Influence of Free Amino Acids, Oligopeptides, and Polypeptides on the Formation of Pyrazines in Maillard Model Systems

GUSTAVO LUIS LEONARDO SCALONE; BRUNO DE MEULENAER; NORBERT DE KIMPE; TATIANA CUCU

Mar Del Plata

Congreso; XVI Congreso Argentino de Ciencia y Tecnologia de los Alimentos; 2017

AATA

Presentacion de PosterABSTRACT:Pyrazines are specific Maillard reaction compounds known to contribute to the unique aroma of many products.Most studies concerning the generation of pyrazines in the Maillard reaction have focused on amino acids, while littleinformation is available on the impact of peptides and proteins. The present study investigated the generation of pyrazines inmodel systems containing whey protein, hydrolyzed whey protein, amino acids, and glucose. The impact of thermal conditions,ratio of reagents, and water activity (aw) on pyrazine formation was measured by headspace solid-phase microextraction with gaschromatography/mass spectrometry (HS-SPME−GC/MS. The presence of oligopeptides from hydrolyzed whey proteincontributed significantly to an increased amount of pyrazines, while in contrast free amino acids generated during proteinhydrolysis contributed to a lesser extent. The generation of pyrazines was enhanced at low aw (0.33) and high temperatures(>120 °C). This study showed that the role of peptides in the generation of pyrazines in Maillard reaction systems has beendramatically underestimated.