Caracterización microbiológica de polen comercial. Reporte Preliminar

TABERA A; BASUALDO M.; ANDERSEN PUCHURI L ; LIBONATTI C; PASUCCI J

REDVET

Veterinaria.org

Lugar: Andalucía; Año: 2017 vol. 18 p. 1 - 5

1695-7504

Pollen production has been increasing in response to consumer demand,presenting itself as a diversification alternative for beekeeping. Although pollenconsumption is promoted due to nutritional and therapeutic properties, there isno standardized method in Argentina for quality pollen production. The aim ofthis work was to study the microbiological quality of commercial pollenconsidering the conservation and form of presentation. Moisture was determinedby oven drying, expressing the results in percentage. The microbiologicalmethods used were mold and yeast counts, total aerobes and total coliforms,Salmonella spp determination and sulfite reducing anaerobes. Moisture resultsranged from 12.9 to 22%. Samples marketed in bulk bag had a significantlyhigher moisture value when stored at room temperature than cooled (F = 6.54,P = 0.02), while fractionated pollen moisture was not significantly differentbetween the two conservation states. The results evidenced the highmicrobiological diversity found, mold and yeast levels were less than 102 UFC/gfor the 28% of the samples, while for total aerobes the values ranged between103 and 8.5 X 103 UFC/g. The 0.2% of the samples presented Escherichia coli,being detected in 22% of the samples presence of sulfite reducing anaerobes.The high humidity values make it clear that the methods, drying procedures andtemperature should be standardized. More studies are needed to evaluate thequality throughout the process from harvest to commercialization in order toestablish critical control points to avoid product deterioration.