I love dawa you know the ginger, lemon and honey concoction. It has always been a favorite beverage even before it was hyped by the onset of COVID-19 pandemic. It is my go-to drink both at home and when I eat out. A few months ago I was dining out and after having a meal, I ordered a dawa as it is customary. I like to add the honey myself so I requested for it to be served separately but what was brought to the table wasn’t honey. I could tell by the color and the consistency even before I tasted it and when I did, it was more like a highly flavored sweet. I summoned my waiter and conveyed my concern. She insisted on it being honey. The manager was called and he too insisted it was honey.

A few weeks later, I sent my husband to buy some honey from the supermarket.  The color of this particular ‘honey’ was very off and tasted like syrup. We returned it to the supermarket and politely told them what they were selling wasn’t honey. They didn’t argue and proceeded to refund us.

About ninety-five percent of honey’s dry matter is carbohydrates, mainly fructose and glucose. Honey also contains very small amounts of proteins, enzymes, vitamins, minerals and some trace elements. In addition, honey has shown to possess some anti-microbial, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties which has made honey popular as an ingredient for home-remedies in management symptoms for common conditions like colds and flu.

Farming of honey is labor intensive, and the product is relatively expensive with consistent high demand. This makes honey a prime target for adulteration. Use of honey has become even more popular with COVID-19 pandemic making its demand even higher. Adulteration is mainly done through diluting real honey with syrup derived from plants like high fructose corn syrup, rice syrup, sugar syrup and molasses. The sugars in these syrups can also be chemically modified to make them look like real honey. Such adulteration changes the chemical composition of the honey, resulting in reduction of its nutritive and medicinal value.

The major components of honey are simple carbohydrates just like in other sugars such as cane sugar concentrate. Unfortunately, due to this similarity, when cane sugar concentrates and other similar sugars are added to honey, it is not easy to detect.

If you walk through most supermarkets in Kenya today in the honey sections, you will notice the increase in honey brands with different colors. You actually do not need to taste to know most are off. In August 2019, the head of training at National Beekeeping Institute said that thirty percent of honey delivered for testing was substandard and adulterated. These samples were from people who wanted to know if the honey they consume or sell is of high quality. He said that more than fifty percent of honey sold to Kenyans is adulterated. It is possible that this rate is much higher now that demand is higher.

Due to the natural complexity of honey, it is not easy to authenticate the purity and quality of some honey. Also, since honey is mostly adulterated in a way that doesn’t always change the taste, many people can’t tell that they are using adulterated honey nor do they find fault in using it.

Adulterated honey has lower nutritional and health benefits. Some of the sugars added can affect your health negatively. Regular consumption of high fructose corn syrup for example can increase fat deposits and triglycerides. Studies have linked it with increased risk of obesity. Pure honey has anti-inflammatory properties, however the sugar syrups in adulterated honey can cause inflammation increasing risk of chronic conditions. Brown rice syrups has shown to contain considerably raised levels of arsenic , a natural compound that increases risk of many conditions if consumed regularly and in high amounts.

There are several easy ways used to check if honey is adulterated at domestic level. Some honey can pass this tests despite being adulterated. Pure honey is dense and should trickle down in to a stream if you pour it out on a spoon.  It should never separate into layers. If you pour some pure honey on a white cloth or a blotting paper, it should not leave a stain or be absorbed. If you put a spoonful of honey in glass of water and don’t stir, the honey should settle at the bottom and not dissolve. You can also identify some irregularities by just looking at the physical properties.

If you love honey like I do, make sure you are using good honey because your money maybe going down the drain and what you are using for your health may be doing the contrary..