Sugars Replacement as a Strategy to Control the Formation of α-Dicarbonyl and Furanic Compounds during Cookie Processing

Fabrizio Cincotta; Selina Brighina; Concetta Condurso; Elena Arena; Antonella Verzera; Biagio Fallico

doi:10.3390/foods10092101

Sugars Replacement as a Strategy to Control the Formation of α-Dicarbonyl and Furanic Compounds during Cookie Processing

Foods. 2021 Sep 5;10(9):2101. doi: 10.3390/foods10092101.

Authors

Fabrizio Cincotta¹, Selina Brighina², Concetta Condurso¹, Elena Arena², Antonella Verzera¹, Biagio Fallico²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Messina, Polo Universitario dell'Annunziata, 98168 Messina, Italy.
² Dipartimento di Agricoltura, Alimentazione, Ambiente (Di3A), University of Catania, Via Santa Sofia 98, 95123 Catania, Italy.

Abstract

In the last decade, several preventive strategies were considered to mitigate the chemical hazard accumulation in food products. This work aimed to study the effect of different sugars on the development of the main chemical hazard in cookies. For this purpose, model biscuits prepared using sucrose, fructose, and glucose were baked at different temperatures (150, 170, and 190 °C) and for different times (from 5 to 45 min), and the levels of α-dicarbonyl compounds, such as 3-deoxyglucosone (3-DG), glyoxal (GO) and methylglyoxal (MGO), 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), and furanic aromatic compounds were monitored. The replacement of sucrose in the cookie recipes with monosaccharides had as a consequence the highest accumulation of 3-DG (200-600 times higher), MGO, HMF, and furanic volatile compounds, while the use of sucrose allowed for maintaining the 3-DG, MGO, and HMF levels at less than 10 mg/kg dry matter in cookies for the estimated optimal baking time. Moreover, cookies with sucrose were characterised in terms of volatile compounds, mainly in terms of lipid oxidation products, while cookies with fructose or glucose baked at the highest temperature were characterised almost exclusively by Maillard reaction products, confirming a faster development of this reaction during baking at the studied temperatures.

Keywords: 3-deoxyglucosone; 5-hydroxymethylfurfural; Maillard reaction; furan; furan derivatives; glyoxal; headspace solid phase microextraction; methylglyoxal.