Sorption properties of dehydrated model systems and their relationship to the rate of non-enzymatic browning

NURIA ACEVEDO; CAROLINA SCHEBOR; MARÍA DEL PILAR BUERA

Food Engineering, Integrated Approaches

Springer

Año: 2008; p. 295 - 300

The non-enzymatic browning (NEB) reaction is one of the most important chemicalreactions that occur in foods during heating and storage. The NEB rate isknown to be affected by physico-chemical factors such as concentration and thechemical nature of the reactants, pH, relative humidity, temperature, and time ofheating (Labuza and Baisier, 1992). In dehydrated systems, NEB is a diffusionlimited reaction, due to mobility restrictions of the reactants; therefore, it canalso be affected by the glass transition (Buera and Karel, 1995). Although thereare many ways in which water can influence the kinetics of the reaction, some ofthese influences have been neglected. It is also important to note that water, beinga product of the NEB reaction, acts as an inhibitor (Acevedo et al., 2004; 2006).Thus, the purpose of the present work was to analyze the combined effects ofseveral water–solids interactions and the structural properties of model systemson the NEB rate, and the counteracting effects of water as an inhibitor of thebrowning reaction and its compromise with the solid matrix