THE MAILLARD REACTION IN PASTA - PRELIMINARY CLASSIFICATION BY MULTIVARIATE TECHNIQUES

Ir is well known that technological and sensory properties of pasta ar e related to both the characteristics of semolina and to effects of th e development of the Maillard reaction which takes place during food p rocessing. The aim of this paper was to investigate the possible appli cation of a multivariate approach to the preliminary classification of pasta products For this purpose, 18 industrially produced spaghetti s amples were chosen. Lysine, leucine, histidine, glycine, available lys ine, free reducing sugars, furosine, and red, yellow and brown indices were analysed. Results obtained by application of principal component analysis and cluster analysis showed that some variables (furosine, t otal lysine and glycine, red index) contributed more than others to th e pasta classification. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited