The progress of the Maillard reaction in two infant milks (liquid and powdered forms of the samecommercial brand) was monitored for 9 months of storage at 20, 30, and 37
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C. An increase infurfural compounds [hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and furfural (F)] was observed while no changesin available lysine occurred during storage at any temperature. In reconstituted powdered infantmilk, at the three storage temperatures, the contents of free and total HMF ranged from 10.3 to23.5
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mol/L and from 15.0 to 34.7
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mol/L, respectively. The content of free and total F ranged from1.1 to 5.3
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mol/L and from 1.8 to 6.8
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mol/L, respectively. Free and total HMF content in liquidinfant milk ranged from 0.6 to 1.6
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mol/L and from 9.0 to 12.2
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mol/L, respectively. The content offree and total F ranged from 0.3 to 0.6
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mol/L and from 1.4 to 2.3
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mol/L, respectively. Althoughfree and total HMF and F were always higher in powdered milk than in liquid infant milk, in thelatter the ratio total HMF/free HMF was more than 10 times that in powdered infant milk. On thebasis of the increase in furfural compounds and by using the sum of free HMF and free F, an equationhas been derived by which the shelf life of such products can be predicted.Keywords: HMF; F; furfural compounds; available lysine; infant milks