CONCLUSIONS
The methods developed in this study have been successfully employed in the evaluation of lipid oxidation of bee pollen during storage at 4, 20 and 40C. Storage temperatures and time favored the formation of the primary and secondary oxidation of bee pollen products. The volatile compounds were found to be extremely related to the fatty acid composition of bee pollen lipids. The degradation of carotenoids can be modeled as the first-order kinetics over a wide temperature range from 4 to 40C. Consequently, the content of carotenoids was proposed as an appropriate parameter to assess the quality of bee pollen products and the effectiveness of various storage conditions.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was supported by grants from Ministry of Agriculture (China) through the project CARS-45-KXJ18.