Enrichment of shortcrust pastry cookies with bee products: polyphenol profile, in vitro bioactive potential,...

Bee products, including bee pollen (BP) and bee bread (BB) are natural sources that contain a diverse range of bioactive compounds. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential of BP and BB to enhance the functional properties of shortcrust pastry cookies. The impact on BP and BB on the colour parameters, polyphenolic compounds content, heat-induced compounds content (acrylamide, furfural, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF)), antioxidant properties, and inhibitory effects against advanced glycation end products (AGEs) formation and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity was examine by enriching cookies with 3 and 10% of BP or BB. The incorporation of BP or BB resulted in a notable darkening of the cookies. The spectroscopic and chromatographic analyses revealed that the cookies enriched with bee products exhibited an elevated content of phenolic compounds. The antioxidant activity (AA) of the enriched cookies exhibited an average increase of 2- to 3-fold in the ABTS test and 2-fold in the DPPH test. All cookies exhibited inhibitory potential against AGEs formation, witch inhibitory rates ranging from 10.64 to 46.22% in the BSA-GLU model and 1.75-19.33% in BSA-MGO model. The cookies enriched with 10% BP were characterised by to the highest level of AChE activity inhibition (13.72%). The incorporation of BB and BP resulted in elevated concentration of acrylamide, furfural, and HMF. Our findings suggest that bee products may serve as a valuable addition to food ingredients, significantly enhancing the functional properties of shortcrust pastry cookies. However, further investigation is necessary to address the increased level of heat-induced compounds.