Browning reaction nutritional aspects

J. O Brien and P. A. Morrissey, Nutritional and toxicological aspects of the Maillard browning reaction in foods, Crit. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr., 1989, 28, 211-248. 

The present paper will discuss the physiological, toxicological and nutritional aspects of Maillard browning reaction of proteins in foods using many experimental data as illustration. 

Two aspects of the reaction are particularly interesting. First, the color or the brown product is a long chain of rather unsaturated nitrogen-containing products sometimes called mela-nines. Its composition is not constant, but is dependent upon the extent of the reaction, and the mix of reactant. It appears to be a moderately good chelating compound and thus may have some interesting characteristics from a nutritional standpoint. 

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