Effects of Maillard reaction conditions on the antigenicity of α-lactalbumin and β-lactoglobulin in whey protein conjugated with maltose

The effects of Maillard reaction conditions (weight ratio of protein to sugar, temperature and time) on the antigenicity of α-lactalbumin (α-LA) and β-lactoglobulin (β-LG) in conjugates of whey protein isolate (WPI) with maltose were investigated. Response surface methodology was used to establish models to predict the antigenicity of α-LA and β-LG and find an optimal reaction condition under which the antigenicity of α-LA and β-LG reduces to minimum value. Conjugating WPI with maltose was an effective way to reduce the antigenicity of α-LA and β-LG. The antigenicity of α-LA decreased from 32.25 μg mL −1 to 10.91 μg mL −1 . And the antigenicity of β-LG decreased from 272.4 μg mL −1 to 38.17 μg mL −1 . Temperature had the greatest effect on the antigenicity of α-LA, while weight ratio of WPI to maltose was the most significant factor on the antigenicity of β-LG.