[Are products of the Maillard-reaction in babyfood toxic for the newborn? (AUTHOR'S TRANSL)].
It was investigated, whether during the whole course of pregnancy in guinea pigs there is a materno-fetal transfer of epilon-fructoselysin, the most important product of the so-called Maillard-reaction. Several authors accused Maillard-products in terminal sterilized babyfood as a dangerous agent, which has been shown, to hamper fetal development in rats. Experimentally, C14-labelled epsilon-fructose-lysin appears in the fetal blood, 15 min after injection to the narcotized mother, reaches maternal blood concentration after 30 min, and later stays at higher levels as in the maternal blood until the end of the experiment after 120 min. Thereby the transfer of Maillard-products to the fetus is proven. From the fact, that man since using fire for cooking takes up an important amount of Maillard-reaction-products, it can safely be concluded that these products most likely are not dangerous to the human fetus or new-born.