Impact of different enzymatic hydrolysates of whey protein on the formation of pyrazines in Maillard model systems

The generation of pyrazines in model systems containing enzymatically hydrolyzed whey protein under dry heating conditions was studied. Pyrazines are important Maillard flavor compounds. Hydrolysates, obtained with different peptidases (pepsine, chymosine, thermolysin and a non-specific peptidase from Aspergillus melleus), contained a varying peptide profile and free amino acid content. The impact of each hydrolysate on the generation of flavor volatiles was measured by HS-SPME-GC/MS. The presence of oligopeptides had an enhancing role on the generation of pyrazines while, in contrast, free amino acids contributed to a lesser extent in pyrazine formation, except in the hydrolysate using the non-specific peptidase because of its high free amino acid content. Typically, 2,5(6)-dimethylpyrazine was the most abundant pyrazine found, although in the chymotripsine hydrolysate also other pyrazines were dominant. The hydrolysate obtained from the non-specific peptidase contained a larger variety of pyrazines, including the typical Strecker aldehydes originating from specific amino acids. This study demonstrates that oligopeptides are important Maillard flavor precursors.