Cited by 5,199Food composition and propertiesFood and Agricultural SciencesProteins in Food Systems

INFOGEST static in vitro simulation of gastrointestinal food digestion

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Brodkorb, André, Egger, Lotti, Alminger, Marie, Alvito, Paula, Assunção, Ricardo, Ballance, Simon, Bohn, Torsten, Bourlieu-Lacanal, Claire +27 more·2019·Nature Protocols

Abstract

Developing a mechanistic understanding of the impact of food structure and composition on human health has increasingly involved simulating digestion in the upper gastrointestinal tract. These simulations have used a wide range of different conditions that often have very little physiological relevance, and this impedes the meaningful comparison of results. The standardized protocol presented here is based on an international consensus developed by the COST INFOGEST network. The method is designed to be used with standard laboratory equipment and requires limited experience to encourage a wide range of researchers to adopt it. It is a static digestion method that uses constant ratios of meal to digestive fluids and a constant pH for each step of digestion. This makes the method simple to use but not suitable for simulating digestion kinetics. Using this method, food samples are subjected to sequential oral, gastric and intestinal digestion while parameters such as electrolytes, enzymes, bile, dilution, pH and time of digestion are based on available physiological data. This amended and improved digestion method (INFOGEST 2.0) avoids challenges associated with the original method, such as the inclusion of the oral phase and the use of gastric lipase. The method can be used to assess the endpoints resulting from digestion of foods by analyzing the digestion products (e.g., peptides/amino acids, fatty acids, simple sugars) and evaluating the release of micronutrients from the food matrix. The whole protocol can be completed in ~7 d, including ~5 d required for the determination of enzyme activities.

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  • Quantifying the local exposure that matters for interactions cannot be inferred from plasma concentrations but requires dedicated methods.

    “Quantifying the local exposure that truly matters for interactions cannot be inferred from plasma concentrations but requires dedicated methods [48,62].”

    From Berberine-Drug Interactions: Mechanisms, Clinical Relevance and Risk Stratification-A Narrative Review (2026) · cites this paper as [62]

    The Bioaccessibility of phytochemicals section (p. 28) describes dedicated digestion and separation methods for assessing the bioaccessible fraction of dietary compounds. It does not say that plasma concentrations cannot indicate local exposure, or establish which local exposure matters for interactions. (LLM, conf=0.79)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • INFOGEST was further improved to include an oral phase and lipase enzyme during the gastric phase (INFOGEST 2.0).

    “This is referred to as the INFOGEST method, and was further improved upon to include an oral phase and lipase enzyme during the gastric phase (INFOGEST 2.0) (Brodkorb et al., 2019).”

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Authors
Brodkorb, A., Egger, L., Alminger, M., Alvito, P., Assunção, R., Ballance, S., Bohn, T., Bourlieu-Lacanal, C., Boutrou, R., Carrière, F., Clemente, A., Corredig, M., Dupont, D., Dufour, C., Edwards, C., Golding, M., Karakaya, S., Kirkhus, B., Le Feunteun, S., Lesmes, U., Macierzanka, A., Mackie, A. R., Martins, C., Marze, S., McClements, D. J., Ménard, O., Minekus, M., Portmann, R., Santos, C. N., Souchon, I., Singh, R. P., Vegarud, G. E., Wickham, M. S. J., Weitschies, W., & Recio, I.
Affiliations
  • Teagasc - The Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority (IE)
  • Agroscope (CH)
  • Chalmers University of Technology (SE)
  • National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge (PT)
  • Nofima (NO)
  • Luxembourg Institute of Health (LU)
  • Institut Agro Rennes-Angers (FR)
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
  • Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ES)
  • University of Copenhagen (DK)
  • Sécurité et Qualité des Produits d'Origine Végétale (FR)
  • Quadram Institute (GB)
  • Riddet Institute (NZ)
  • Ege University (TR)
  • Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (IL)
  • Gdańsk University of Technology (PL)
  • University of Leeds (GB)
  • Biopolymères Interactions Assemblages (FR)
  • University of Massachusetts Amherst (US)
  • Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica (PT)
  • AgroParisTech (FR)
  • University of California System (US)
  • Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NO)
  • Universität Greifswald (DE)
Corresponding author
Brodkorb, André
Venue
Nature Protocols
Published
2019-03-18
Volume
14
Issue
4
Pages
991-1014
ISSN
  • 1750-2799 (ISSN-L)
  • 1754-2189
OpenAlex
W2920925854
Cited by
5,199
References
116
Citations by year
2026: 1252 · 2025: 1186 · 2024: 967 · 2023: 724 · 2022: 515 · 2021: 337 · 2020: 174 · 2019: 40 · 2012: 1
FWCI
202.36
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Protocols (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (acceptedVersion)
  • T-Stór (Teagasc) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • HAL AMU (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Arrow@dit (Dublin Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • HAL (submittedVersion)
  • DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion)
  • NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) (submittedVersion)
  • Scientific Repository of the National Health Institute Doutor Ricardo Jorge (Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge) (submittedVersion)
  • Chalmers Research (Chalmers University of Technology) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Teagasc
  • Universidade de Lisboa
  • Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique
  • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBS/E/F/00044427, BBS/E/F/000PR10345)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Food composition and properties
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Food and Agricultural Sciences
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Proteins in Food Systems
Keywords
in vitro digestion, upper gastrointestinal tract, INFOGEST, oral digestion, gastric digestion, intestinal digestion, food structure, food composition, peptide release, fatty acid release, amino acids, digestive enzymes, bile, gastric lipase
MeSH terms
Food Ingredients, Amino Acids, Bile, Digestion, Eating, Fatty Acids, Food, Gastric Juice, Humans, Hydrogen-Ion Concentration, Hydrolysis, Intestines, Models, Biological, Mouth, Oligosaccharides, Peptide Fragments, Saliva, Stomach, Biomimetic Materials, Enzyme Assays

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