The Maillard Reaction: A Balancing Feedback for Food Quality

Dear Colleagues,

The undeniable complexity of the Maillard reaction is one of the pillars of food quality. More than one hundred years ago, Louis Camille Maillard built the basis of the research on the reaction between amino compounds and reducing sugars: widespread precursors in the presence of heat are able to form a bewildering array of molecules with an outstanding impact on the formation of colored compounds. Forty years later, John Hodge added the first pedestals to the Maillard’s foundation by classifying the reaction into three consecutive stages, each of them characterized by a series of consecutive and parallel reactions that convey into the formation of brown nitrogenous pigments known as melanoidins. These two pivotal papers have represented the source of inspiration for hundreds of researchers that contributed to the development of the Maillard reaction, pushing the boundaries outside chemistry aspects. At present, glycation studies are at the interface of multiple disciplines, including biology, medicine, and physiology, and their several connections with food science.

During the thermal treatment or storage of foods, a multitude of changes occur, moving from molecular to macroscopic structures. The Maillard reaction offers the chance to actively tune all the stages of food production processes, starting from the raw material down to the effects in vivo. The Special Issue “The Maillard Reaction—A Balancing Feedback for Food Quality” has the potential to disseminate the recent concept of the Maillard dichotomy: desired and undesired outcomes take place simultaneously through the same pathways and each compartment of the Maillard reaction represents a potential and effective control point for the promotion of food quality.

The Maillard reaction is an undoubtedly powerful control tool during food processing. Besides the formation of potentially toxic molecules, unwanted browning, the production of off-flavors in milk and fruit juices, as well as decreasing the nutritional value of proteins, the Maillard cascade is an inevitable event at the basis of food quality. Many researchers around the world have proposed successful strategies to find the optimal balance point able to promote desired outcomes and mitigate undesired ones.

The aim of this Special Issue is to publish high-quality research papers and review articles addressing recent advances in food science and technology with a deeper insight into the union between the Maillard reaction and food quality.

Dr. Alberto Fiore
Dr. Antonio Dario Troise
Guest Editors

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• Maillard reaction
• mitigation strategy
• glycation
• polyphenols
• food processing
• lipids
• oxidation