[Food protein quality. III Enzymatic ultrafiltrate digest (EUD) aminoacid index (author's transl)].

An aminoacid index for protein quality evaluation is presented, using a new model of enzymatic digestion of proteins in vitro. The EUD index is obtained determining on the ultrafiltrate the available aminoacids after digestion with pepsin, trypsin, pancretin and erepsin in an Amicon ultrafiltration cell. A very high correlation is obtained between EUD index and the biological values of 10 protein or food protein samples. The experimental validity of this in vitro method allow his utilization for direct evaluation of protein quality instead of the more complicated and time consuming biological tests.