Desenvolvimento de bebida à base de pólen apícola: propriedades nutricionais, antioxidantes e avaliação sensorial

Abstract

Pollen is considered “bee gold” by many scholars, as it contains a high level of nutrients and bioactive compounds, as proven by several studies. In order for pollen to be available and consumed by the population, it is necessary to offer a viable and easy way to obtain it. In turn, the food industry launches products on the market to meet the demand for nutritious and healthy foods. The presence of phenolic compounds with antioxidant and antimicrobial action makes pollen a very attractive and promising food. Thus, pollen has the potential to be a natural complement to various food products, enriching them, such as beverages. Given the above, the objective of this study was to develop a pollen-based beverage with antioxidant properties and evaluate it sensorially. Dehydrated pollen was acquired from the Trairí region, in Ceará (geographic coordinates: latitude -3.2752406266834235; longitude -39.26842937913679), which was characterized according to its physicochemical and microbiological properties, pollen analysis, phenolic compounds, total flavonoids and antioxidant activity (ABTS and DPPH pathways). In order to design the product concept, focus groups and an online questionnaire were conducted. Preliminary tests were performed to define the formulation, as well as the other ingredients. An experimental design was used in which twelve formulations were developed, considering pollen and cocoa as independent variables and the results of soluble solids (ºBrix), viscosity and phenolic compounds as dependent variables. Of the twelve formulations, four were selected for the sensory analysis phase, considering the three factors mentioned (soluble solids, viscosity and phenolic compounds). The selected products were sensorially evaluated in relation to the acceptance and ideality of attributes, in addition to the overall preference. The acceptance of the overall impression, appearance, aroma, flavor, sweetness and texture (body) was evaluated, in addition to the purchase intention and the ideality of the attributes sweetness, bitterness and texture (body). The samples did not present statistical difference between each other (p>0.05) for all attributes in relation to acceptance and purchase intention. For the ideality aspect, the results demonstrated that the beverages would need to be optimized in relation to sweetness, as they presented a higher percentage of “lower intensity” of ideality, that is, they were less sweet than ideal. At this stage, a formulation, B8, was chosen to be compared with three samples optimized with another sweetener. To optimize the beverages, the BMA, BMA50 and BA formulations were prepared with another sweetener (partial or total replacement of honey), while the B8 formulation remained original (with honey only).. In the sensory analysis of the B8, BMA, BMA50 and BA formulations, color and bitterness were included for sensory acceptance analysis. To characterize the beverages, based on consumer perceptions, the descriptive CATA technique with intensity scale and the qualitative CATA technique were used. The focus group technique was used to collect descriptive terms, selecting 20 terms for the quantitative CATA and 15 terms describing emotions for the qualitative CATA. The optimized bee pollen beverages achieved better acceptability averages, with emphasis on the BA sample (made only with demerara sugar), with averages between “I liked it slightly” and “I liked it moderately”, demonstrating that it has consumption potential, with the availability of a “ready-to-drink” product, facilitating the consumption of bee pollen and confirming new alternatives of natural products with antioxidant properties.