Effects of pulsed electric field treatment on a bovine serum albumin–dextran model system, a means of promoting the Maillard reaction

Effects of pulsed electric field treatment on browning intensity, antioxidant activity, protein patterns and chemical structure of the bovine serum albumin–dextran copolymer were investigated. Results showed Maillard reaction between bovine serum albumin and dextran was significantly accelerated when the electric field intensity was higher than 10 kV/cm, which was proved by changes in A294, browning, antioxidant activity and electrophoresis tests. At the same time, pronounced changes of chemical structure were found by circular dichroism test. The α-helix, β-sheet, β-turns and random coil were changed from approximately 42.6%, 1.9%, 17.5% and 33.9% to 14.5%, 33.0%, 21.2% and 30.2%, respectively, after treatment at 20 kV/cm for 7.35 ms. All data indicated that pulsed electric field was a means to promote Maillard-based copolymerisation.