Food properties of egg white protein modified by rare ketohexoses through Maillard reaction

d ‐psicose (Psi), a rare ketohexose, improves food properties of proteins through the Maillard reaction (MR) much more than d ‐fructose (Fru). This encouraged us to investigate the improvement of food properties of proteins through MR with various rare ketohexoses (d ‐psicose, Psi; d ‐tagatose, Tag; and d ‐sorbose, Sor). The food properties of egg white protein (EWP) after reaction with Psi, Tag, Sor and Fru were studied. Psi‐EWP (43.3 μmol TE g^?1) and Tag‐EWP (43.4 μmol TE g^?1) had the highest antioxidant activity, followed by Sor‐EWP (38.4 μmol TE g^?1) and Fru‐EWP (38.9 μmol TE g^?1). MR enhanced the breaking stress of heat‐induced EWP gels by 224–267%. The breaking stress was higher in Psi‐EWP (81.1 kN m^?2), Tag‐EWP (80.0 kN m^?2) and Sor‐EWP (77.8 kN m^?2) than in Fru‐EWP (71.6 kN m^?2). Furthermore, the foaming capacity was highest in Psi‐EWP and Sor‐EWP. Rare ketohexoses improved food properties of EWP more than Fru. Overall, Psi offered the greatest functional improvement.