Influence of processing of seitan, tempeh, and firm regular tofu on protein and lipid oxidation and Maillard reaction products formation

Arturo Auñon-Lopez; Matthias Strauss; Elena Hinterreiter-Kern; Amelie Klein; Elisabeth Varga; Marc Pignitter

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.142273

Influence of processing of seitan, tempeh, and firm regular tofu on protein and lipid oxidation and Maillard reaction products formation

Food Chem. 2024 Nov 27:467:142273. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.142273. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Arturo Auñon-Lopez¹, Matthias Strauss¹, Elena Hinterreiter-Kern², Amelie Klein², Elisabeth Varga³, Marc Pignitter⁴

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Physiological Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Vienna, Josef-Holaubek-Platz 2, 1090 Vienna, Austria; Vienna Doctoral School in Chemistry (DoSChem), Faculty of Chemistry, University of Vienna, Währinger Str. 42, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
² Institute of Physiological Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Vienna, Josef-Holaubek-Platz 2, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
³ Department of Food Chemistry and Toxicology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Vienna, Währinger Str. 38-40, 1090 Vienna, Austria; Unit Food Hygiene and Technology, Centre for Food Science and Veterinary Public Health, Clinical Department for Farm Animals and Food System Science, University of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinärplatz 1, 1210 Vienna, Austria.
⁴ Institute of Physiological Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Vienna, Josef-Holaubek-Platz 2, 1090 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: marc.pignitter@univie.ac.at.

PMID: 39616767
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.142273

Abstract

The impact of production and cooking on protein oxidation, lipid oxidation and Maillard reaction products (MRPs) generation was evaluated for firm regular tofu, tempeh, and seitan, three plant-based alternatives to meat products. Tofu showed higher content of protein-bound carbonyls (25.5 ± 5.4 nmol/mg protein) indicating higher degree of protein oxidation, while seitan exhibited the lowest content of MRPs like N(6)-carboxymethyllysine, as revealed by LC-MS/MS. Through determination of the peroxide value and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances as well as analysis of volatile oxidation compounds by GC-MS, an overall higher lipid oxidation level was found in tofu. Likewise, a mean 92.2 % depletion of naturally occurring antioxidant tocopherol, assessed by HPLC-DAD, was observed in tofu. Furthermore, acrylamide was detected in tofu at 196.0 ± 15.4 μg/kg after frying at 190 °C. This study, therefore, concluded that practices used in tempeh and seitan processing are promising strategies to limit oxidation and Maillard reactions in food.

Keywords: 1-Hexanol (PubChem CID: 8103); 2,4-Decadienal (PubChem CID: 5283349); 2-Undecenal (PubChem CID: 5283356); Acrylamide; Acrylamide (PubChem CID: 6579); Advanced glycation end products; Food processing; Lipid oxidation; Malondialdehyde (PubChem CID: 10964); N(6)-carboxymethyllysine (PubChem CID: 123800); Plant-based products; Protein carbonyls; l-lysine (PubChem CID: 5962); γ-Tocopherol (PubChem CID: 92729); δ-Tocopherol (PubChem CID: 92094).