The Maillard Reaction in Food Products Carbon Dioxide Production

Abstract

SUMMARY—The nonenzymic production of gas in food products stored under tropical conditions can, in many cases, be attributed to the reaction between free amino acids and reducing sugars. Carbon dioxide production in model systems has been studied and its relationship to brown pigment and conjugated unsaturated carbonyl compounds investigated.Over a wide range of pH the variations of sugar, amino acid and temperatures used showed that the type of sugar was the limiting factor in rate of carbon dioxide production rather than the amino acid. Rate increased from disaccharide to hexose to pentose and with rise in pH and temperature. However relative reactivity is a temperature dependent function for lactose and glucose because of the different activation energy involved.Carbon dioxide was formed mainly via the Strecker degradation but it has been demonstrated that another unidentified pathway is available for the formation of carbon dioxide from sugars in the presence of amino compounds.Evidence for the similarities in reaction pathways for the formation of the three end products—carbon dioxide, brown pigment and conjugated unsaturated carbonyl compounds‐is presented. The possibility of using the determination of carbonyl compounds as a sensitive indicator of future spoilage due to gas formation is suggested.