Food sub-products developed from Meliponiculture products: An integrative review

Stingless bee (SB) products have aroused interest due to the content of bioactive compounds and potential health benefits. In this work we carried out an integrative review to characterize the food sub-products developed from Meliponiculture products. For this, a systematic search was carried out for scientific works published in the last 10 years (2012 to 2022), in the Scielo, Google Scholar and CAPES Periodicals databases. Nineteen works were found and analyzed, including 5 undergraduate thesis, 3 scientific articles, 1 doctoral dissertation, 2 master thesis, 5 abstracts of scientific events, 1 patent and 2 book chapters. Among the food sub-products developed, we can mention yogurts, cereal bars, vinegars, kombucha, yeasts to produce mead, melomel and mead. The honey and pollen used in the preparation of food products came from the species: Melipona scutellaris, Melipona subnitida, Melipona seminigra, Melipona interrupta, Tetragonisca angustula, Tetragona clavipes, Nannotrigona testaceicornis, Scaptotrigona postica and Melipona fasciculata, all native bees from Brazil. Among the bioactive compounds and properties attributed to the food sub-products developed, the following stand out: antioxidant, antimicrobial, acetylcholinesterase enzyme inhibitory, probiotic activity, in addition to the presence of phenolic compounds, minerals and proteins. Despite the low number of publications found on this subject, it is concluded that food products developed from Meliponiculture products have the differential of containing bioactive compounds and properties potentially beneficial to the health of consumers. Such nutritional wealth arising from Meliponiculture products, therefore, opens the door to expanding the scientific and technological approach in the generation of new food products with added value.