The Application of Nutrimetabolomics to Investigating the Bioaccessibility of Nutrients in Ham Using a Batch <i>in Vitro</i> Digestion Model

Abstract

Delivering high quality dietary protein at an affordable price is a major aim of the EU-funded CHANCE project. Foods have been formulated with this aim and as part of their nutritional assessment; the bioaccessbility of nu trients following simulated gastroduodenal digestion is being investigated. Nutrimetabolomics approaches can be used to comprehensively and quantitatively analyse nutrients and metabolites. They have been applied to moni tor nutrient release from ham, formulated in the CHANCE project, during in vitro digestion. SDS-PAGE analy sis shows that constituent ham proteins were broken down to lower molecular weight polypeptides (Mr ≤ 10 kDa) after 120 min simulated gastric digestion which w as digested further by subsequent duodenal digestion. Diges tion of porteins resulted in the appearance of coalesced lipid droplets associated with the loss of the muscle pro tein matrix of the ham. Important nutrients, such as choline, creatine, carnosine, sucrose, cholesterol, triacyl glyceride and fatty acids (saturated and unsaturated) were identified using 1 H NMR. Chance ham is a good source of dietary protein and the combined approach can provide representative data on the bioaccessibility of all detectable nutrients contained in CHANCE ham to human digestive system .