Honey from several leading brands sold in Indian markets is adulterated with sugar syrup, a startling investigation by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has found based on adulteration tests carried out in Germany.
The CSE has claimed that nearly 77% of the samples from various brands of honey were found adulterated in the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) laboratory tests carried out globally. These brands include Dabur, Patanjali, Baidyanath, Zandu, Hitkari and Apis Himalaya, reported IANS.
The three out of 13 brands that passed all the tests were Saffola, Markfed Sohna and Nature’s Nectar (one out of two samples).
CSE Director General Sunita Narain said,
“It is a food fraud more nefarious and more sophisticated than what we found in our 2003 and 2006 investigations into soft drinks; more damaging to our health than perhaps anything that we have found till now - keeping in mind the fact that we are still fighting against a killer Covid-19 pandemic with our backs to the wall.”
"This overuse of sugar in our diet will make it worse," she added.
Another crucial finding here was that Indian standards for honey purity cannot detect this adulteration because Chinese companies have designed sugar syrups to bypass these standards, the CSE said.
How Do You Check the Purity of Honey at Home?
FIT reached out to celebrity nutritionist and author Kavita Devgan for some easy tips that can help you know if the honey at your home is pure and healthy.
- For starters, it is best to go for honey from a source you can trust, not just a brand.
- Put a little honey on your palm. If it is runny, there is a high likelihood that it is adulterated.
- Put a spoon of honey in water. If it dissolves, then it is impure. Pure honey will go down like a plop.
- Impure honey also becomes bubbly when heated in a pan. Pure honey will caramelize quickly.
- According to various reports, another effective method could be adding a few drops of honey in vinegar-water solution. If the mixture starts foaming, the honey may be adulterated.
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