Temperature effect on formation of advanced glycation end products in infant formula milk powder

For a standard infant formula milk powder, browning reactions were shown to become limiting for shelf-life for storage at higher temperature rather than lipid oxidation. Advanced glycation end (AGE) products were found in the temperature range 65-115 °C to have an energy of activation for their formation of 28 kJ mol−1 following crystallisation of the powder using an indirect ELISA method for determination of AGE. This energy of activation was larger than the energies of activation of 6.5 and 5.7 kJ mol−1, as found for formation of the Strecker aldehydes 2- and 3-methyl butanal, respectively. Formation of AGE occurred in the browning reaction sequence later than Strecker degradation. At 25 °C less than 0.1 ng mg−1 AGE was formed in storage for 2 months. Toxicity could only be detected for storage for longer than 1 month at 65 °C, where AGE formation is approximately 2 ng mg−1.