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Agriculture
Special Issues
Bee Products and Nutritional Value
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Bee Products and Nutritional Value

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Product Quality and Safety".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 22 May 2025 | Viewed by 495

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Vincenzo Nava

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Guest Editor
Department of Biomedical, and Dental Sciences and of Morphological and Functional Imagines (BIOMORF), University of Messina, Viale Palatucci 13, 98168 Messina, Italy
Interests: food contamination; food safety; environmental contamination; risk assessment; toxic and potentially toxic elements; pesticides; plasticizers
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Giuseppa Di Bella

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Guest Editor
Department of Biomedical, Dental, Morphological and Functional Images Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
Interests: food contamination; food safety; plasticizers; bisphenols; environmental pollutants; toxic and potentially toxic elements; pesticides; risk assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Federica Litrenta

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Guest Editor
Department of Biomedical, and Dental Sciences and of Morphological and Functional Imagines (Biomorf), University of Messina, 13 G. Palatucci Street, 98168 Messina, Italy
Interests: food safety; bisphenol analogues; dairy products; food contamination; risk assessment

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to submit a paper for this Special Issue of Agriculture entitled "Bee Products and Nutritional Value".

Bee products have attracted considerable interest due to their rich nutritional content and diverse biological activities. Honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) can produce many by-products, including honey, bee pollen, propolis, bee bread, royal jelly and beeswax. Today, their use is limited, mainly as food supplements or health products. In addition, these natural products are valued for their medicinal benefits as they are excellent sources of bioactive compounds such as macro- (e.g., Ca, K and Mg) and micronutrients, vitamins (such as vitamins C and B) and various enzymes and amino acids, which synergistically provide these by-products with multiple biological activities such as antimicrobial, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. While bees are at the heart of the ecosystem, one in ten wild bee species is threatened with extinction. The number of bees is declining as they face many threats, including habitat loss, the use of agrochemicals, disease, pollution and parasites. Using veterinary medicines or pesticides on honeybees is associated with health risks, as the residues of these substances can be transferred to honey and honey-based products. The aim of this Special Issue is to collect excellent/innovative papers on the nutritional value and safety of bee products. All studies (review articles and original research) related to the identification/quantification not only of different nutrients but also of organic (i.e., plasticizers, bisphenols, pesticides, PAHs, PCBs, etc.) and inorganic (e.g., toxic and potentially toxic elements) contaminants will be considered. In addition, the risk assessment of consumer health after consumption of bee products characterized by the presence of these contaminants is also a topic of this Special Issue. It is hoped that this Special Issue will provide important information and data on the beneficial components of bee products and for the future prediction of contaminants to develop strategies to reduce these contaminants in honeybee products.

Dr. Vincenzo Nava
Prof. Dr. Giuseppa Di Bella
Dr. Federica Litrenta
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • bee products
  • microbiological and chemical contamination
  • health benefits
  • quality and safety

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

25 pages, 5079 KiB  
Article
Effect of Temperature of Two-Year Storage of Varietal Honeys on 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural Content, Diastase Number, and CIE Color Coordinates
by Monika Kędzierska-Matysek, Anna Teter, Tomasz Daszkiewicz, Barbara Topyła, Piotr Skałecki, Piotr Domaradzki and Mariusz Florek
Agriculture 2025, 15(6), 652; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture15060652 - 19 Mar 2025
Viewed by 383
Abstract
This study aimed to evaluate the effect of two-year storage of varietal honeys (buckwheat, linden, rapeseed, honeydew, and multifloral) at various temperatures (4 °C, −18 °C, −40 °C, and −80 °C) on the content of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF), diastase number (DN), and color assessed [...] Read more.
This study aimed to evaluate the effect of two-year storage of varietal honeys (buckwheat, linden, rapeseed, honeydew, and multifloral) at various temperatures (4 °C, −18 °C, −40 °C, and −80 °C) on the content of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF), diastase number (DN), and color assessed in the CIE L*a*b* system. The control samples were stored at room temperature (RT, ca. 20 °C). The results indicate that storing honey at low temperatures effectively mitigates undesirable quality changes, particularly enzymatic degradation and color alterations, while preventing excessive 5-HMF accumulation. After storage, a significant (p ˂ 0.01) decrease was noted in the diastase number (DN) of the honeys, regardless of the temperature (by ca. 66.7% at RT and by 53.1% to 58.3% at low temperatures, p > 0.05). Low storage temperatures led to higher enzymatic activity in buckwheat, linden, and honeydew honeys compared to rapeseed honeys. RT significantly (p ˂ 0.01) increased 5-HMF concentration by 79.3%, whereas the cold and frozen storage conditions increased 5-HMF concentration only by 25.1% at −18 °C and 33.2% at 4 °C. The greatest color changes manifested by significant (p ˂ 0.01) darkening, with a decrease in the h° value (p ˂ 0.01), and a lower contribution of the yellow color and a greater contribution of red color (p > 0.05) in the color profile were noted in the honeys stored at RT. Storage at this temperature resulted in a significantly (p ˂ 0.01) higher total color difference of the honeys (ΔE = 9.53) compared to the other temperatures tested (3.71 < ΔE < 5.58). The low storage temperatures may elicit a positive and comparable effect on preserving the satisfactory quality of the analyzed varietal honeys. It is noteworthy that this positive effect could already be achieved at a storage temperature of +4 °C without the need to apply frozen storage temperatures, which is essential given the economic and environmental concerns. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bee Products and Nutritional Value)
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