Food Safety of Functional Neoglycoproteins Prepared by Covalent Attachment of Galactomannan to Food Proteins

Hen egg-white lysozyme, ovalbumin, egg-yolk phosvitin, acid-precipitated soy protein and $\alpha$$_{sl}$ milk casein were covalently linked with galactomannan through a controlled dry-heating at 6$0^{\circ}C$ under 79% relative humidity without any chemical reagent. Neoglycosylation by the covalent binding of polysaccharide chains brought a significant improvement into the surface functionalities of food proteins. Excellent emulsifying properties and foaming properties were observed in all protein-galactomannan conjugates. Bacterial mutagenesis tests and animal dose test were done to evaluate the food safety of the protein-galactomannan conjugates. The neo-glycoproteins were negative for Ames test using Salmonella typhimurium TA100 (hisG46) and TA98 (hisD3052) strains, and rec-assay using Bacillus subtilis Hl7 (rec) and M45 (re $c^{+}$) strains. All substances were also nontoxic for oral administration to rats. L $D_{50}$ 's of these substances were all more than 7.5 g/kg body-weight of rat. No effect was also observed in the weight increases and the concentrations of total cholesterol, triglyceride and phospholipids in blood serum of the administrated rats with 7.5 g/kg conjugates. Thus, Maillard-type protein-polysaccharide conjugates prepared by covalent attachment of galactomannan to food proteins were proposed to be useful as a safe functional biopolymer in this study.y.