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ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



115 



honey is the best illustration in the 

 detection of odulteration, one of the 

 test for the addition of invert sugar 

 is based on the presence of decom- 

 position products due to heat. These 

 decomposition products in Inverted 

 sugar are probably identical with the 

 decomposition products in overheated 

 honey; at any rate, honey which has 

 been heated to more than 180 degrees 

 Fahrenheit for any considerable time, 

 gives the test for invert sugar and 

 would, therefore, be declared to be 

 adulterated if this test were applied 

 by a chemist. A bee-keeper might 

 argue that he is not infringing on the 

 pure food law in overheating his honey, 

 since he added nothing in the way of 

 an adulterant. If, however, he changes 

 the chemical composition of his honey 

 by injudicious treatment, it is no long- 

 er pure honey, and he has no right to 

 sell it under that name. 



It is very much safer to liquify honey 

 at a temperature of about 140 degrees 

 Fahrenheit, and thus avoid any danger 

 of decomposition. If this lower tem- 

 perature is used, it is, of course, neces- 

 sary to keep the honey at this tempera- 

 ture for a considerable time; but the 

 safety of such a proceeding makes the 

 extra time well worth while. 



Two or three of the most widely cir- 

 culated American text books on bee- 

 keeping advocate the drawing ofE of 

 the liquid portion of granulated honey, 

 particularly in the case of honey which 

 was not thoroughly ripened before it 

 was extracted. The granulated por- 

 tion is then allowed to liquify and is 

 recommended as a very fine quality 

 of honey. This practice is in no way 

 permissible, as will readily be seen if 

 the composition of honey is studied. 

 Honey is made up of dextrose and 

 levulose in about equal quantities, su- 

 crose, a certain amount of ash, and 

 water. In granulation, the dextrose 

 crystallizes readily and the levulose 

 probably does not granulate at all. If, 

 then, the liquid portion, consisting 

 largely of levulose, sucrose and water, 

 is removed by draining or by pressure, 

 the resulting portion is not honey but 

 dextrose. However fine the flavor of 

 such a compound may be, it is not 

 honey, and cannot truthfully be sold 

 as such. 



Since honey separates into its com- 

 ponent parts in granulation, it is very 

 necessary that ALL the honey in the 

 receptacle be liquified and thorough- 

 ly mixed before any portion is removed 

 from it for bottling or canning. If, 



for example, honey is in a 60 pound 

 can, and is to be transferred to pound 

 bottles, it is necessary that the entire 

 60 pounds be liquefied and mixed be- 

 fore any is poured out into bottles, 

 in order that all the bottles may con- 

 tain honey according to the legal 

 standard. Unless this is done, some 

 of the bottles will contain a high per- 

 centage of dextrose and will granu- 

 late rapidly; while others will contain 

 a preponderance of levulose and will 

 not granulate for a long time. Un- 

 less this mixing is done thoroughly, 

 none of the bottles will contain abso- 

 lutely pure honey. In order to protect 

 himself, the bee-keeper must be very 

 careful on this point. Some bee-keep- 

 ers prefer to paur the honey cold into 

 the bottles and heat it afterward be- 

 fore sealing. As a matter of conven- 

 ience this has many points in its favor, 

 but in view of the separation into com- 

 ponent parts which may take place, it 

 is a bad practice. The honey should 

 first be heated and liquefied completely, 

 especially if honeys from several spe- 

 cies of fiowers are to be blended. 



As previously stated, there has ex- 

 isted, and possibly still exists, a pop- 

 ular idea that granulation indicates 

 adulteration by the addition of cane- 

 sugar. This is, of course, untrue, since 

 pure honeys do granulate solid. Many 

 bee-keepers in combating this idea 

 have stated that this very granulation 

 is a test of the purity of the honey. 

 This statement, so frequently made, is 

 equally untrue, since invert sugar — one 

 of the adulterants sometimes used — 

 will also crystallize solid as rapidly as 

 do most honey. Bee-keepers should 

 not make such statements to their cus- 

 tomers since it may reflect on the 

 purity of their goods if the truth is 

 found out. 



Age seems to affect honey greatly. 

 Repeated granulation and liquefaction 

 as the temperature varies year after 

 year in some way affects the chemical 

 composition of the honey, changing 

 the product so that it may not have 

 the composition that it had at first. 

 Some honey 35 years old, submitted 

 to this department, was found to con- 

 tain too much sucrose. A sample of 

 the same honey had previously been 

 analyzed by two official chemists and 

 declared to be adulterated; but the 

 history of the sample precluded this 

 possibility. The honey had apparent- 

 ly changed with age in appearance 

 as well as in composition. 



Some bee-keepers make a practice 



