Background
In vivo assays cannot always be conducted because of ethical reasons, technical constraints or costs, but a better understanding of the digestive process, especially in infants, could be of great help in preventing food-related pathologies and in developing new formulas with health benefits. In this context, in vitro dynamic systems to simulate human digestion and, in particular, infant digestion could become increasingly valuable.
Conclusions
The M.I.D.A. system was able to digest simple starches and a more complex food in the correct compartments. In this study, better digestibility of the premium product was revealed.
Objective
To simulate the digestive process through the use of a dynamic model of the infant gastroenteric apparatus to study the digestibility of starch-based infant foods. Design: Using M.I.D.A (Model of an Infant Digestive Apparatus), the oral, gastric and intestinal digestibility of two starch-based products were measured: 1) rice starch mixed with distilled water and treated using two different sterilization
Results
An in vitro dynamic system, which was referred to as M.I.D.A., was obtained. Using this system, the starch digestion occurred only during the oral and intestinal phase, as expected. The D-glucose released during the intestinal phase was different between the classical and HTST methods (0.795 grams for the HTST versus 0.512 for the classical product). The same analysis was performed for the basic and premium products. In this case, the premium product had a significant difference in terms of the starch hydrolysis percentage during the entire process. Conclusions: The M.I.D.A. system was able to digest simple starches and a more complex food in the correct compartments. In this study, better digestibility of the premium product was revealed.