Assessment of heat treatment of dairy products by MALDI-TOF-MS.

The formation of the Amadori product from lactose (protein lactosylation) is a major parameter to evaluate the quality of processed milk. Here, MALDI-TOF-MS was used for the relative quantification of lactose-adducts in heated milk. Milk was heated at a temperature of 70, 80, and 100 degrees C between 0 and 300 min, diluted, and subjected directly to MALDI-TOF-MS. The lactosylation rate of alpha-lactalbumin increased with increasing reaction temperature and time. The results correlated well with established markers for heat treatment of milk (concentration of total soluble protein, soluble alpha-lactalbumin and beta-lactoglobulin at pH 4.6, and fluorescence of advanced Maillard products and soluble tryptophan index; r=0.969-0.997). The method was also applied to examine commercially available dairy products. In severely heated products, protein pre-purification by immobilized metal affinity chromatography improved spectra quality. Relative quantification of protein lactosylation by MALDI-TOF-MS proved to be a very fast and reliable method to monitor early Maillard reaction during milk processing.