Research Topic · Peer-Reviewed

Digestible Protein

Digestible protein is the fraction of dietary protein that is enzymatically broken down in the gastrointestinal tract and absorbed as amino acids and peptides, thereby becoming available to the body for synthesis of tissue, enzymes, hormones, and immune components. It is distinguished from total or crude protein, wh…

Curated from this journal's research 📚 9 peer-reviewed articles cited Cited 184× across the literature 🔖 ISSN 2379-7835 🗓 Reviewed July 2026

Overview

Digestible protein is the fraction of dietary protein that is enzymatically broken down in the gastrointestinal tract and absorbed as amino acids and peptides, thereby becoming available to the body for synthesis of tissue, enzymes, hormones, and immune components. It is distinguished from total or crude protein, which includes material that passes through undigested, and is a key measure of protein quality because the nutritional value of a food depends not only on how much protein it contains but on how effectively that protein can be used. Digestibility is influenced by the protein's source and structure, the presence of anti-nutritional factors, food processing, and the physiological state of the consumer. In nutrition science, protein quality is assessed by indices that combine digestibility with amino-acid composition, such as digestibility-corrected scoring methods, allowing different foods to be compared for their capacity to meet amino-acid requirements. Adequate intake of high-quality, digestible protein supports growth, tissue maintenance and repair, muscle mass, and metabolic and immune function, and is especially important during periods of increased demand such as childhood, pregnancy, recovery from illness, and ageing. In both human and animal nutrition, measuring and improving protein digestibility informs the formulation of diets and the evaluation of protein sources, ensuring that the amino acids essential for health are actually delivered to the organism rather than lost.

Research published in this journal

9 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.

2019

Functional Food

Butnariu MonicaCorresponding author
Banat’s University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine “King Michael I of Romania” from Timisoara, Timis, Romania
International Journal of Nutrition Cited by 95 doi:10.14302/issn.2379-7835.ijn-19-2615

How this research is being cited

The 9 articles above have been cited 184 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.

A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Digestible Protein, linking to each citing work.

Editorial oversight

Curated from peer-reviewed research published in International Journal of Nutrition (ISSN 2379-7835).

Journal editorial board
Kadri Koppel · United States Alicja Kuban-Jankowska · Poland Luigia Pazzagli · Italy

This page summarises published research for orientation; it is not medical or professional advice.