Some countries provide quite wide assortment of honey, while the other markets can offer only one or two sorts of this product. Whether you are going to buy local or imported honey on Nigerian market, you should how to identify original honey.
So where to get original honey in Nigeria? You can order it on Jiji with a few clicks. How to know original honey? There are several tests that will help you to define natural and good product without using specific equipment.
Honey fraud
There are sellers, who care only about profit. And although they risk to destroy the reputation of trustworthy supplier very fast, they have several ways to pass off fake product as the natural one. The most common frauds are:
- adding water to the substance;
- mixing in sugar syrup;
- selling 2-3-year-old honey, melted several times;
- mixing in the remains of bees’ cells.
Only high-quality honey on Jiji!
Natural honey characteristics
Visual
Natural honey is so dense that pouring from one jar to another will form a little hump, which takes time to dissolve. This property is explained by low water content. 1 kg of honey fits in 0.8-liter content. 1-liter jar of honey weights almost 1.5 kg.
The majority of sellers try to demonstrate that they offer the best product. You can expect that they suggest and show how to test original honey. Check the consistency with the help of a spoon or a stick. Hiney of proper quality threads, while the artificial just drops.
Touch and taste
The important part of original honey test is tasting the product you are offered. Good honey has musky taste and never slightly sour. The latter one is a mark of immature of decaying honey. Pay attention to this before a purchase.
You can also drop some honey on your skin and rub it in. Natural honey applies and absorbs easily. Otherwise, it simply congolates. Besides, good honey always has specific strong scent, mostly flower. The more syrup has been mixed in, the less intense aroma is.
Consistency
The more useful properties honey possesses, the faster it hardens. When choosing honey to buy, remember that it is liquid in summer, but candied and crystallized in two months. Original honey colour changes from gold-brown to pale-yellow or almost white.
Documents
Nowadays, many bee yard receive special certificates that prove their reputation and high level of provided services. Laboratory investigation quickly define whether honey contains the excess of water or other side substances. Ask a seller about documents. If he can provide them, he is not likely to sell bad honey.
Experiments
There is one more way how to know good honey. Instead of buying a big jar straight away, take a little one with you, buy some honey, and take it home for experiments. It will take more time, but you’ll be 99% sure you are buying good honey.
Buy natural honey on Jiji
How to know pure honey: tests
- Take a piece of bread. Soak it in honey for 10-15 minutes. If it becomes mashy, you have bought simple syrup. If you are dealing with natural honey, the bread will harden.
- Take a sheet of paper and put some honey on it. Natural product will remain without changes, while fake honey will leave wet edges or run.
- Heat the edge of a knife and stick into honey. Natural product will leave no traces, while the fake one will leave a layer of burnt sugar.
- Mix a teaspoon of honey in a ½ glass of warm water. Low-quality product will easily dissolve. If you pour in some alcohol, water will become muddy. The liquid with natural water will remain transparent.
- You can drop some iodine in the substance described above. If a seller have added starch, the water will become blue.
- Sprinkle a pinch of starch in a jar with honey. If you do this to natural honey, the powder will lie as a separate layer. If you have got fake product, it will react with starch somehow.
