A Remarkable New Superfood

Fresh frozen pollen, specially packaged under controlled conditions
- Percie du Sert pollen is an utterly unique product.
Pollen is traditionally marketed in dried form.

The relationship between flowers and bees has evolved over millions of years. Pollen collected from flowers is the bee hive’s main source of protein. But did you know that this protein can be just as beneficial for the human race as it is for the bees in their colonies?

Bee keepers are able to remove some of the pollen from hives without harming the bees or disturbing their routine.

Percie du Sert bee pollen is derived in this way using pollen harvested only from wild flowers grown in areas far away from heavy crop spraying. The pollen is eventually packed with nitrogen in sealed containers and frozen. Unlike dried pollen which looses many of its properties during the drying process Percie du Sert is a living food keeping most of its original nutritional qualities.

Pollen may be frozen and defrosted without significant deterioration. This is due to its low water content and the fact that it does not harbour any pathological bacteria.

Infact, this process imitates nature itself! The pollen from Willow trees blossoming in mountainous regions in February often become frozen during the night and then defrost during the day. This is then collected by the bees with no shown signs of impairment.

Why take Bee Pollen as a supplement?

Pollen is one of the richest sources of protein available. It can help correct specific nutritional imbalances in the body.

Percie du Sert pollen comes in 4 main varieties. Each variety has a unique composition and contains different proportions of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and beneficial lacto-bacteria. As a result certain pollens are more suitable than others for the ailment of certain conditions.

What about the pollen

Does someone who generally suffers from an allergy to pollen, usually indicated by sneezing, run a risk of similar reactions when he or she consumes pollen ?

No, because the pollen that makes you sneeze is airborne pollen. Plants have two strategies for disseminating their pollen, or fertile cells. The type of pollen that gets blown around by the wind is not edible, and does indeed cause a lot of allergies. The type that a bee gathers is different -- it is spread by the plant in the form of food; this pollen won't cause any more allergies than bread, carrots, or turnips…


What are the symptoms of an allergy to edible pollen ?

Anyone who is allergic will experience a swelling sensation in the mouth when the pollen pellets sit on the tongue for a few minutes.


Can everybody safely consume pollen ?

Of course, with the possible exception of those with severe allergies. Anyone who has allergies to more than twenty substances or food products is advised to proceed cautiously when trying pollen. Further, pharmacologically speaking, pollen is usually not advised for anyone suffering from renal insufficiency or anyone on dialysis.


Traditionally, pollen is used at the change of seasons, is this really justified ?

No, in fact, when you look at pollen's composition of vitamins and trace elements, you see that a six-week treatment lets the body recharge its reserves and benefit from the residual effects of treatment for an additional two months. The ideal would therefore be to undergo three treatments per year. That said, the elderly, those suffering from illness or who are under a lot of stress, or those who are extremely active in sports and need additional antioxidants, can also take pollen continuously, without any problem. The regular supply of anti-free radicals and high doses of antioxidants will offer some comfort throughout the year.

What about Percie du sert’s fresh pollen

What is the process of preserving Percie du Sert pollen?

Fresh pollen's live lacto-fermenting agents are finally preserved and kept dormant by a unique procedure of preservation due to the freezing and nitrogen.

These powerful fermenting agents are produced by the bee in order to protect the pollen in the hive. The freezing process starts as soon as the pollen is collected in the hive, and then put under controlled atmosphere for transportation.

This process of preservation guaranties a high concentration of dormant lacto-fermenting agents, and thus protecting the essential elements of the fresh pollen.


What makes fresh pollen superior to dried pollen ?

Some of the germs found in our flora are not beneficial, and may even be pathological or detrimental to our health. For someone who is in good health, this flora normally remains in low concentrations in the intestines. But when someone is subject to fatigue or stress, or is taking antibiotics, this pathogenic flora can become dominant and sometimes even very noxious. The fermenting agents inside the pollen can suppress germs. Therefore, an in vitro experiment has demonstrated that in the presence of fresh pollen, even in very tiny quantities, it is impossible to cultivate proteus or salmonella, which are noxious germs for human beings, while dried pollen will not hamper their growth in anyway. In fact, fresh pollen possesses a specific mechanism, namely that the germs contained in pollen improve the intestinal flora.


What are the effects of pollen on our organism ?

The first consequence of note is an energising effect. We don't mean feeling drugged, but rather becoming energised. Consequently, someone in good health will not feel an overly strong effect, while someone who is tired out, depressed or suffering from immunity problems will really feel it. While it does not constitute scientific proof, the first thousand people to consume pollen from Percie du Sert have experienced, for example, very significant effects on their digestive system, with the pollen acting as an intestinal regulator; which leads one to believe that there would be an extremely powerful protective effect with regard to intestinal mucous.


What are the beneficial components of fresh pollen ?

Fresh pollen contains 5 to 8% lipids. These lipids are fatty acids, linoleic and linolenic acids, two essential fatty acids that supply vitamins and are thus of great interest. But these fatty acids are delicate… The presence of air in a jar of dried pollen will cause the lipids to oxidise, the fatty bodies to turn rancid, and the vitamin E and provitamin A that are found in large quantities in pollen to disappear. Freezing is thus essential for conserving these vitamins. As well, analyses conducted in the Percie du Sert laboratories have demonstrated the constant and significant presence of selenium, one of the most powerful antioxidants of the organism, that also acts in complement with other antioxidants found in vitamins A and E. In fact, it would seem that pollen is the food richest in selenium that we know of, regardless of floral origin. Pollen's high vitamin and trace element content make it an ideal food..


Freezing is often said not to be a good preservation process, so why choose it for Percie du Sert fresh pollen ?

In fact, freezing does cause cells to burst. In the case of a piece of fruit placed in a freezer, when you take it out, all that's left is jam and oozing juice. The cell membrane gets damaged, and you have oxidoreduction, which means that the level of vitamins, especially vitamin E, decreases with freezing. As well, since there is leakage of juice and no membrane protection, bacteria proliferate exponentially and very seriously when something is thawed. However, in the case of pollen, none of this occurs because there is only 8% water in the pollen cell, which is not enough to make the cell burst. So: no cell bursting, no juice oozing out, and no proliferation of bacteria, since the environment is occupied by lactic bacteria that can safely freeze and thaw, even several times, and still remain living when thawed. It has been verified in laboratories that levels of vitamin E and provitamin A do not drop. The experiments have even tried a dozen consecutive freezing and thawing cycles without any occurrence of degradation.


Why do you package under controlled conditions in addition to freezing ?

The controlled packaging is necessary. We use nitrogen, a neutral and absolutely harmless gas found in the air, since it prevents oxidation. Its essential role is to keep the pollen's lacto-fermenting agents dormant so that they can save their activity until they find their way to the consumer's mouth. Therefore, you need six to ten hours for the contents of a typical fresh pollen package to thaw and deteriorate, and turn toxic. With nitrogen, the product will eventually deteriorate, but not for twenty days.