Reaction Kinetics in Food Systems

Chemical kinetics encompasses the study of the rates at which chemical reactions proceed. The area of kinetics in food systems has received a great deal of attention in past years, primarily due to efforts to optimize or at least maximize the quality of food products during processing and storage. In formulated systems the presence of breakdown products may strongly influence the order of the reaction; the reaction may follow apparent first-order kinetics for only a given value of initial concentration. The degradation of ascorbic acid has been primarily found to follow first-order kinetics in food systems. Pyridoxamine appeared to be the vitamer with the highest complexity in its degradation mechanisms and kinetics. Myoglobin is the major heme-protein pigment that has been often overlooked in terms of kinetic stability either during thermal processing or during storage. The general principle of chemical kinetics may apply to enzymatic reactions, the phenomenon of saturation with substrate is unique to enzymatic reactions.