The chemistry of non‐enzymic browning in foods and its control by sulphites

Abstract

Abstract Non‐enzymic browning involves a complex of chemical reactions with few identifying common features other than the involvement of carbonylic intermediates, the production of brown pigments (melanoidins) and the effect of sulphites in either inhibiting or retarding the development of the melanoidins. In general, amine compounds (amines, amino acids, peptides, proteins) are important in reactions, usually with carbohydrates, which (a) produce highly reactive carbonylic intermediates and (b) involve condensation with these intermediates to produce highly coloured pigments. These reactions occur in many foods and, where they are undesirable, may usually be controlled more or less successfully by the addition of sulphites. This effectiveness of a single additive in controlling a variety of chemical pathways is probably due to the number of different reactions which sulphite can enter into with, for example, reducing sugars, simple carbonyls, αβ‐dicarbonyls, β‐hydroxycarbonyls, αβ‐unsaturated carbonyls and with the melanoidins. It is known that in exerting its anti‐browning effect in food, the amount of measurable sulphite decreases and there is some evidence that amongst the products derived from sulphite in a rat diet there is at least one toxic factor. Information is only recently available about the nature of some of the more stable products (e.g. sulphonated deoxyosuloses) arising from sulphite‐loss and further investigation of the biological properties of these products seems necessary. With increasing concern about the total dietary intake of sulphite it is becoming more necessary to identify the uses of this additive where there is no adequate alternative and the most effective ways of employing it where it is essential in food processing; further advances in the chemistry of sulphites in relation to food will be important in achieving this.