of the stuff. So if you can’t do that, and you can’t necessarily trust the label, what can you do to tell whether the honey you’re buying is fake?

A quick search on the internet brings

up a number of DIY tests you can do at home. There’s the flame test, which involves dipping a matchstick head into the honey and then striking it on the box. If it ignites immediately the honey is supposedly pure, but if it’s been tampered with then the stick might take a while to ignite.

The water test entails placing a drop of honey in a glass of water. The idea is that pure honey, being quite viscous, will settle at the bottom of the glass and won’t dissolve easily, while adulterated honey quickly dissolves into the water.

Then there’s the finger test. Put a small drop of honey on your finger and if it spreads out it’s not pure, because apparently pure honey will stay intact as a drop on your finger.

This is similar to the bread test, which maintains that when spread on a slice of bread, pure honey stays on the bread while fake honey soaks into it.

But Miles dismisses these as old wives’ tales, saying they’re not foolproof. “It’s almost impossible for a layperson to assess whether honey is pure or not, simply because it’s so easy to adulterate it.”

What you should do is look at the following three factors, he says – they’re more accurate, if not entirely accurate, ways of assessing whether the honey you buy is real.

“Firstly, how thick it is,” he says. “Secondly, whether it granulates or not. And thirdly, the taste.

“Having said that, natural raw honey can be more liquid and flow easily, depending on the source. And honey that’s been adulterated can also granulate.

“When it comes to taste, generally most people can taste when it’s syrup. But you have to be a true honey connoisseur to be able to tell with complete accuracy.”

The best way to ensure you’re getting the real deal? Buy honey from a local beekeeper or honey farm. RAW, PASTEURISED, ORGANIC – WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? Raw (also called pure) honey hasn’t been pasteurised and so still has all its natural properties, such as being antibacterial and promoting healthy digestion. It comes straight out of the beehive and is extracted from the honeycomb. Pasteurised honey has been heated and strained to kill bacteria in order to extend its shelf life, and as a result doesn’t have the benefits of raw honey. Organic honey must not contain pesticides. Only internationally certified beekeepers can claim their honey is organic, Miles says. There’s no apiary site in SA that’s been certified as organic, he adds.

“Bees can fly quite far to collect nectar and if there are crops or a fruit plantation, for example, within two or three kilometres and the bees fly there to collect the nectar and then return and put it in the honey, you can’t be sure there’s no pesticide in the honey.

“So there are international tests for organic sites,” Miles says.

Zambia is one of the countries that have certain areas declared as organic sites, and it’s made possible by vast tracts of forest with no crops in the vicinity

that bees can fly to. THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF HONEY It’s Nature’s sweetener, containing fructose, dextrose and sucrose, as well as some amino acids and antioxidants. Honey has antibacterial properties and as such helps fight infection. That’s why it promotes wound healing and is suggested as a home remedy for burns – it’s not to treat the burn itself but rather to help prevent infection.

It’s also been used as a home remedy for coughs. According to the US National Institution of Health, taking a 2,5ml dose of honey before sleeping is more effective at alleviating coughs induced by upper respiratory infections than certain cough suppressant medications.

It’s believed eating honey can help lessen allergy symptoms by acting like a vaccination against local allergens. Eating honey harvested near your home can help alleviate the runny nose and red, itchy, teary eyes associated with allergies.

Honey is said to rejuvenate skin and slow down the formation of wrinkles. You can include it in your skincare regimen as a face mask.

It’s believed eating honey can help to lessen allergy symptoms