Editorial: Bioactivity and health benefits of bee products: emerging technologies and consumer insights

The scientific and regulatory interest in bioactive compounds and nutraceuticals has expanded markedly in recent decades, driven by aligned governmental, industrial, and consumer-focused public policies aimed at promoting health, preventing chronic diseases, and supporting healthier and more sustainable food systems. Within this context, bee products, such as honey, propolis, royal jelly, bee pollen and related products are chemically complex matrices, rich in phenolic compounds, bioactive peptides, enzymes, and micronutrients and they have been used by humans for centuries with significant potential in modern nutrition, health and food sciences (Pasupuleti et al., 2017;Durazzo et al., 2021).Advances in analytical chemistry, food processing technologies, and experimental biology have substantially expanded knowledge on the chemical, nutritional, rheological, and sensory characteristics of bee products. In parallel, emerging evidence supports their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and metabolic effects, reinforcing their potential role as dietary interventions or adjunctive strategies in disease prevention and treatment (El-Seedi et al., 2022). However, despite these advances, important challenges remain, particularly regarding variability in composition, lack of universally accepted quality standards, and the need for validated methods that meet regulatory expectations for health claim substantiation and consumer protection, as well as for translating preclinical findings into clinically meaningful outcomes (Luo et al., 2021).Beyond these scientific and regulatory considerations, the growing consumer interest in natural health-promoting ingredients and the increasing regulatory attention to nutraceuticals have reinforced the need to better characterize bee-derived products from a technological, safety, and efficacy standpoint. Bee products occupy a particularly dynamic interface between food and health, which amplifies both their commercial relevance and the need for standardized analytical, biological, and communication frameworks to ensure responsible innovation and consumer trust. This Research Topic was conceived to integrate chemistry, technology, bioactivity, and consumer science within a translational framework aligned with European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)-and Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-oriented perspectives. The eight articles published in this Topic collectively address innovative strategies for the extraction, processing, characterization, and biological validation of bee products, while also considering sustainability and consumer response.From a compositional and biodiversity perspective,