Quality Evaluation of Bee Products

Overview & Synopsis

Bee products, such as honey, bee pollen, bee bread, royal jelly, propolis, and bee-related insect foods, are widely consumed as natural/functional foods or supplements, owing to their nutritional/bioactive characteristics, which are beneficial to human health. However, the bee products currently on the market vary in quality, leading to serious concerns among consumers. Various factors influence the quality of bee products, such as the standardization of bee breeding and product production, environmental and climatic conditions, artificial blending, and the residues of hazardous substances. In order to improve the quality of bee products and promote the healthy development of the bee product industry, it is vital to strengthen the quality evaluation system of bee products based on their physicochemical and biological characteristics, such as the distribution of different nutrients, the residue detection of hazardous substances, the characterization of botanical or geographical markers, the identification of genomic characteristics, and the determination of biological/functional activities. We invited submissions to this topic on the “Quality Evaluation of Bee Products”.