Identification of blood-red color formation in edible bird's nests provides a new strategy for safety control. (30th August 2021) - Cheng, Chun-Song
Highlights: Detecting the mechanism of turning red for natural and artificial blood-red ENBs. Discovering the chemical markers of reddening reaction in EBNs. Establishing a systematic method of chemical identification for blood-red ENBs. Providing a new identification strategy for food safety control of blood-red EBNs. Abstract: In order to reveal the color formation mechanism of blood-red edible bird's nests (EBNs) and develop a quick and specific strategy to distinguish the artificial fake one, multiple methods of UPLC-TOF/MS, UV, NMR, FT-IR and 2D IR were used to detect the chemical markers of the reddening reaction, the results showed that the reddening substances were C9 H10 N2 O5 and C9 H9 NO6, which were verified as products of a phenol-keto tautomerism evolved from l -tyrosine. Moreover, natural and artificial red EBNs with varying degrees of chemical fumigation also can be successfully distinguished using the chemical markers, and the protein variation in SDS-PAGE gel could also support the distinction. This work established a systematic method of chemical identification for both natural and artificial blood-red EBNs, and provided a new identification strategy for food safety control that can promote the development of a healthier market of EBNs.