Applications of the Maillard reaction in the food industry

This paper summarises some recent work concerned with the development of colour and flavour via the Maillard reaction in both aqueous and restricted moisture model systems. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and capillary electrophoresis (CE), both with diode array detection, are discussed for their ability to separate reaction products. The use of the diode array data to classify reaction products is presented. The coloured reaction products identified from aqueous sugar-amino acid systems are summarised, and their contribution to the colour of total model systems is considered. The effects of temperature/ time, pH and high pressure on the development of colour and flavour in Maillard model systems are presented. Colour measurement data and quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA) data are given for a starch-glucose-lysine model system extruded at different feed pH values. The use of a laboratory reaction cell to mimic most of the conditions encountered in the extruder is discussed. Its use to obtain information for the successful prediction of colour development in the extruder is presented.