Processing Technologies for Bee Products: An Overview of Recent Developments and Perspectives

Xuan Luo,Xueli Zhang,Yating Dong,Haile Ma,Chen Gu

doi:10.3389/fnut.2021.727181

Abstract

Increased demand for a more balanced, healthy, and safe diet has accelerated studies on natural bee products (including honey, bee bread, bee collected pollen royal jelly, propolis, beeswax, and bee venom) over the past decade. Advanced food processing techniques, such as ultrasonication and microwave and infrared (IR) irradiation, either has gained popularity as alternatives or combined with conventional processing techniques for diverse applications in apiculture products at laboratory or industrial scale. The processing techniques used for each bee products have comprehensively summarized in this review, including drying (traditional drying, infrared drying, microwave-assisted traditional drying or vacuum drying, and low temperature high velocity-assisted fluidized bed drying), storage, extraction, isolation, and identification; the assessment methods related to the quality control of bee products are also fully mentioned. The different processing techniques applied in bee products aim to provide more healthy active ingredients largely and effectively. Furthermore, improved the product quality with a shorter processing time and reduced operational cost are achieved using conventional or emerging processing techniques. This review will increase the positive ratings of the combined new processing techniques according to the needs of the bee products. The importance of the models for process optimization on a large scale is also emphasized in the future.

Highlights

Natural products and preparations for food and nutritional supplement or dietetic purposes have been used in folk medicine for several years [1]
The drying condition is more smoother than thin-layer IR drying that prevented color degradation, conserving product quality of the Bee collected pollen (BCP), and compared with the conventional fluidized bed drying the specific energy consumption was 52% lower [51]
All drying techniques led to a depletion of flavonoids in willow BCP; Whereas, FD and MWD did not affect the flavonoid content in the ivy pollen during storage, the amino acid-related quality of BCP was efficiently preserved up to 6 months

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Natural products and preparations for food and nutritional supplement or dietetic purposes have been used in folk medicine for several years [1]. The biologically active components of bee products include carbohydrates [9], proteins, peptides [10], lipids [11], vitamins [12, 13], minerals [14], polyphenols, flavonoids [15], terpenoids [16, 17], and a small amount of other compounds. Bee products can be divided into three categories: [1] bee collection and brewing products, such as propolis, honey and BCP, BB; [2] Bee secretions, such as RJ, beeswax, and BV; and [3] bee ecological bodies and hives, such as bee larvae, bee corpses, and old beehives [39] (Figure 1) Hive products and their apitherapy have a long history dates back to the ancient times, which have been used in phytotherapy and diet for their powerful healing properties [6]. Honeybee larvae could use as potent clinical medicines or functional food for tumor therapy [22] and an adjunctive therapy for the management of atopic dermatitis (AD) [108]

Summary

Findings

CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE