Abstract:Pea protein was used to prepare Maillard reaction products (MRPs) through enzymatic hydrolysis and further thermal reaction with sugars. Taking the degree of hydrolysis(DH) and solid dissolution ratio as the indices, the optimal conditions of pea protein peptides preparation was determined as follows: 4 h hydrolysis with 3 500 U/g substrate protamex protease and then 4 h hydrolysis with 400 U/g substrate aminopeptidase. The components with relative molecular weight less than 1 000 in hydrolysates was 91.60%, and 90.83% of the total amino acids were peptides, which were mainly small peptides. The effects of initial reaction pH (6.4, 7.4 and 8.4) on the color and flavor of MRPs derived from pea peptides were further investigated. The results showed that the higher pH caused the stronger browning degree. The results of electronic tongue analysis and human sensory evaluation showed that the addition of 0.5% MRPs into the solution with 0.5% salt could enhance the saltiness, umami and kokumi. Comparing to the salt solution, the saltiness and umami with the addition of MRPs were increased by 41.03% and 303.39%, respectively. When the initial pH increased from 6.4 to 8.4, the saltiness increased by 57.30% and the umami increased by 36.48%, at the meanwhile, kokumi and volatile flavor compounds were also increased significantly.
