Cocoa melanoidins reduce the formation of dietary advanced glycation end-products in dairy mimicking system

The control of Maillard reaction in foods is important to preserve protein nutritional quality. In this study, we investigated the effects of melanoidins obtained from different roasted cocoa beans toward the formation of dietary advanced glycation end-products (d-AGEs) in aqueous solution of whey protein (WP) and glucose, glyoxal and methylglyoxal at 35 °C and pH 7.0. Cocoa melanoidins (4 mg/mL) were more effective to inhibit glyoxal-derived d-AGEs than methylglyoxal-derived d-AGEs, with 74.4% and 48% reduction of N-?-carboxymethyllysine and methylglyoxal-hydroimidazolone formation in WP/glyoxal and WP/methylglyoxal system, respectively. Furthermore, protein-bound N-?-fructosyllysine, measured through furosine, decreased down to 57.2% in presence of cocoa melanoidins in WP/glucose model system suggesting an effective control of the Maillard reaction in an early stage. These findings highlighted that cocoa melanoidins are functional ingredients able to mitigate protein glycation in dairy products during storage.