Studies on the non-enzymatic browning of foods -organic acid - amino acid model systems.

For a long time, work on non-enzymatic browning of food products
centred around Maillard type reactions. In recent years, however, the
importance of other systems is being increasingly felt. Using ion exchange
resins and studying browning in different fractions of apricot concentrate,
Haas and Stadtman ( 2 ) showed that the over-all browning is the result
of at least four distinct types of reactions: (a) nitrogenous constituents
and sugars, (b) nitrogenous constituents and organic acids, ( c) sugars
and organic acids, and ( d) organic acids alone. Model system studies
dealing with (a) have been reviewed by Danehy and Pigman (1) and
Hodge ( 3 ). Work on systems dealing with (c) and (d) has been reported
by Lewis et al. (4, 5) and more recently by Kapur et al. ( 6). The present
paper deals with investigations on browning in organic acid-amino acid
model systems. Though low energy systems ( 3), they are likely to play an
important part in the browning of products prepared from highly acidic
fruits.