Food-Grade Synthesis of Maillard-Type Taste Enhancers Using Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NADES)

The increasing demand for healthier food products, with reduced levels of table salt, sugar, and mono sodium glutamate, reinforce the need for novel taste enhancers prepared by means of food-grade kitchen-type chemistry. Although several taste modulating compounds have been discovered in processed foods, their Maillard-type ex food production is usually not exploited by industrial process reactions as the yields of target compounds typically do not exceed 1–2%. Natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) are reported for the first time to significantly increase the yields of the taste enhancers 1-deoxy-d-fructosyl-N-β-alanyl-l-histidine (49% yield), N-(1-methyl-4-oxoimidazolidin-2-ylidene) aminopropionic acid (54% yield) and N(2)-(1-carboxyethyl) guanosine 5′-monophosphate (22% yield) at low temperature (80–100 °C) within a maximum reaction time of 2 h. Therefore, NADES open new avenues to a “next-generation culinary chemistry” overcoming the yield limitations of traditional Maillard chemistry approaches and enable a food-grade Maillard-type generation of flavor modulators.