Good quality honey is honey that is still pure and has not been modified or mixed with other substances, such as corn syrup or granulated sugar. Quality honey is also minimally processed to maintain its antioxidant, vitamin, and mineral content, and without affecting its taste and nutritional quality. So how can honey be considered to have good quality when compared to one another? Here are the characteristics of best quality pure honey that you should know as a honey fan.

Water Content

Assessing the quality of honey can be done by paying attention to the water content in honey. Good quality honey basically has a low water content because it tends to ferment and has been removed from its water content by bees until only less than 20% remains. Honey is hygroscopic, which means it easily absorbs moisture from the air somewhere. Thus, areas with high humidity will certainly find it difficult to produce honey with low water content. Good quality honey has a moisture content of less than 20% and above that amount the honey will lose its quality.

HMF (Hydroxymethylfurfural)

HMF value is a breakdown product of one of the main sugars in honey, namely fructose which is formed slowly during honey storage and also in the heating process. Therefore, the HMF value in honey can be used as a guide to find out how long honey has been stored and the heating carried out. It should be noted that high HMF levels may indicate an overheating process. HMF levels should not exceed 100 mg/kg although many honeys do in hot climates.

Added Sugar Level

High levels of HMF or values ​​greater than 100 mg/kg) can also be an indicator of adulteration of honey with added sugar. Sugar content that is too high will make the HMF value also higher and determine the quality of honey. In other words, if the HMF number of honey is higher, it is possible that the honey has been mixed with sugar or corn syrup.

Clarity

Good quality honey is usually free of dirt and pollen that makes it look cloudy. This is why we rarely find unfiltered honey because most consumers want honey that is clean and looks good visually. Honey that contains many other particles such as pollen, dust or other debris is considered to be of poor quality and low value.

Color

Honey has a distinctive color but actually honey can have different colors and are categorized in light, yellow, and dark colors. Even though they have different colors, this does not actually affect the quality of honey. Pure honey with any color is still good for consumption. You can see that although it is not an indicator of the quality of honey, honey with a darker color tends to contain higher levels of minerals so lots of people demand it.

Those are some of the characteristics and characteristics of quality honey that you may know based on the level of content and also its purity. It’s a good idea to buy honey from local farmers to get the best quality honey such as pure honey from Madurasa which is safe for consumption and of course, it is high quality honey.