Comparación de la calidad microbiológica del polen apícola fresco y después de un proceso de secado

Abstract

Bee pollen is highly nutritious for humans, but is shown to contain high counts of bacteria, yeasts and fungi,
which constitutes a risk to human health. However, this product is only dried between 40 and 45 ºC before marketing it
for the natural consumption. In order to compare the microbiological quality of fresh bee pollen and after drying, microbiological
tests in 28 samples (400 g each) of fresh bee pollen and after drying at 42 ºC were performed, by Cuban Standars
– ISO 4833:2002, 7954:2002, 6888-1:2003, Standards ISO 7251:2005, 6579:1993, 7937:2004 and Cuban Norm Standards
38-02-14:1989. For indicators: microorganisms at 30 ºC, yeasts and fungi, it was obtained that all fresh and dried samples
had counts exceeding permissible limits, 104 CFU · g-1 for the first and 102 CFU · g-1 for the others. However, in dry pollen
it was detected a fewer quantity of samples per indicator with counts > 1.5 · 105 CFU · g-1. Total coliformes, fecal coliforms
and Escherichia coli were the only indicators that showed a diminution in the samples to the acceptance limits after dried
pollen; 17, 27 and 7 samples were not acceptable in the fresh pollen respectively, in the dry pollen were detected in only
7, 26 and 4 samples. It was confirmed in the same quantity the presence of pathogenic bacteria both in fresh and dried
samples, coagulase positive Staphylococcus and Salmonella Javiana. It was concluded that drying reduces the microbiota
of fresh bee pollen but it is not an effective method to obtain a product with acceptable microbiological quality.