Digestion study of proteins from cooked meat using an enzymatic microreactor

A semi automatic flow procedure with photometric detection was developed for the study of meat protein digestion. This system comprised two independent flow pathways, gathered by two compartments. The gastric compartment was simulated by an ultrafiltration cell fitted with a 10 KDa cut off membrane and the intestinal compartment was simulated by a 1 KDa cut off dialysis membrane. The pathways were filled with solutions simulating digestive conditions. The proposed system was employed in digestion studies of whole protein extracts from raw and cooked (100 °C) meat. A mathematical modelling for the determination of the digestive kinetic constants was established. The results show that meat cooking leads to an important decrease of protein digestibility by proteases of the digestive tract.