Maillard reaction with ribose, galacto-oligosaccharide or chitosan-oligosaccharide reduced the allergenicity of shrimp tropomyosin by inducing conformational changes.

Tropomyosin (TM), the predominant shellfish allergen, has induced severe food allergy worldwide, but efficient prevention and cure measures are limited nowadays. In the present study, we introduced an approach to eliminate Penaeus chinensis TM by Maillard reaction with reducing sugars including ribose, galacto-oligosaccharide (GOS) and chitosan-oligosaccharide (COS), which reduced the allergenicity by up to 60%. We also evaluated the conformational changes of TM during reaction by far-UV circular dichroism, and found the reaction-induced alternation from α-helix to β-sheet. We further determined the effect of Maillard reaction on TM allergenic epitopes to investigate the detailed mechanisms, and revealed the structure preference of different sugars. Correlation analysis with experimental data revealed that α-helix mediated the allergenicity elimination by Maillard reaction. There results provided theoretical foundations for the improvement and application of Maillard reaction in allergenic food processing.