Effects on Availability of Essential Amino Acids

All amino acids, peptides, and proteins can participate in the Maillard reaction. Reactivity of essential and nonessential amino acids is of importance in relation to, for example, intravenous (parenteral) feeding, but, in general, by far the greatest attention is paid to lysine, because it is not only an essential amino acid, which may be limiting in the diet, but also because its e-amino group remains reactive, even in peptides and proteins. 

The determination of nutritionally available lysine was dealt in Chapter 2. 

Although ascorbic acid and particularly dehydroascorbic acid can undergo Maillard-type reactions, the loss of vitamin C due to the Maillard reaction is rarely an issue. The involvement of ascorbic acid and related compounds in the Maillard reaction is considered in Chapter 11. 

---