Few Basic Knowledge You should have before buying honey.
What is Honey?
Honey is a naturally sweet liquid made by the honeybees. Honeybees visit flowers, sucks nectar and convert them into Honey by natural process. Color, consistency, aroma (smell) and taste vary according to the source of the flower. Honey has many microelements which are highly beneficial for the human body. Honey has a long history of human consumption. It is highly popular in the various ancient system of medicine like Ayurveda, Unani, Chinese medicines, Naturopathy etc.It has also a role in religion and symbolism.
Honey production :
Honeybees are present everywhere in the world, They are present in forest areas, agriculture areas and even urban areas where plants and trees are present. We can’t imagine a world without Honeybees. Honeybees are compulsory need of ‘‘plant world’’ for pollination. It is a nature’s process to transfer pollen grains from one flower to another, without which a plant or tree cant survive.
Human beings extract Honey by two processes 1) By directly breaking the beehives formed by the bees 2) By domesticating (Honeybees are given a ready-made home) and migrating them to different forest areas, and extracting honey without damaging hives.
India has highest varieties of plants and trees which cover around 24.1% of the total geographical area, which comes around 7,89,200 sq. Km. Total Honey production is around 70,000 tons per year out of which 25000 tons is exported. Major export is of Mustard Honey.
Honey adulteration in India :
The demand of Honey in India is more than the production, a lot of adulterated Honey is freely sold in the market even in the branded segment. The most common adulterant is Invert sugar syrup (which is getting produced at industrial scale with the intention to be sold in the name of Honey) others are ‘‘liquid glucose’’ and imported ‘‘High fructose corn syrup’’.The more recent one Rice syrup is
imported from China.
How is fake honey sold in India?
Fake and adulterated Honey is easily sold in India because people have less knowledge and many myths related to Honey and people rely on the conventional method of testing Honey. The fake Honey sold in the Indian market has the same physical nature as Honey, they are thick & shiny (because of the absence of pollen grains). They do not granulate even if refrigerated. Therefore people think it to be of good quality Honey. As the Natural Honey granulates but fake Honey does not. some times Natural Honey is rejected because of the lack of knowledge & myths. Therefore in India Fake Honey is sold by many small & Big brands very comfortably.
There are two types of Honey bees which are used in beekeeping Apis mellifera and
apis cerena indica both bees makes comb in dark places(Inside hollow trees, rocks or soil). Beekeeper gives them ready-made Home called bee-box where bees store Honey. The beekeeper will extract Honey from these combs hygienically and keep the combs back without disturbing the comb so that bees can fill it again. A beekeeper keeps on migrating to different forest areas to cover all flowering seasons year long to collect more Honey.
How to identify Honey adulteration? As the different areas of Honey will have different colour, taste and aroma it is almost impossible to identify Honey just by the taste. And also The conventional method of testing Honey judges only physical nature. Almost all adulterated Honey passes these conventional tests as they copy physical nature perfectly. The only reliable method to identify adulteration in Honey is a Laboratory test (chemical test).
Where can we get Honey tested?
CBRTI (Center for bees research and training institute ) Pune, is the centre for testing Honey in India. And also there are State food laboratories in every Indian state, run by the government and also there are many private labs.
Types of Honeybees in India :
There are 5 types of Honey bees present in India.
APIS DORSATA : (Rock bee, The largest of all )
They make big hives, The ones which we notice often on Rocks, Big buildings, big trees. A full-size hive may have around
10 to 20 kgs Honey. these can’t be domesticated as they form hives in open places.
This is smaller than Dorsata bee, It was brought from Italy for
domesticating in India. As it makes hives in close and dark places they are given a ready-made House called Bee-box, where bees collect Honey. These Bee-Boxes are migrated frequently from one forest to another to cover flowering seasons.
Honey is extracted hygienically from the boxes without disturbing the hives.
APIS CERENA INDICA: This is Indian native Bee, This is also domesticated but the capacity of collecting Honey is less than Mellifera bee.
APIS FLOREA: These are honeybees which form small hives on branches of the trees.
APIS TRIGONA: This is the smallest Honey bee which produces sour Honey.
Types of Honey:
Honey is classified in 3 ways.
1) According to the source of the flower: Honey extracted from the region where
50% area is covered by one type of flower is called as UNIFLORA HONEY otherwise
It is called as MULTIFLORA HONEY.
(Different type of UNIFLORA HONEY available in India: Eucalyptus Honey, Jamun Honey
Karanj Honey, Ajwain Honey, White clover Honey, sweet neem(kadipatta) Honey,
wild jujube(Sidr)Honey, acacia Honey, solai Honey, jhanti Honey, coriander Honey etc)
2) According to processing and Packing:
ULTRA FILTERED HONEY - Honey is subjected to high heat and finest filter, removing
all essential particles like bee pollens, Honey such filtered is suitable for supermarket
sale as it has less tendency to crystallize and appears more attractive. But its
the nutritional and medicinal value is compromised, It may be called as denatured Honey.
Many Big brands sell this type of Honey.
STRAINED HONEY (Bharat Honey)- Honey is subject to filter only to remove wax or big particles retaining its nutritional and medicinal properties. Such Honey is Ideal for medicinal use. Strained Honey is more likely to granulate as it is in its most natural form.
CRYSTALLIZED HONEY - Honey is sold in the granulated form which is good for the
table purpose can be applied easily on the bread etc.
Honey is deliberately crystallized to form more uniform crystals.
3) WILD BEE HONEY & APIARY HONEY (Beekeeping honey): Squeezed Honey - Honey
extracted by breaking the comb directly and squeezed in a cloth.
Apiary Honey - Comb frame is placed in the Honey extractors and rotated, Honey comes out due to centrifugal force. Combs will be placed back in bee-box.
Conclusion:
Honey became mysterious food nowadays. Consumer awareness is important so that they do not get mislead by myths.
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