Kinetic Modeling of Reactions in Heated Monosaccharide-Casein Systems

In the present study, a kinetic model of the Maillard reaction occurring in heated monosaccharide-casein systems was proposed. Its parameters, the reaction rate constants, were estimated via multiresponse modeling. The determinant criterion was used as the statistical fit criterion instead of the familiar least squares to avoid statistical problems. The kinetic model was extensively tested by varying the reaction conditions. Different sugars (glucose, fructose, galactose, and tagatose) were studied regarding their effect on the reaction kinetics. This study has shown the power of multiresponse modeling for the unraveling of complicated reaction routes as occur in the Maillard reaction. The iterative process of proposing a model, confronting it with experiments, and criticizing the model was passed through four times to arrive at a model that was largely consistent with all results obtained. A striking difference was found between aldose and ketose sugars as suggested by the modeling results: not the ketoses themselves but only their reaction products were found to be reactive in the Maillard reaction.