Maillard reaction nutritional effects

To study the effect of the Maillard reaction on nutritive value of protein, Patton, et a l. (57) heated purified casein and soybean globulin in 57. glucose solution for 24 hrs at 96.5°C, and found significant losses of lysine, arginine, tryptophan, and histidine (52). 

While Maillard reactions may represent only a portion of the interactions responsible for alterations in nutritive value of plant materials, the recognition that such reaction may occur at temperatures that can be considered as physiological in plants raises a considerably wider spectrum of possibilities for alterations in nutritive value of feed- and foodstuffs than has generally been assumed. As pressure for increased production efficiency of animals and increased use of nonconventional nutrient sources increases, the effects of processing upon nutritive value of these materials will be studied in greater detail. 

Nutritional Effects Due to the Blockage of Lysine. The most important Maillard reaction in food proteins occurs with the c-amino group of lysine. Since lysine is an essential amino acid, nutritional consequences can be expected. These depend on the chemical structure of the lysine derivatives formed. 

This leads to a decrease in the biological value of the protein. Milk is a good model to study the nutritional effects of the Maillard reaction because of its high levels of lysine and lactose. In processed milks, unavailable lysine is present only as e-deoxylactulosyllysine (9,24) its level which depends on the type of treatment can be measured by the furosine method (24,31). 

As is the case with some chemical changes occurring in biological systems, such as the blood-clotting cascade system, deteriorative reactions considered to have a beneficial effect are found in foods. For example, the Maillard reaction (lJ7,lj3) is used to produce flavors and colors in such foods as beverages and baked goods. Heat treatment (involving denaturation) has been found to increase the nutritional value of raw soybean meal by... 

In addition to the nutritional and physiological effects of Maillard browned protein as described in the previous section, it has been shown that the reduced nutritional value of the brown products does not seem to be limited to the loss of amino acids, since supplementation of the diet with those amino acids could not completely restore its biological value (15). This suggests the possible formation of some inhibitory or anti-nutritional compounds during the Maillard reaction, the presence of which cannot be detected with short-term nutritional feeding assays. Moreover, the short-term feeding effects reported in the literature (30) seem to be due in part to nutritional deficiency and not specifically the browning compounds. 

Any detrimental effect of Maillard browned compounds on an animal that cannot be directly linked to a nutritional basis may be considered a potential toxic response. However, it is extremely difficult to separate nutritional related effects from toxic effects in studies involving such complex food systems as illustrated in our discussion. Furthermore, it is clear that the nature of Maillard reaction results in the formation of a tremendous number of chemicals. The constituents of the browning reactants can greatly affect the chemical and biological properties of the products formed. Considerable more wotk is required to definitively identify the compounds responsible for physiological and toxicological effects. 

Eichner, K. Antioxidant effect of Maillard reaction intermediates, in Progress in Food Nutrition and Science 5, pp. 441-451 (1981) (edited by C. Eriksson) Pergamon Press, Oxford. 

Chuyen, N.V. Utsunomiya, N. Hidaka, A. Kato, H. 1990. Antioxidative effect of Maillard reaction products in vivo. In The Maillard Reaction in Food Processing, Human Nutrition and Physiology, Finot, P.A. Aesch-bacher, H.U. Hurrell, R.F. Liardon, R., Eds. Birkhauser Verlag Basel, 1990 pp 285-290. 

As far as food products are concerned, the most important and obvious consequences of the Maillard reaction are the development of color and flavor. These effects may or may not be desirable, but they are always accompanied by a decrease in the nutritional value of proteins. In milk for instance, the reaction of lactose with... 

Effect of the Maillard Browning Reaction on the Nutritive Value of Breads and Pizza Crusts... 

Nutritional and Physiological Effects. The ingestion of Maillard-ized foods induces nutritional and physiological effects depending on the extent and on the intensity of the reaction. 

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