CHANGES IN SUGARS AND LYSINE IN BABY FOODS DURING STORAGE

The effect of storage on sugar content (fructose, glucose, sucrose) an d free lysine in vegetable, meat, fish and fruit baby foods for a peri od of two years and at temperatures of 5, 15 and 25C were studied. The results showed that under these storage conditions a decrease occurre d in fructose, glucose and sucrose for vegetable, meat and fish foods. A drop in sucrose was found in the fruit sample, together with an inc rease in fructose and glucose. The increase of reducing sugars in this sample is attributed to the hydrolysis of sucrose, an effect which is favorable because of storage temperature. A drop in free lysine was f ound for the four types of samples; this decrease was dependent on sto rage temperature but mainly on the time of storage. After one year, th e levels of lysine were decreased by half or more at all temperatures. Although infants can get lysine from other sources such as milk and c ereals, the lysine loss can be important leading to negative nutrition al consequences if infants mainly eat baby foods stored at least for o ne year. The loss of reducing sugars and of lysine showed that during storage of these products a Maillard browning reaction between reducin g sugar and lysine occurred.