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Challenges in Quantifying Digestion

  • Robert Havenaar
  • Mans MinekusEmail author
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Abstract

This chapter discusses the challenges in relation to food and nutrient terminology, chemical analysis, human and animal digestion studies as well as those related to in vitro digestion studies with static methods and dynamic gastrointestinal models. Although it looks simple, using uniform terminology and definitions in food and digestion science is the first challenge. The same is true for the analysis methods for determining the concentrations of food compounds in samples from in vivo and in vitro studies. Effort has been taken by different institutes and working groups to standardize these challenges. Then comes the challenge in setting up of studies, be it human clinical studies, animal studies, or in vitro studies. Each type of study has its specific challenges that should be recognized before starting digestion experiments. We discuss these challenges to support the researcher, but we do realize that not all aspects are covered.

Keywords

Food digestion In vivo studies Animal studies In vitro studies In vitro digestion models Food analysis Standardization 
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© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Triskelion B.V.ZeistThe Netherlands

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