A Study on Biochemical Implications of Food Microbiology

A Comprehensive Study on Browning Reactions and their Implications in Food Processing

Abstract

Heat treatment is one among the common methods oftenadopted for food processing. Food materials containing carbohydrates along withproteins or amino acids on heat treatment tend to undergo a sort of darkening.This was first observed and recorded by Mallard. The colour change so observed,popularly known as Mallard Browning is a non-enzymatic Various studies haveindicated that the browning reactions between sugars and amino acids orproteins affect the nutritional value of the food material. It has beenestablished that browning brings down the availability of sugar and amino acidin food materials. Various aromatic, volatile, heterocyclic colored compoundshave been reported as a result of the Mallard type browning reaction .Some ofthe Mail-lard reaction products are found to be flavor producing , some areantioxidants and some of them are reported to be mutagenic in nature. Some ofthe Mallard reaction products have also been found to be able to inhibitbacterial growth. The physiological, toxicological and nutritional aspects ofvarious Mallard reaction products have been studied.