Pork cuts, hams, and sausages have digestible indispensable amino acid scores (DIAAS) close to or over 100

Background

The “Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score” (DIAAS) method measures protein quality in human foods. Animal-based products generally have high protein quality, but DIAAS values for some pork products are not available. Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to determine standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of amino acids (AA) and DIAAS values for pork products, including three types of pork cuts, Italian hams, and sausages, and to test the hypothesis that all pork products have DIAAS equal to or greater than 100.

Results

The mean SID of the indispensable AA in all pork products was above 90% and indicated excellent digestibility. For children from 6 months to 3 years old and individuals older than 3 years, prosciutto had greater (p < 0.05) DIAAS than all other pork products. Tenderloin and Coppa had greater (p < 0.05) DIAAS than back ribs, shoulder butt, chorizo, and bratwurst. There were no limiting AA in any of the pork products (DIAAS >100) with the exception that sulfur AA (SAA: methionine + cysteine) were limiting in chorizo for children from 6 months to 3 years old (DIAAS = 99).

Conclusion

With the exception of chorizo for children less than 3 years old, all pork products have “excellent” protein quality for individuals older than 6 months of age, with DIAAS greater than 100. Pork proteins can, therefore, complement proteins with low quality to produce a meal that is adequate in all AA.