Food Safety & Regulation
A process contaminant formed from asparagine and reducing sugars during Maillard browning above about 120 °C, classified as a probable human carcinogen.
Forms in fried and baked starchy foods like potato chips, French fries and toast; health advisories recommend cooking them to a golden colour rather than dark brown to limit it.
A non-enzymatic browning reaction between a reducing sugar's carbonyl group and a free amino group of an amino acid or protein, producing melanoidin pigments and a wide range of flavour compounds.
A sugar with a free aldehyde or ketone group that can act as a reducing agent — glucose, fructose, lactose and maltose are reducing sugars. Sucrose is not, because both anomeric carbons are involved in the glycosidic bond.
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