Presenter: Curtis White
Authors: Curtis White, Robert Ward
Faculty Advisor: Robert Ward
Institution: Utah State University
The goal of this study is to investigate the effects of Maillard Reaction Products (MRPs) on the gut microbiome using an in vitro system. MRPs’ provide health benefits or detriments is widely debated in the food science community. We hypothesize that MRPs act as a type of dietary fiber and positively affect the gut microbiome. The results of this study should help address this question. The Maillard Reaction is also called non-enzymatic browning and is used in various cooking processes to produce a browned color and develop taste. It works by applying heat to a protein and a sugar. The sugar reduces amines within the protein, producing products such as Hydroxymehtylfurfural (HMF) and melanoidins. We first standardized a process to uniformly brown mixes of different proteins (casein, soy, egg white and whey proteins) and sugars. The color and HMF content were determined using a Hunter Colorimeter and a chemical assay to quantify the brownness of the protein mixtures and characterize the progression of the reaction. Next, the browned sugar-protein mixes were subjected to an in vitro digestion using mammalian digestive enzymes and gut pH conditions according to the published INFOGEST protocol. The digested materials (i.e. amino acids, sugars, fatty acids) were subsequently removed through dialysis and the remaining melanoidins were used as a substrate in an in vitro fecal fermentation assay. Changes in the microbial communities were monitored via 16S gene amplification and sequencing, and the short chain fatty acid metabolites measured by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection. These effects of the MRPs on the fecal slurry were used to better quantify how MRPs interact with gut bacteria on the whole and informed us on what is good or bad about MRPs in diets.