Comparison of Protein Digestibility of a Commercial Food Sample with a Sample of Home Made Food in Rats

Introduction & Evaluation of the quality of food proteins have a great importance because of biological and economical impacts. Different biological, microbiological, chemical and combined methods have been used and introduced for determining quality of proteins. Considering the importance of protein quality in foods especially in downscale families, this study was conducted to compare protein digestibility of a commercial food sample (Homana based on rice) with a sample of home made food (based on mixed rice -bean) in rats.Materialas & This experimental study was conducted on 32 male Wistar rats, aged 21 days under 4 diets in 8 groups including: 2 cases diet (Homana and mixed rice -bean), 1 standard diet (casein plus methionine) and 1 basal diet (protein free) with a weight mean of 65.4 gr/groups. The study was conducted in biochemistry department of Kashan University of Medical Sciences in 2007. The duration of follow up for true protein digestibility and apparent digestibility was 9 days.True protein digestibility and apparent digestibility were analyzed by ANOVA and Tukey methods through SPSS software. True protein digestibility was 92.8±4, 87±8 and 79.7±1.6 while apparent digestibility was 89.8±4.3, 80.6±4.2 and 76.8±1.6 for casein plus methionine, commercial food and home made food groups, respectively. The differences between three groups were significant (p<0.0001). The findings showed that protein digestibility of home made food based on rice and bean mixture is nearly almost equal to the industrial food of Homana.