Maillard crosslinking of food proteins III: the effects of glutaraldehyde, formaldehyde and glyceraldehyde upon bread and croissants

The Maillard reaction influences not only the colour and flavour of foods, but also their texture. One of the mechanisms by which this occurs is via protein crosslinking. In the preceding paper, the capacities formaldehyde, glyceraldehyde and glutaraldehyde to crosslink wheat proteins were compared in vitro and in situ. All three molecules crosslinked wheat proteins in vitro, but only glutaraldehyde crosslinked the proteins when added to wheat flour dough. Here the effects of this crosslinking on dough, bread and croissants are reported. The effect of glutaraldehyde on the dough properties was marked. Upon baking, addition of glutaraldehyde was shown to alter crumb strength and texture of bread, but had no perceivable effect on croissants. A comparison to previous results, comparing enzymatic crosslinking, suggests that crosslinking of specific wheat proteins can be correlated with particular properties of cereal foods. This suggests that the Maillard reaction may be harnessed by food processors to manipulate the texture of foods.