Bee pollen is an agglomerate of pollen grains from various botanical sources, which are collected by the bees and mixed with nectar and secretion from the hypopharyngeal glands such as β-glycosidase enzymes. Bee pollen has a complex chemical composition constituted of carbohydrates, proteins, aminoacids, vitamins and minerals, and is considered a good nutritional source, beneficial to health, particularly because of the presence of phenolic compounds with antioxidant activity. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the nutritional composition and antioxidant activity of the bee pollen produced in the Southern region of Brazil. The content of humidity, water activity, protein, total sugars, reducing sugars, crude fiber, lipids and minerals, as well as the content of total phenolic compounds, flavonoids, and antioxidant activity by the DPPH free radical scavenging method (2,2 diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl) were determined. The mean contents of humidity, protein and reducing sugars were 4.19, 20.47 and 48%, respectively, and the predominant minerals were phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium. The contents of phenolic compounds and total flavonoids were 30.46 ± 8.22 mg of GAE.g-1 pollen and 8.92 ± 5.5 mg of quercetin.g-1 pollen, respectively. High scavenging activities were found for the free radical DPPH, with EC 50 (minimum concentration required for the antioxidant to reduce the initial concentration of the DPPH by 50%) values that ranged from 810 to 4690 µg.mL-1. The bee pollen of Santa Catarina showed high antioxidant activity probably due to the high content of phenolic compounds present in pollen.