Protein Digestibility Hub

The Protein Digestibility Hub Project serves as a dedicated repository for protein digestibility information, addressing a critical gap in accessible data. Recognizing this need through discussions at The International Symposium: Dietary Protein for Human Health and the FAO's call for a single source of digestibility information, our objective is to establish a centralized resource to support research and education. Leveraging our nonprofit status committed to advancing nutrition science through data, The Nutrient Institute aims to play a supportive role in leading this effort. The forthcoming open-access database, designed in alignment with FAIR principles and utilizing an ontology, will provide a structured and easily searchable repository tailored for protein scientists and beyond. It will be a comprehensive source encompassing digestibility values, metadata, and spanning all food types and analytical methodologies. Designed to be a valuable resource for a wide range of expertise, it aims to foster inclusivity by consolidating much-needed digestibility data in one place. The ultimate goal is to encourage collaboration and propel science forward through a unified language.

To provide feedback on this app or sign up to be notified about future releases, visit the Nutrient Institute website.

What is in this repository?

This repository contains the resources used to run the Protein Digestibility Hub app. Below you will find a brief description of the two tabs within the app: Protein Digestibility Data and Protein Quality Scoring. Both tabs are run from code in the app.R file.

Protein Digestibility Data

Data displayed in the Protein Digestibility Data table are provided in Protein Digestibility Data - full data.csv. Additionally, data and documentation of column definitions are provided as a Microsoft Excel file (Protein Digestibility Data - data and documentation.xlsx).

The current version of the Protein Digestibility Hub, contains data collected from the following sources:

• USDA ENERGY VALUE OF FOODS (Agricultural Handbook No. 74, 1955)
• AMINO-ACID CONTENT OF FOODS AND BIOLOGICAL DATA ON PROTEINS (FAO 1970) (Note: Original publication has been removed from FAO website, but can still be accessed via the Wayback Machine)
• Report of a Sub-Committee of the 2011 FAO Consultation on 'Protein Quality Evaluation in Human Nutrition'
• Nutrient Requirements of Swine: Eleventh Revised Edition (NRC 2012) ^a

^aDigestibility and protein data from Nutrient Requirements of Swine: Eleventh Revised Edition (NRC 2012) was collected from the following sources:

1. AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials). 2010. Official Publication. Oxford, IN: AAFCO.
2. AminoDat 4.0. 2010. Evonik Industries, Hanau, Germany.
3. Cera, K. R., D. C. Mahan, and G. A. Reinhart. 1989. Apparent fat digestibilities and performance responses of postweaning swine fed diets supplemented with coconut oil, corn oil or tallow. Journal of Animal Science 67:2040-2047.
4. CVB (Dutch PDV [Product Board Animal Feed]). 2008. CVB Feedstuff Database. Available online at http://www.pdv.nl/english/Voederwaardering/about_cvb/index.php. Accessed on June 9, 2011.
5. NRC (National Research Council). 1998. Nutrient Requirements of Swine,10th Rev. Ed. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
6. NRC. 2007. Nutrient Requirements of Horses, 6th Rev. Ed. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
7. Powles, J., J. Wiseman, D. J. A. Cole, and S. Jagger. 1995. Prediction of the apparent digestible energy value of fats given to pigs. Animal Science 61:149-154.
8. Sauvant, D., J. M. Perez, and G. Tran. 2004. Tables of Composition and Nutritional Value of Feed Materials: Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Goats, Rabbits, Horses, Fish, INRA, Paris, France, ed. Wageningen, the Netherlands: Wageningen Academic.
9. USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture), Agricultural Research Service. 2010. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 23. Nutrient Data Laboratory Home Page. Available online at http://www.ars.usda.gov/ba/bhnrc/ndl. Accessed on August 10, 2011.
10. van Milgen, J., J. Noblet, and S. Dubois. 2001. Energetic efficiency of starch, protein, and lipid utilization in growing pigs. Journal of Nutrition 131:1309-1318.

Protein Quality Scoring

Protein quality scores are generated using EAA recommendations and scoring patterns (data and references provided in scoring_pattern.csv), amino acid composition data, and protein digestibility data. The same protein digestibility data is used in both tabs of the app; unique digestibility values can be identified between tables using the variable NI_ID. Amino acid composition data is currently provided by USDA SR Legacy, in future releases of this data multiple amino acid composition data sources will be utilized and amino acid data will be provided in the repository data.

Portion sizes utilized to calculate EAA-9 scores were previously published in Forester et al. ^1<\sup>

Protein quality scores are calculated from the following formulas:

• $\text{EAA-9}=min(\frac{\text{His Present}}{\text{His RDA}},\frac{\text{Ile Present}}{\text{Ile RDA}},\frac{\text{Leu Present}}{\text{Leu RDA}},\frac{\text{Lys Present}}{\text{Lys RDA}},\frac{\text{Met Present}}{\text{Met RDA}},\frac{\text{Phe Present}}{\text{Phe RDA}},\frac{\text{Thr Present}}{\text{Thr RDA}},\frac{\text{Trp Present}}{\text{Trp RDA}},\frac{\text{Val Present}}{\text{Val RDA}})\times100\times\text{digestibility}$
  Calculation is based on the minimum percentage of the RDA met per serving(s) of food, where the minimum is the lowest percentage met by a single amino acid. ¹
• $\text{PDCAAS}=min(\frac{\text{mg of amino acid in 1 g test protein}}{\text{mg of amino acid in reference pattern}},1)\times\text{digestibility}$
  FAO/WHO/UNU amino acid score calculated using limiting amino acid and truncated at 100%; equations are further defined in the 2007 FAO/WHO/UNU report. ²
• $\text{DIAAS}=100\times\frac{\text{mg of digestible dietary indispensable amino acid in 1 g of the dietary protein}}{\text{mg of the same dietary indispensable amino acid in 1g of the reference protein}}$
  Values above 100% should not be truncated as was done for the PDCAAS value, except where calculating DIAAS for protein or amino acid intakes for mixed diets or sole source foods where truncated values must be used. ³

References:

1. Forester SM, Jennings-Dobbs EM, Sathar SA, Layman DK. Perspective: Developing a Nutrient-Based Framework for Protein Quality. J Nutr. 2023 Aug;153(8):2137-2146. doi: 10.1016/j.tjnut.2023.06.004. Epub 2023 Jun 8. PMID: 37301285.
2. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, World Health Organization & United Nations University. Protein and amino acid requirements in human nutrition : report of a joint FAO/WHO/UNU expert consultation [Internet]. World Health Organization; 2007 [cited 2022 Dec 1]. Available from: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/43411.
3. FAO. Dietary protein quality evaluation in human nutrition: report of an FAO Expert Consultation. Food and nutrition paper; 92. FAO: Rome [Internet]. FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization); 2013. Available from: https://www.fao.org/ag/humannutrition/35978-02317b979a686a57aa4593304ffc17f06.pdf.

Please note that this project is actively under development and data is subject to change prior to a full release.