Available Lysine in Foods: A Brief Historical Overview

A brief historical overview is presented on the development of the science addressing lysine bioavailability in foods. Early observations that dietary protein utilization did not always correlate with gross amino acid composition led to an understanding that the amino acid lysine, in particular, can be easily damaged during food processing. Conventional amino acid analysis, involving a strong acid hydrolysis step, can lead to a significant degree of overestimation of lysine in processed foods. More recently, it has been found that not only food lysine content values but also estimates of lysine digestibility and digestible lysine contents may be erroneous. Estimates of absorbed (true ileal digestible) reactive lysine are accurate measures of available lysine. Technically, bioassays such as the slope-ratio assay determine utilized rather than available lysine.