Maillard reaction evaluation by furosine determination during infant cereal processing

The furosine content of infant cereals has been used to evaluate the therma l damage caused to those foods during their manufacture (toasting, amylolys is and drying steps). The mean furosine contents of raw and toasted flours were 13.7 and 13.8 mg/100 g of protein, respectively. The furosine content increased to 47.3 mg/100 g of protein after hydrolysis using alpha-amylase. The amylolysis process raised the reducing sugar content from 0.5% for raw samples to 12.7%. The furosine content of infant cereals rose to average l evels of 500 mg/100 g of protein after roller-drying. The infant cereals wi th the highest levels of reducing sugars, with or without soy flour, exhibi ted the highest furosine contents. Furosine is a useful indicator to evalua te the progress of the Maillard reaction during the amylolysis and roller-d rying stages of infant cereals manufacture. (C) 1999 Academic Press.