Early stages of Maillard reaction in dehydrated orange juice

The formation of furoylmethyl derivatives of amino acids as indicators of t he early stages of Maillard reaction in dehydrated orange juices and model systems was studied. In stored dehydrated orange juices, the presence of fu roylmethyl derivatives of arginine, asparagine, proline, alanine, glutamic acid, and GABA was detected. Their formation increased with temperature of storage. After 2 weeks at 30 degrees C and a(w) = 0.44, the reconstituted o range juice contained 94 mg/L furoylmethyl derivatives, whereas up to 1215 mg/L was detected in samples stored at 50 degrees C.