Evaluating the effect of honey bee pollen on bioactive compounds, antioxidant properties and shelf life of gluten-free cake

In this study, the effect of adding different amounts of honey bee pollen (0, 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15%) on quality characteristics, bioactive compounds and shelf life of corn starch-based gluten-free cakes was investigated. The results showed that the amount of phenolic and flavonoid compounds as well as antioxidant activity of the samples increased significantly (p < 0.05) with increasing the percentage of bee pollen. The phenolic compounds were increased from 2.79 to 11.83 mg GAE g-1, free radical scavenging power was increased from 17.8 to 25.8%, and flavonoid compounds were increased from 0.316 to 0.450 mg RUE g-1 in cakes enriched with highest percent of bee pollen incorporation. Cake crumb firmness was decreased in cakses stored at ambient temperature with increasing bee pollen percentage upon staorge time. The highest and lowest firmness values on day 14 were related to 15% and 3% treatments with 0.16 and 0.20 N, respectively. However, storage inside refrigerator caused the cake samples to harden with increasing pollen percentage upon storage time, and the highest firmness value of 0.23 N was obtained on day 14 for 15% sample. Increasing the amount of bee pollen to 15% decreased the brightness index (L) from 61.6 to 50.0, the redness index (a) from -7.00 to -2.33, and the yellowness index (b) from 39 to 48. Incorporating bee pollen significantly increased the shelf life of samples in the case of resistance to mold apperance. The control and 15% cake samples had the lowest and highest resistance to mold growth, respectively.