Overview of the Protein Quality Assessment of

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa)

Matthew G. Nosworthy & James D. House

Department of Food and Human Nutritional Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2,
Canada.
Matthew.Nosworthy@umanitoba.ca; James.House@umanitoba.ca
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 Outline
• What is Quinoa ?
• Why is protein important?
• Protein quality assessment
• PER, PDCAAS
• Comparisons of protein
quality
• Where does quinoa fall?
• Enhancing quality
• Moving forward 2
 Quinoa
• Pseuodocereal- non-grass used in similar way to cereals
• Cultivated over 5000 years ago
• Broad genetic diversity
• Adaptable to different environments (frost, high salinity, etc)
• Reported by NASA (1993) to be a great food to take into space
• Finally made it there in 2015 (Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti)
• UN General Assembly named 2013 the international year of
quinoa
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 Demand for Quinoa

• Commercially available products?

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http://blogs.worldbank.org/trade/quinoa-the-little-cereal-that-could
Quinoa Products

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Nutrient composition of quinoa

Navrux-Varli & Sanlier (2016). J. Cereal Sci. 69:371-376

 Consumer Activity

2016 Food and Health Survey. Food Insight, May 11, 2016. International Food Information Council

http://www.new-nutrition.com

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 Quality vs Quantity

• Amino Acid Composition • Nitrogen Content

• Amino Acid Bioavailability • Protein Content
• Digestibility/absorption 8
 Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER)
• Measurement of growth
• Measure
• Diet Intake
• Weight gain
𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛 (𝑔)
• 𝑃𝐸𝑅 =
𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑖𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 (𝑔)
𝑃𝐸𝑅 𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡
• Adjusted PER= ∗ 2.5
𝑃𝐸𝑅 𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑖𝑛

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 Protein Quality: Protein Efficiency Ratio
Food Item Adjusted PER
Black Beans b 1.61 4

Chicken a 2.7
Chickpeas b 2.32

R
3

Eggs a 3.1

E
P
Milk a 2.5

d j u s t e d
Oatmeal a 1.8 2

Quinoa (boiled)d 2.5

Quinoa (Dehulled Flour) c 2.7 1

A
Quinoa (flour)d 2
Red Kidney Beans b 1.55 0

Split Yellow Peas b 1.42

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aMarinangeliand House. 2017. Nutrients, 75:658-667. bNosworthy et al. 2017. Food. Sci. Nutr. 5:896-903. cRanhotra et al. 1993.
Cereal Chem. 70:303-305. dMahoney et al. 1975. J. Agr. Food. Chem. 23:190-193
 Protein Digestibility-Corrected Amino Acid Score
(PDCAAS)
• Proposed by FAO/WHO in 1991 Reference Values
(mg/g protein)
• Adopted by USA in 1993 PDCAAS
• Amino Acid Score (AAS) (1991)
THR 34
o AA in food/AA in reference pattern VAL 35
o mg/g protein MET+CYS 25
o Reference pattern of 2-5 yr old school children (1991) ILE 28
• True Fecal Protein Digestibility (TFPD) LEU 66
o Fecal N output/Dietary N input PHE+TYR 63
o Corrected for endogenous losses HIS 19
LYS 58
• Additive TRP 11
• Can use existing PDCAAS data to predict new values

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 In vivo vs in vitro analysis
• Desire to reduce animal
experimentation R2=0.8991

In vitro PDCAAS
Ref 4
• Protein alone requires animal
experimentation
• PER/PDCAAS - rats
• Increasing evidence supporting in
vitro protein quality (PDCAAS)
• R2= 0.97841, 0.98982, 0.94423, 0.89914
PDCAAS

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1) Plank, D. Medallion Labs; 2) Nosworthy & House (2017) Cereal Chem., 94, 1-8;
3) Tavano et al. (2016) FRI, 89, 756-763; 4) Nosworthy et al. Unpublished
 Protein Quality: PDCAAS
Food Item PDCAAS
1 . 0

Black Beans b 0.53

Chicken a 1
Chickpeas b 0.52

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Eggs a 1

A
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Milk a 1 0 . 5

C
D
Oatmeal a 0.82

P
Quinoa (boiled) d 0.72
Quinoa (flour) d 0.64
Quinoa (washed) c 0.90 0 . 0

Quinoa (raw) c 0.81

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Red Kidney Beans b 0.55

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Split Yellow Peas b 0.64

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White Rice a 0.56

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Whole Green Lentils b 0.63

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aMarinangeli and House. 2017. Nutrients, 75:658-667. bNosworthy et al. 2017. Food. Sci. Nutr. 5:896-903. cRuales and Nair. 1992.
Plant Foods for Hum. Nutr. 42:1-11. dMahoney et al. 1975. J. Agr. Food. Chem. 23:190-193
 PDCAAS is Additive

Blending Chickpea and Barley Flour 14

Nosworthy and House. 2017. Cereal Chem. 94:49-57

 PDCAAS is Additive
100

P D C A A S v a lu e
90

80

70

60
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

% Q u in o a F lo u r

Blend of cooked quinoa with cooked yellow spit peas 15

 PDCAAS is Additive
Protein
THR VAL M+C ILE LEU P+T HIS LYS TRP Digestibility
Quinoa 40 59 49 52 77 62 21 57 19 92
Yellow
Split Pea 33 37 21 36 68 77 19 66 9 88
Yellow
Split Protein
Quinoa Pea THR VAL M+C ILE LEU P+T HIS LYS TRP Digestibility
1 0 40 59 49 52 77 62 21 57 19 92
0.9 0.1 39 57 46 50 76 63 21 58 18 91
0.8 0.2 39 55 43 49 75 65 21 59 17 91
0.7 0.3 38 52 41 47 74 66 20 60 16 91
0.6 0.4 37 50 38 46 74 68 20 61 15 90
0.5 0.5 37 48 35 44 73 69 20 62 14 90
0.4 0.6 36 46 32 42 72 71 20 63 13 90
0.3 0.7 35 43 30 41 71 72 20 63 12 89 16
0.2 0.8 35 41 27 39 70 74 20 64 11 89
0.1 0.9 34 39 24 37 69 75 19 65 10 89
0 1 33 37 21 36 68 77 19 66 9 88
 PDCAAS is Additive
Yellow Amino Acid Protein
Quinoa Split Pea Limiting Amino Acid Score Digestibility PDCAAS
1 0 Lysine 0.98 92 89.97
0.9 0.1 Lysine 1.00 91 91.11
0.8 0.2 Lysine 1.01 91 92.24
0.7 0.3 Lysine 1.03 91 93.36
0.6 0.4 Lysine 1.05 90 94.46
0.5 0.5 Histidine 1.06 90 95.42
0.4 0.6 Histidine 1.05 90 94.28
0.3 0.7 Threonine 1.04 89 92.48
0.2 0.8 Tryptophan 0.97 89 86.04
0.1 0.9 Tryptophan 0.87 89 77.31 17

0 1 Tryptophan 0.78 88 68.64

 PDCAAS is Additive
100

P D C A A S v a lu e
90

80

70

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0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

% Q u in o a F lo u r

Blend of cooked quinoa with cooked yellow spit peas 18

 Moving Forward
• DIAAS
• Most recent method for determining protein quality
• Uses amino acid digestibility rather than protein
• Digestibility is measured at the terminal ileum

• Novel blends involving quinoa

• Pulses, rice protein, lupin protein

• What effect does advanced processing have on the protein quality?

• Continued development and analysis of protein concentrates/isolates

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• In vitro vs in vivo analysis of protein digestibility
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