COMPARATIVE-STUDY ON MICROWAVE AND CONVENTIONAL METHODS FOR PROTEIN HYDROLYSIS IN FOOD

A rapid microwave hydrolysis procedure was developed for amino acid de termination in food. The hydrolysis was performed with 6M HCl in seale d vessels using a microwave digestion system. Bovine Serum Albumin was chosen as a model protein to compare its theoric amino acid sequence with the experimental results obtained after hydrolysis by both the tr aditional oven heating and the microwave methods. Furthermore the sele cted microwave methods were carried out on different food matrices (ch eese and durum wheat) and the obtained data were compared with the tra ditional method results. This comparative study shows that the rapid m icrowave hydrolysis is as accurate and precise as the traditional hydr olysis for determining amino acids in food.