Quality and Standards of Pollen and Beeswax

Bee gathered pollen is regarded as valuable special food and is used also in apitherapy. A production method, that ensures good pollen quality is described, as well as the main quality criteria, that can be included in a future standard. There are sensory, microbiological and physico-chemical quality criteria. Most important for the pollen quality is the water content. It is proposed, that the water content of bee pollen, sold on the market be less than 6 %. Such pollen remains stable after storage of 15 months, but only fresh pollen has an optimum biological activity. If the humidity of pollen is higher pollen can ferment upon storage. There are no official international pollen standards. The Swiss Food Manual has proposed a standard for the quality of pollen with composition quality criteria for the content of protein, lipid, carbohydrates, crude fibres, minerals and vitamins. The contamination by pesticides and heavy metals is also discussed. Apart from its use for foundations in beekeeping, beeswax is used in cosmetics, pharmacy, candle making, art and for many other purposes. The production methods, which are very important for a good quality of beeswax are described in view of obtaining maximum quality. Beeswax is an extremely complex material, containing many different substances. It consists mainly of esters of higher fatty acids and alcohols. The main quality issues are authenticity of origin and contamination. The composition of beeswax and its sensory characteristics, as well as the contamination sources for beeswax are discussed. The main contamination source is acaricides used in beekeeping.