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Making a Protein Claim: Factors impacting Protein Quality and a New Way for Measuring
D. PLANK (1), D. Schmieg (2), L. Povolny (2) (1) Medallion Labs / General Mills, Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A.; (2) Medallion Labs / General Mills, Inc., Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A..

High-protein foods are increasingly desired by consumers and have been demonstrated to help satisfy an individual’s feeling of hunger for a longer period of time than when consuming comparatively lower protein foods. The feeling of fullness that high-protein foods can give helps limit overconsumption of food and can help promote a healthy lifestyle. Further, a high-protein diet can support muscle growth and maintenance for active individuals. Given the nutritional and lifestyle benefits of a high-protein diet, manufacturers are providing increasing numbers of high-protein products to the consuming public. Before marketing these products, manufacturers must first assure that their product meets a minimum of 10% DV of quality protein on both a per serving basis and a per RACC basis. The methodology prescribed by law in the U.S, and in many jurisdictions around the world for determining protein quality is the PDCAAS (Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score). However, beyond being an expensive and time consuming test, the standard PDCAAS method also requires the use and sacrifice of animals for determining digestibility. We discuss here an animal-safe method for determining protein quality equivalent to PDCAAS (R2 ~0.98) which does not use animals for the determination of digestibility.