The requirement for essential amino acids in adults is about 20% to 37% of the protein requirement. Amino acids can act as flavoring agents in foods, some as nutritional fortifiers, and some as flavor enhancers.
The taste of amino acids: Most amino acids have a taste and play a role in the taste of sour, sweet, bitter, and astringent in food. Tryptophan is non-toxic and sweet. It and its derivatives are promising sweeteners. There are also some small water-soluble amino acids with bitter taste, which are the products of proteolysis in food processing.
Glutamate is found mainly in plant proteins and can be obtained by hydrolysis of wheat gluten. Glutamic acid has sour and umami tastes, with sour predominating. After appropriate alkali neutralization, glutamate sodium salt is formed. After the formation of salt, the acid taste of glutamate disappears and the umami taste increases. Monosodium glutamate is the main component of monosodium glutamate, which is a widely used flavoring agent.
One of the prerequisites for flavor: the carboammonia reaction between amino acids and sugars is an important cause of aroma and color in food processing. During the reaction, some amino acids and sugars are consumed to produce flavor substances. Amino acids can also be decomposed by heating to produce some odorant substances, or under bacterial decomposition to produce odorous substances. Therefore, amino acids are prerequisite substances for flavor substances and nutrients for putrefaction bacteria.
Protein is a kind of macromolecular substance, which can be hydrolyzed into small molecules under the action of acid, base or protease. After protein is hydrolyzed, its basic unit amino acid can be obtained.
There are more than 300 kinds of amino acids in nature, but there are usually 20 kinds of amino acids involved in protein formation, and all belong to L-α amino acids (except glycine). These amino acids are linked together in different orders by peptide bonds to form proteins.
Post time: Apr-01-2024