Abstract
Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of hot air drying on quality characteristics, physicochemical properties, morphological structure and organoleptic characteristics of bee pollen, and compute the effective moisture diffusivity and activation energy during hot air drying of bee pollen. Bee pollen samples were dried at 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60 °C. Effective moisture diffusivity (Deff) values ranged from 1.38 × 10 −10 to 4.00 × 10−10 m2/s, and the activation energy (Ea) was found to be 42.96 kJ/mol. Protein, fat, total carbohydrates and vitamin C of bee pollen were affected by the drying temperature. Dried bee pollen samples had high solubility index, and had lower L* and b* values as compared with those of the fresh bee pollen. Total color difference (Δ E) was the lowest for the bee pollen dried at 40 °C. Morphological changes on dried bee pollen surfaces increased with increasing the drying temperature. Bee pollen dried at 40 °C took the highest sensory scores and retained its quality attributes better than the bee pollen samples dried at 45, 50, 55 and 60 °C. Hot air drying at 40 °C is recommended for the drying of bee pollen.
Highlights
Bee pollen is an important apicultural product containing carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, minerals and fibers (Dias et al, 2016)
The main difference of the current study from the existing a few reported studies about the bee pollens is that the current study focuses on investigation of the effect of hot air drying on bee pollen quality, physicochemical properties, morphological changes and sensory characteristics of bee pollen, and compute the effective moisture diffusivity and activation energy during hot air drying of bee pollen
The statistical analysis of ΔE values of the dried bee pollen samples indicated that ΔE was the lowest for the bee pollen dried at 40 °C while the highest ΔE was attained for the bee pollen dried at 60 °C in which higher drying temperatures led to larger ΔE values
Summary
Bee pollen is an important apicultural product containing carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, minerals and fibers (Dias et al, 2016). Bee pollen with high moisture content (20-30 g water/100 g product in wet basis or 25-42.9 g water/100 g dry solid in dry basis) is perishable after a short period of time from the harvest because it is highly susceptible to microbial attacks (De-Melo et al, 2016). The moisture content of the bee pollen is regarded to be between 6 and 10 g water/100 g product or between 6.4 and 11.1 g water/100 g dry solid to obtain a shelf stable product (Bogdanov, 2004; Campos et al, 2008). Sun drying is the most widely used traditional method for the drying of the bee pollen, but it has some disadvantages such as long drying times, high risk of microbial contamination, high susceptibility to insect infestation and contamination with foreign materials, requirement of large area for drying, high man power costs and almost no control of drying conditions. Hot air drying has been used in many industrial drying applications including dehydration of food and agricultural products
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
