—The amount of sugar (cane sugar) which is found in honey is in normal conditions not very large, but in exceptional cases the sugar content, that is, the sucrose content, may reach as high as 8 or 10 percent. At such times the honey has only a slightly left-handed polarization or may become right-handed. Whenever the content of sucrose in honey reaches as high as 8 percent there is ground for suspicion that the bees have been fed on sugar sirup, or that some other form of adulteration has been practiced.
Dextrose and Levulose.
—The two principal saccharine components of honey are the sugars known as dextrose and levulose, in other words, taken together, inverted sugar, that is, sugar made by the inversion of cane sugar or sucrose. In the nectar of flowers these two sugars exist almost in the proportion which would be expected if they had been formed from sucrose or ordinary sugar by a simple chemical process. Sometimes one of these sugars and sometimes the other may be in slight excess. The names of these two sugars indicate their active properties. Dextrose is a right-handed sugar, that is, it turns the plane of polarization to the right. In this respect it resembles sucrose or ordinary cane sugar, although it is not so strongly right-handed. Levulose, as the name implies, is a sugar which turns the plane of polarization to the left. The temperature of the solution has a very marked influence upon this active property,—the lower the temperature the greater the left-handed rotation. A honey which has a strong left-handed polarization, therefore, at ordinary temperature is one in which the levulose is present in full proportion or very slight excess. The other constituents of honey, namely, the pollen which is mechanically entangled therein, the dust or dirt which is mechanically attached thereto, the formic acid imparted thereto by the bee, and the other ingredients, are extremely minute in quantity and are not, as a rule, expressed as percentage constituents. In fact the most of them are merely accidental constituents.
Adulteration of Honey.
—Perhaps there is no common food product, with the possible exception of condimental substances such as pepper and spices, that has been subjected to such extensive and general adulterations as honey.
The high price of honey, its position as a luxury as well as a food product, and its attractive flavor and aroma have all combined to make it a favorite product for adulteration. In addition to this the invention in the last third of a century of an artificial product resembling honey very closely in its physical properties and being itself a saccharine body, namely glucose, has put into the hands of the adulterator an ideal substitute for the natural product. There is only one reason why the adulteration of honey with glucose has not been more extensive than it is, namely, the ease with which the chemist can detect it. The chemical properties of glucose are very distinct from those of honey itself. In spite of this fact, however, the adulteration of honey has been most extensively exploited and until the methods of detecting it were developed it was almost universally practiced. Glucose is a water-white saccharine semi-viscous mass made by the hydrolysis of starch with an acid and therefore forms the body upon which the adulterated article can be built. It has a low saccharine value and cannot be used alone but must necessarily be mingled with the honey. The amount of real honey used is, as a rule, a minimum to give the flavor and taste of the genuine article to the admixture. It is believed at the present time that this method of adulterating honey is very much less practiced than in former years and this is due, as has been said, to the ease with which it can be detected and also, it may be added, to the increased rigidity of national, state, and municipal inspection, rendering it difficult to place an adulterated article such as this upon the market without detection. Incalculable harm has been done to the honey trade of the country by the practice of this style of adulteration. Only liquid honey, that is separated or strained, can be easily adulterated with glucose. Often, however, an attempt has been made to still further deceive the customer by placing a portion of the genuine comb honey in a jar and then filling it with the adulterated mixture, giving the appearance of the genuine article to a certain extent to the whole.
Adulteration with Inverted Sugar.
—A much more subtle form of adulteration, and therefore one much more difficult to detect, is the adulteration of honey with a sirup made from inverted sugar, that is, the product obtained from cane sugar by the action of a dilute acid. This chemical process, as has already been indicated, converts the cane sugar into a mixture of dextrose and levulose. These sugars are identical, for chemical purposes, with the natural dextrose and levulose of honey. The chemist, therefore, has a much more difficult task to perform when he attempts to diagnose the presence of artificial dextrose and levulose in a mixture of the natural product. There are, however, certain qualities of ash, as well as other chemical constituents, which guide him in his work. While his conclusions do not have that definiteness which attaches to the examination of a honey adulterated with glucose they are sufficiently distinctive in most cases to determine whether or not a sophistication has been practiced.
Adulteration with Cane Sugar.
—A very simple form of adulteration and one which cannot be practiced to any extent without being easily detected is the admixture of a sirup of pure cane sugar to honey. As long as the quantity added is not sufficient to change the optical properties, so that the mixture becomes right-handed in its rotation, the admixture of a small quantity of cane sugar sirup might escape the detection of the chemist. Inasmuch, however, as cane sugar exists only in small quantities in honey the regular and persistent occurrence of much cane sugar in a honey would be a just cause for suspicion, although its occasional occurrence might be due to purely natural causes.