Chapter 4

THE MAILLARD REACTION

JENNIFER M. AMES

Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Reading,

Whiteknights, Reading RG6 2AP, UK

INTRODUCTION

The Maillard reaction is a type of non-enzymic browning which involves

the reaction of carbonyl compounds, especially reducing sugars, with com-
pounds which possess a free amino group, such as amino acids, amines
and proteins. In most foods, the €-amino groups of the lysine residues of
proteins are the most important source offree amino groups, and the ease
with which they take part in the reaction explains why the Maillard reac-
tion is the most important route to nutritional damage offood proteins. 1,2
The Maillard reaction in fact comprises a complex network of intertwin-
ing reactions and takes place during food processing, especially when
heat treatment is involved, and also on storage. Apart from resulting in
nutritional damage, the Maillard reaction is also primarily responsible for
the development of aroma and colour, which may be desirable or undesir-
able, in heated foods. It also results in the formation of potentially toxic
compounds and in the development of components with antioxidant
properties. 3 In addition, it occurs in vivo. The Maillard reaction and its
ramifications are so important that four symposia have been devoted to it
over the last 12 years. 4- 7
The primary aims of this chapter are to give an up-to-date account of
the chemistry of the Maillard reaction, and to survey the effects of the
reaction on the properties of the proteins involved. Other consequences
of the reaction and means of control are briefly reviewed.

99
B. J. F. Hudson (ed.), Biochemistry of Food Proteins
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1992
100 JENNIFER M. AMES

CHEMISTRY OF THE REACTION

The chemistry of the Maillard reaction has been reviewed on many occa-
sions over the last 40 years. 8- 16 The earliest article was by Hodge,8 who
comprehensively reviewed the work carried out up to the early 1950s,
while the most recent reviews are those by Ledl 15 and Ledl & Schleicher. 16
Hodge,8 in 1953, produced a scheme for the Maillard reaction, which is
still valid nearly 40 years later, and a modified version is shown in Fig. 1.
The chemical reactions which occur can be broadly divided into three
main stages: (a) the early stage, consisting ofthe formation and degrada-
tion of the N-substituted glycosylamine to the rearrangement product or

A
+amino compound -H,O
N-substhuted glycosylamine

Amadori rearranaement product

( l-amlno-l·deoxy-2-!cetose)

C -2H,O H

+CI-amino
acid

f -CO,

(Strecker
-amino ot-gradation)
compound

+H,O

HydroxymethyHurfural or
2·luraldehyde

+amino +amino +amino +amino +amino

G compound C compound C compound C compound G compound

Melanoidins
(brown nitrogenous polymers and copolymersl

FIG. 1. An outline of the Maillard reaction. S•17 ,IS Adapted from References 8
and 18, with permission. Reprinted with permission from J. M. Ames, Trends in
Food Science and Technology, 1 (1990) 150-4. © Elsevier Science Publishers,
Cambridge.