Quantitative evaluation of changes in color during maillard reaction for development of novel time-temperature integrators/indicators

Abstract

To maximize the potential of the Maillard reaction for the development of novel time-temperature integrators/indicators (TTIs), we investigated various color change patterns using different combinations of reactant concentrations and temperatures for the Maillard reaction with xylose, glycine and disodium hydrogen phosphate. We analyzed digital photo images for quantitative evaluation of the color changes in the RGB color space. The results revealed that the sigmoidal RGB value decreased under all conditions, and the reaction was accelerated by increases in temperature and reactant concentration. Thus, the reaction completion time, which was 18-61, 7-21, 4-14, 2-10, 1-4, and 0.5-2 days at 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25°C, respectively, could be tuned by controlling the above variables. In addition, we developed a mathematical model that predicted the color change over time with high accuracy (R2 > 0.99) for a wide range of temperatures.