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Cereal Chem 54:958 - 983.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Application of Animal Data to Human Protein Nurition: A Review.

C. E. Bodwell. Copyright 1977 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

The relation between animal and human assays for estimating the nutritional value of proteins is discussed with emphasis on assessing the merit of using data from animal assays for nutritional labeling purposes. It is concluded that data on estimated essential amino acid requirments are insufficiently precise to justify making conclusions about the relative requirements of rats and humans. The limited number of studies reported, in which assays, made with both rats and humans who have been given the same preparations of proteins, are reviewed. In these studies, agreement usually has been poor between the estimated nutritive values obtained by animal and human assays. Problems inherent in the application of the Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER) assay, for nutritional labeling, are briefly discussed. Various alternatives to animal assays are considered and the requirements of an ideal assay are rooted. Finally, data are presented as a basis for questioning the practicality, in relation to nutritional labeling, of attempting to make precise quantitative estimates of nutritional value. It is stressed that considerable caution should be exercised to ensure that any assay used as a basis for nutritional labeling reflects, as differences in protein quality, only those differences which are real under practical conditions.

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