3.6.5. 2 Food processing L-Asparaginase from fungal sources is used as food processing aid in food and allied industries to reduce the formation of acrylamide. JECFA has recommended the use of L-asparaginase to reduce acrylamide formation or its carcinogenicity and neurotoxicity during processing of high-starch food products (JECFA 2001). Acrylamide is formed as a reaction product between asparagine and reducing sugars contained in starchy food products such as potato chips, French fries, gingerbreads, roasted coffee and wheat dough based products such as biscuits and crisp breads when heated above 120°C during baking or frying (Pedreschi et al., 2008). The heat induced reaction between a reducing sugar and asparagine, which is one of the reaction pathways of the Maillard reaction, forms acrylamide. The Maillard reaction is the process that gives the brown colour and tasty flavour of baked, fried and toasted foods. Incubation of unbaked or un-fried starchy foods with L-asparaginase solution at 37ºC (Ciesarova et al., 2006) reduces acrylamide level in fried foods up to 90% by converting asparagine into aspartic acid and ammonia, without altering the appearance, taste and quality of the final product (Kukurova et al., 2009; Ciesarova et al., 2010).
3.6.5.3 Role in amino acid metabolism…show more content… C.glutamicum use aspartic acids as a precursor for synthesize these commercially important amino acids. In normal physiological conditions aspartic acid present in limited form. Extra aspartic acid is formed from asparagine by the action of L-asparaginase. L-Asparaginase was produced constitutively in the cell and its role may be that of an overflow enzyme, converting excess asparagines into aspartic acid. A very active L-asparaginase was found in C. glutamicum under lysine producing fermentation