Fresh honey separated from beehives is mostly viscous transparent or translucent colloidal liquid. When stored under normal conditions, some honey will gradually become turbid and then condense into white crystals, which is the natural crystallization of honey. Honey crystallization is a physical phenomenon, which generally does not affect its internal quality. To explain this crystallization phenomenon of honey, we must understand the related factors affecting crystallization and its principle process.

There are many factors that affect the crystallization of honey. The speed of crystallization is closely related to the number of glucose crystal nuclei, temperature, water content and honey flowers that directly form the chemical composition of honey. Under normal circumstances, the higher the glucose content in honey, the more crystallization nuclei and the faster the crystallization speed.

Relationship between crystallization speed and temperature of 1 honey

Honey is easy to crystallize at 13~ 14℃. If it is lower than this temperature, although the supersaturation of glucose is increased, the viscosity and density of fructose, maltose, dextrin and colloidal substances in honey are greatly increased at low temperature, thus reducing and hindering the movement and diffusion of crystallization nuclei and slow crystallization. If the temperature is higher than this, the viscosity of honey decreases, but the solubility of glucose increases, thus reducing the supersaturation of the solution, slowing down crystallization, and even melting crystallization.

2 moisture content and the speed of honey crystallization

Immature honey is slow to crystallize because of its high water content (generally above 26%) and low supersaturation, and some of it can't crystallize completely. Because of the low viscosity of honey, the crystallized glucose sinks to the bottom of the container, and other dilute sugar liquid floats on the upper layer, becoming a liquid-solid two-phase state, that is, a semi-crystalline state. The crystalline part of glucose in this crystalline honey only contains 9. 1% water, and the water content of other non-crystalline parts increases accordingly. Honey of the same flower species has low water content and fast crystallization, while high water content and slow crystallization. It doesn't even crystallize.

3 honey from different honey sources, the speed, degree and form of crystallization.

Generally, honey with high content of glucose, sucrose and melezitose is easy to crystallize, such as rape honey, cotton honey, sunflower honey, wild bazi honey, duck feet honey and some nectar honey. Honey containing fructose, maltose, dextrin and colloidal substances is not easy to crystallize, or even will never crystallize. Such as high-purity locust honey, jujube honey, dangshen honey, etc.

4. Morphology of honey crystals

The morphology of honey crystals can be divided into oily, fine and coarse grains. If the number and density of crystal nuclei are large, they will disperse rapidly and comprehensively in the process of crystal formation, forming grease; If there are fewer crystallization nuclei and crystallization is fast, fine crystals will be formed; If the number of crystal nuclei is small and crystallization is slow, each crystal nucleus has enough glucose molecules to make its components gather together, so that rough or blocky crystals can be formed. Although different varieties of honey crystals have different shapes, they will not affect their internal quality, but their physical properties are different.

5 crystal formation

The main factors causing and forming honey crystallization are glucose, sucrose and melezitose in honey, which are dissolved in honey in solid form. Honey is a supersaturated solution composed of various sugars. When the sugar proportion of these solid solutes exceeds a certain proportion of other liquid sugars and exceeds the solubility of water contained in honey, crystallization will occur rapidly under certain conditions (temperature). The crystallization of honey mainly depends on the ratio between glucose and fructose, which can also be said to be the percentage of glucose in reducing sugar. Generally speaking, when the glucose content is equal to the fructose content (1: 1), the crystallization is slow; When the ratio is 1: 1.2, crystallization generally does not occur; When the ratio is 1: 0.9, crystallization occurs quickly.

To sum up, the crystallization of honey is essentially a phenomenon and process in which glucose is separated from honey. From the perspective of molecular theory, the glucose molecules in honey originally move in disorder, but when the glucose in honey exceeds its solubility and becomes supersaturated solution, some glucose molecules start to move and arrange regularly in honey, forming tiny crystal nuclei and becoming crystallization centers, and more glucose molecules are arranged regularly around it, gradually forming larger crystals and separating from honey. This is the whole process of honey crystallization.