ABSTRACT
Saccharides are common components of foods as natural components and added ingredients. Together with lipids and proteins, they represent one of the basic nutrients serving as the most important source of energy in human diet. Because of their wide range of chemical and physical properties, saccharides have additionally many valuable functions in foods such as sweetening, gelatinization, thickening, or stabilization properties, and they can also act as precursors for aroma and coloring substances. Saccharides are also called carbohydrates, which suggests that they are all hydrates of carbon, namely, Cx(H2O)y. Among the most important types of carbohydrates in foods are the sugars, dextrins, starches, celluloses, hemicelluloses, pectins, and certain gums. By now, many other components such as deoxysugars, amino sugars, and sugar carboxylic acids have been included in this class of compounds. Basically, saccharides are divided into monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides. For the development of food ‹avor, mostly monosaccharides are involved in the course of caramelization and Maillard reaction (MR). In this chapter, universal mechanisms and pathways in aroma compounds formation of process ‹avors from saccharides precursors will be discussed.
