Mixture of bee bread with honey: nutritional and microbiological characterization

Bee bread is a bee product prepared within honeycombs, through the fermentation of bee pollen collected and partially processed by bees. The nutritional composition of this product enhances its market value. It is rich in proteins, essential amino acids, simple sugars and fatty acids and is seen as a functional food. Despite these interesting properties, bee bread is not properly valued by beekeepers, partly due to the limited access to scientific information and to the difficult extraction process. In addition, its nutritional richness, together with the existing microbiota, can hinder the process of preservation of bee bread, particularly when handling practices are not adequate. This work aims to contribute to a greater valorization of bee bread, through its use in the design of a differentiated product. with increased stability, resulting from the mixture of bee bread with honey.Thanks to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020 and UIDP/00690/2020) and SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2021). Thanks also to the project GreenHealth, Norte-01-0145-FEDER-000042.