Effect of amino acids on Maillard reaction product formation and total antioxidant capacity in white pan bread

Summary Maillard reaction products ( MRP s) can be an important dietary antioxidant source. Bread is the most popular bakery product; however, limited information is available on the antioxidant activities of MRP s generated during bread‐baking. This paper reports the effect of different amino acids on bread properties, melanoidin formation and antioxidant activities. Totally six amino acids at four different levels were evaluated. Increasing the amount of amino acid led to darker bread crust, higher melanoidin content and stronger antioxidant activity. Among the six amino acids, bread with glycine had the highest melanoidin content and ABTS radical scavenging activity up to 1079.77 ± 8.43 μmol TE mg −1 . Bread with lysine had the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity up to 281.97 ± 10.52 μmol TE mg −1 . Bread with alanine had the highest crust metal chelating activity compared with others. Adding certain dietary amino acids is a potential approach to enhance the antioxidant capacity of bread products.