Quality Assessment of Bee Pollen: A Cross Sectional Survey in Bulgaria

Due to its nutrient content, a variety of spoilage microorganisms can grow in bee pollen, especially when handling practices are not appropriate. So, this survey was designed to assess the physicochemical and microbiological properties of bee pollen collected from Bulgaria.
In June 2014, 13 fresh and 19 dried bee pollen samples were collected from Bulgaria. Water activity (aw), pH, Total Titratable Acidity (TTA), and bacteriological and fungal counts were evaluated. Data were analyzed using Statistica ver. 10.
Mean aw value for fresh and dried bee pollen samples were 0.717 and 0.359, respectively showing significant (p0.01) among the fresh and dried pollen for Enterobacteriaceae, lactic acid bacteria, and Staphylococcus spp. counts. The fungal colony count in the fresh bee pollen samples varied from 560 to 37000 CFU/g which were significantly (p The fresh bee pollen analyzed in this survey had poor microbial quality compared to the dried bee pollen. There is also need to adopt appropriate manufacturing practices to prevent possible contamination by equipment or handling of Bulgarian bee pollen.