Maillard reaction products, sensory properties

Sensory Properties of Volatile Maillard Reaction Products and Related Compounds... 

Literature information about the sensory properties for nearly 450 Maillard reaction products has been compiled in a survey. It includes qualitative aroma and flavor descriptions as well as sensory threshold values in different media for the compounds, classified according to their chemical structure. 

The sensory properties of nearly 450 volatile Maillard reaction products and related compounds have been compiled (45). The review includes quantitative aroma and flavor descriptions, as veil as sensory threshold values for different media, classified according to chemical structure. 

Fors S. (1983) Sensory properties of volatile Maillard reaction products and related compounds a literature review. Am. Chem. Soc. Symp. Ser. 215, 185-286. 

Hansen and Lund, 1987). In rye bread, compounds such as alcohols, esters and carbonyls have been identified (Hansen et al., 1989). Choice of fermentation temperature, dough yield, flour quality and starter culture all influence the sensory properties of the final bread. Free amino acids formed during fermentation increase Maillard reaction products, thus intensifying the taste. Sensory analysis has shown that sour dough rye breadcrumbs had the most intense and bread-like flavour compared with chemically acidified doughs (Hansen et al., 1989). 

Many biochemical reactions can be induced by temperature increase in foods Maillard reactions, vitamin degradation, fat oxidation, denaturation of thermally unstable proteins (resulting in variation of solubility or of the germinating power of grains, for example), enzyme reactions (which can either be promoted or inhibited), and so on. Some of these biochemical reactions generate components suitable, for example, for their sensory properties (flavor development) others may be more or less undesirable for nutritional or potential toxicity reasons (vitamin losses, changes in color, taste or aroma, formation of toxic compounds). All the reactions are linked to the simultaneous evolution of product composition, temperature and water content (or chemical potential, or water activity), these factors varying diflferently from one point to another, from the center to the surface of the products. 

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