InnoGI Technologies adds a DIAAS protein quality measurement service to its SurroGUT platform

InnoGI Technologies, formerly The TIM Company, headquartered in Delft in the Netherlands, has announced the addition of the DIAAS protein quality assessment service to its SurroGUT platform. The company's validated in vitro approach enables non-invasive but accurate measurements of the protein quality, taking into account the protein's amino acid profile and their true ileal digestibility.

The demand for high-quality protein is increasing due to the growing population, higher standards of living, and individual dietary preferences. This demand is being met by conventional and novel proteins, including SynBio, which should be rich in digestible and indispensable amino acids. Accurate methods are therefore needed to assess the nutritional quality of these proteins.

As an alternative to the PER or PDCAAS, the FAO/WHO recommends DIAAS as a means to determine the nutritional quality of protein because it takes into account the true ileal digestibility of amino acids in the human ileum. The FAO/WHO has also endorsed the development and validation of rapid in vitro protein digestibility assays to replace measurements in human and animal models.

The quality of dietary protein is best studied in humans, but such studies are time-consuming, invasive, and expensive. Pigs or rats are often used as alternatives, but, the latter shows poor correlation with human ileal amino acid digestibility. The SurroGUT platform provides an accurate in vitro model of the human gut, allowing predictive DIAAS measurements based on the true ileal digestibility. The correlation between the average true ileal amino acid digestibility determined on in TIM system, part of SurroGUT platform, and the pig model in vivo for six food proteins was 94%. The correlation between pigs and humans for the exact same products was also reported with 94%.

"Our dynamic in vitro gastrointestinal model, using SurroGUT platform, adheres to the FAO Expert Committee's recommendation for an in vitro approach that follows the 3R principles of replacing, reducing and refining animal studies," explained Behzad Mahdavi, CEO of InnoGI Technologies, setting out the advantages of the new service. "Experimental turnaround times are extremely short, thus providing valuable insights for our customers more rapidly than in vivo or other static invitro tests, but at a competitive price."