Sugar-Amine Browning

This occurs in a wide variety of foods which contain both sugars and proteins. It is also called the ‘Maillard effect’, after the Frenchman who first identified it. It is strange that there is no more common term for it, since such reactions are a fundamental part of cooking. The products are not only coloured but also have flavours which give much of the taste of roasted and grilled foods.

The chemistry is complex and many different compounds are formed at various stages. The reactions can take place both in air and without it. The coloured end products are known as melanoidins. Proteins, whether whole or in the form of isolated amino acids, are not all equally prone to engage in these reactions. Sugars, too, vary in their behaviour. Ordinary sugar (sucrose) does not react at all. But in most foods there are other sugars which do; and some sucrose will anyway be split into simple sugars during cooking, or by the action of yeast in bread dough.