Production of bee bread extract and assesment of its potential as a natural food addditive

Increasing population and hunger, rapid depletion of resources threaten food security. For this reason, food products with a long shelf life are important for the accessibility of food. Increased consumer awareness has led the food industry to seek natural additives as alternatives to synthetic food additives used to increase shelf life. Bee bread is a good option to meet the need for natural additives with its composition and antioxidative and antimicrobial properties. In addition, because of its low sensory taste, bee bread is a beekeeping product that consumers do not prefer much. Extracting the bioactive components of bee bread with the most appropriate methods is important both to increase the shelf life of the food and to contribute to consumer health. Encapsulating and drying these ingredients preserves the bioactive ingredients at the highest level while providing ease of use as a food ingredient. In this study, bioactive components of bee bread were extracted by enzyme and ultrasound assisted and this technique was compared with conventional extraction in terms of efficiency. The extract obtained by ultrasound-assisted enzymatic extraction (total phenolic content (TPC); 7.47 ± 0.10 mg gallic acid equivalent (GA)/g, iron reducing power; 52.93 ± 2.31 μmol trolox equivalent (TE)/kg and EC50; 11.79 ± 2.31 mg/mL) provided extraction yields that were competitive with the conventional method (8.23 ± 0.75 mg GA/g, 60.45 ± 4.29 μmol TE/kg and 10.42 ± 1.532 mg/mL, respectively). Three different membranes with molecular weight cut-off numbers (MWCO) of 4 kDa, 3 kDa, and 2 kDa were used for the enrichment of the obtained extract by ultrafiltration. The 2 kDa MWCO membrane was selected for the enrichment of the extract due to its high bioactivity values, cleanability (99% recovery of hydraulic permeability), low fouling (14% reduction in hydraulic permeability), and shortest processing time (95 min for a Weight Reduction Factor (WRF) of 5). The extract (feed) and the enriched extract (retentant) were encapsulated with whey protein isolate and dried by spray drying technology. The physicochemical, phytochemical, and technological properties of the extract powder and the retentant powder were compared. Many properties of the powders, such as drying efficiency, microencapsulation efficiency, hygroscopicity, solubility, flowability, and adhesiveness, were found to be similar (p > 0,05). The effect of the obtained retentant powder on shelf life was determined using dairy cream, which was selected as a model food. It was determined that 0.01% AE addition could have a bactericidal effect on total mesophilic aerobic bacteria (TMAB), yeast and Enterobacteriaceae in dairy cream, but did not exhibit an antioxidant effect.The groups with the highest sensory evaluation throughout shelf life were the EDTA and 0.01% AE groups. As a result, it was determined that bee bread extract can support the microbial shelf life of some food products and has a potential use as a natural additive if processed with appropriate extraction, enrichment and encapsulation techniques.