Evaluation of infant formula protein quality: comparison of in vitro with in vivo methods.

Two-week protein efficiency ratio (2-wk PER), net protein ratio (NPR), calculated-protein efficiency ratio (C-PER), and discriminant computed-protein efficiency ratio (DC-PER) of milk- and soy-based infant formulas were compared to a 4-week protein efficiency ratio (PER). Expressed relative to ANRC casein, 2-week PER and NPR correlated significantly (P less than 0.01, r = 0.90) with PER. Although C-PER and DC-PER also correlated significantly (P less than 0.01) with PER, r = 0.71 and r = 0.87, respectively, these in vitro methods did not distinguish differences in protein quality among soy-based infant formulas. C-PER and DC-PER, as currently designed, are not applicable to the measurement of protein quality for all types of infant formulas.