URBANA, Ill. – Nearly a decade ago, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) developed a new index to assess protein quality in foods. The goal, writ large, was to address food security for the world’s most vulnerable populations, creating more accurate tools for food assistance programs seeking to provide balanced nutrition. 

Hans H. Stein at the University of Illinois knew he could help. The new index, known as the digestible indispensable amino acid score (DIAAS), parses out the digestibility of individual amino acids making up proteins. And it relies on pigs, not rats, as the preferred model for humans. (Read more...)