Production and characterization of mead from the honey of Melipona scutellaris stingless bees

The Institute of Brewing & Distilling Mead is a traditional alcoholic beverage obtained by fermenting must and can offer a solution to honey over-production and a way of valorizing honey of lower quality. The purpose of this study was to produce and characterize mead with different levels of sugars and alcohol obtained from honey from Melipona scutellaris. The honey used for mead preparation was analysed in order to ensure that it met the required quality standards. It was found that the alcoholic content and volatile acidity were outwith the limits established by Brazilian law. Mead legislation is based on the product obtained from Apis mellifera (‘honey bee’) honey and these results indicate the need to re-evaluate the standards established for this product in order to incorporate mead produced from honey from stingless bees of the genus Melipona. Copyright © 2018 The Institute of Brewing & Distilling.We thank the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) for granting a scholarship of the Institutional Program of Scholarships of Doctorate Sandwich Abroad to Samira Maria Peixoto Cavalcante da Silva, financial support for the project and a scholarship granted to Leticia M. Estevinho. We also thank the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico) for a research scholarship granted to Carlos Alfredo Lopes de Carvalho. We thank the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, in particular to the Laboratory of Microbiology, for the development of the work. This work was supported by the strategic programme UID/BIA/04050/2013 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007569) funded by national funds through the FCT IP and by the ERDF through the COMPETE2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização.