| Carbonyl compounds are produced in Maillard Reaction during thermal food processes. Carbonyl compounds are also produced in lipid oxidation reactions. They are often important flavors, off flavors, and reactive intermediates in many foods. The qualitative and quantitative determination of carbonyl compounds is a challenging work, since many of those carbonyl compounds are volatile and reactive.; The reactions of cysteamine with selected carbonyl compounds were studies for their application in the measurement of those carbonyl compounds in food and Maillard Reaction model systems. The cysteamine reaction products, thiazolidines, were identified by GC-MS and 1H NMR. GC analysis with FID was used for quantification. The commercially unavailable standards of thiazolidines were synthesized by the same reactions between cysteamine and carbonyl compounds. Cysteamine derivatization method was developed and used to monitor the carbonyl compound productions in Maillard model reactions and in potato chip storage samples. The synthesized thiazolidine standards were used in carbonyl compound determination process to improve quantification accuracy.; Maillard Reaction was studied in the aqueous model systems of glucose and various amino acids and their mixture, such as methionine, phenylalanine, glycine, alanine, valine, leucine, and isoleucine. The pH effects and reaction dynamic mechanisms were studied on some of these model Maillard Reactions. The commercial potato chip was studied at different storage periods from 1 week to 8 weeks at elevated temperature of 40°C.; Volatile carbonyls including Strecker aldehydes were studied. A pattern of Incubation-Increase-Lagging was observed in the productions of many carbonyl compounds in Maillard model reactions. The production of formaldehyde was extremely high in most of the reactions, which could not be detected in other traditional analytical methods for carbonyl compounds. PH effects on Maillard model reactions were different in different situations. The analysis of potato chips was also discussed. |
