Everyone loves the food at the dining table to be appealing to their senses besides their taste buds through attractive colors and flavors. For instance, one cannot imagine a loaf of bread without its trademark golden brown crust. How do foods get their unique color and aroma? A series of reactions known as Maillard reactions produce countless chemical compounds that give foods like bread, chocolates, potato chips and roasted meat their unique colors (Copeland, 2016). These reactions take place at high temperatures of around 130℃ when raw food items are baked, roasted or fried. This explains why boiled, steam-cooked or microwave-cooked foods that hardly reach 100℃ do not change color. The initial Maillard reactions that occur when bread is baked release certain tiny volatile molecules that are responsible for the aroma. Afterwards still complex reactions lead to change of color to golden brown. This is why one feels the aroma of bread before it is completely baked. The complex reactions are also responsible for releasing certain toxic substances that cause various diseases including cancer. Foods that go through Maillard reactions during preparation produce a chemical called acrylamide which is a possible carcinogen. Acrylamide can be detected in common food items like roasted meat and potato chips while it is not found in boiled or steamed foods (Copeland, 2016). Maillard reactions are also blamed for decreasing the nutritive value of foods, ageing and dementia in human beings.
Even as Maillard chemical reactions enhance the taste and color of food they are more harmful to human bodies. Can one afford to put his health at risk by relishing tasty and attractive foods? If taste and aroma are the key factors that motivate individuals to buy or prepare roasted and grilled foods, can chemistry explore ways to control the release of harmful molecules? Can adding certain substances discourage the release of carcinogens? Will promoters of food products and dieticians think about alternate processes to prepare healthy and tastier foods? In light of eating baked, roasted and grilled foods becoming a menace to the younger generation, it is also important to wean them from the habit through imparting proper education and awareness.
Reference
Copeland, L. (2016). The chemical reactions that make food taste awesome. Discover. Retrieved from http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2016/06/03/the-chemical-reactions-that-make-food-taste-awesome/#.V7VCdRL5XIU
