🍯 Honey Quality Standards and Testing

About this simulation

This bench models the three core lab checks UK and EU honey regulations rely on: moisture content (measured with a refractometer), HMF (hydroxymethylfurfural, a marker of heat damage and age), and diastase activity (an enzyme that degrades with heat and time, so a low reading flags over-processed or overheated honey).

How it works

• Moisture — honey above roughly 20% water (23% for heather honey) is prone to osmotic yeast fermentation; watch bubbles appear in the jar as moisture rises.
• HMF — forms slowly from sugar breakdown, and the rate roughly doubles for every ~10°C of storage temperature (a simplified Arrhenius relationship). The honey darkens and the HMF test tube reddens as it climbs.
• Diastase number (DN) — this enzyme activity falls with the same heat and time exposure that raises HMF, so the two gauges move in opposite directions.
• Heat-treating (pasteurising) honey to stop crystallisation instantly raises HMF and knocks down diastase, exactly as shown when you flip the toggle.

Controls

• Moisture content — water percentage measured by refractometer (14–22%).
• Storage temperature — ambient/storage temperature the batch has been kept at.
• Storage time — months since extraction.
• Heat-treated toggle — simulates a pasteurisation step before storage.
• ↺ Reset — returns to a fresh, compliant batch. Drag to rotate, scroll to zoom.

Did you know?

UK/EU honey regulations cap HMF at 40mg/kg for most honey (80mg/kg for honey declared as blended from tropical-climate origin, or baker's honey) and set a minimum diastase number of 8 (or 3 if HMF is naturally low), alongside a maximum moisture content of 20% (23% for heather honey and heather-blend baker's honey).