Quinoa bars with beehive products, taste and polyphenol content
What it found
Adding pollen and propolis to puffed quinoa bars raised their polyphenol levels but made them less popular with 115 tasters.
Sweetness was liked while bitterness and astringency were not.
What they found
Studies in people
Taste and acceptance
Bars with more pollen and propolis were less popular with the 115 consumers who tried them. People preferred sweeter bars and disliked bitter, pungent or strongly yellow ones.
Other findings
Polyphenols from beehive products
Adding pollen and propolis to the quinoa bars raised the amount of polyphenols. The most liked versions contained between 2.15 and 2.91 g per kg, which was higher than store-bought bars.
What the authors conclude
- They found that adding beehive ingredients to quinoa bars boosted polyphenol levels and functional properties.
- The authors note this change also made the bars less appealing to consumers.
How it was done
The researchers wanted to create a puffed quinoa bar using beehive ingredients that would be rich in phenolic compounds and still appeal to consumers.
They mixed honey, pollen and propolis into puffed quinoa bars using different recipes. They measured the polyphenol content of each version. Then 115 consumers tasted the bars and rated how much they liked them and which traits they noticed.
What it can’t tell you
- We summarised it from the abstract only.
- This work tested how much people liked the bars, not how the ingredients affect health over time.
- It cannot show whether eating these bars changes anything in the body.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- National University of Jujuy, Argentina
The paper
- Title
- Acceptability of beehive products as ingredients in quinoa bars
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Abstract only
- Cite
- Rios F, Lobo M, Samman N (2018). Acceptability of beehive products as ingredients in quinoa bars. Journal of the science of food and agriculture. doi:10.1002/jsfa.8452PubMed 28556278DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error