Mechanochemistry by milling has recently attracted considerable
interest for its ability to drive solvent-free chemical transformations
exclusively through mechanical energy and at ambient temperatures.
Despite its popularity and expanding applications in different fields
of chemistry, its impact on Food Science remains limited. This review
aims to demonstrate the specific benefits that mechanochemistry can
provide in performing controlled glycation, and in “activating”
sugar and amino acid mixtures, thereby allowing for continued generation
of colors and aromas even after termination of milling. The generated
mechanical energy can be tuned under specific conditions either to
form only the corresponding Schiff bases and Amadori compounds or
to generate their degradation products, as a function of the frequency
of the oscillations in combination with the reactivity of the selected
substrates. Similarly, its ability to initiate the Strecker degradation
and generate pyrazines and Strecker aldehydes was also demonstrated
when proteogenic amino acids were milled with glyoxal.