ABSTRACT
The nutritional value of a food protein depends on the distribution of the amino acids that can be absorbed in a bioavailable form. This bioavailability may be modified during processing and storage. Although processing provides an additional value to foods in improving their safety, shelf life, palatability, and nutritive value, the conditions applied during treatment and storage may be detrimental to protein. Proteins and individual amino acids react differently to processing and storage conditions. Conventional technologies are used mainly to preserve foods, to isolate food fractions, or to improve functional, organoleptic, or nutritional properties. Lysine is the most readily chemically modified essential amino acid. Its ??-amino group can react with many food components and can be modified by chemical as well as enzymatic systems, including ones that improve the functional properties of food proteins. Such modifications have different effects on the biological availability of lysine, depending on the chemical structure of the derivatives formed.
