Release of Ammonia from Peptides and Proteins and Their Effects on Maillard Flavor Generation

Summary Ammonia has been recognized as an important reactant for food flavor development. Ammonia could be produced by thermal and hydrolytic deamidation of asparagine and glutamine residues of proteins. The contribution of amide nitrogen to pyrazine formation was confirmed by the use of glutamine labeled with 15N at the amide side chain. The comparison of volatile compounds produced from the reaction of glucose with either dipeptide Ala-Asn or Ala-Asp also indicated the contribution of deamidation to the Maillard reaction.