peer-reviewedSimulated gastro-intestinal digestion is widely employed in many fields of food and nutritional sciences, as conducting human trials are often costly, resource intensive, and ethically disputable. As a consequence, in
vitro alternatives that determine endpoints such as the bioaccessibility of nutrients and non-nutrients or the
digestibility of macronutrients (e.g. lipids, proteins and carbohydrates) are used for screening and building
new hypotheses. Various digestion models have been proposed, often impeding the possibility to compare
results across research teams. For example, a large variety of enzymes from different sources such as of
porcine, rabbit or human origin have been used, differing in their activity and characterization. Differences in
pH, mineral type, ionic strength and digestion time, which alter enzyme activity and other phenomena, may
also considerably alter results. Other parameters such as the presence of phospholipids, individual enzymes
such as gastric lipase and digestive emulsifiers vs. their mixtures (e.g. pancreatin and bile salts), and the ratio
of food bolus to digestive fluids, have also been discussed at length. In the present consensus paper, within
the COST Infogest network, we propose a general standardised and practical static digestion method based
on physiologically relevant conditions that can be applied for various endpoints, which may be amended to
accommodate further specific requirements. A frameset of parameters including the oral, gastric and small
intestinal digestion are outlined and their relevance discussed in relation to available in vivo data and
enzymes. This consensus paper will give a detailed protocol and a line-by-line, guidance, recommendations
and justifications but also limitation of the proposed model. This harmonised static, in vitro digestion method
for food should aid the production of more comparable data in the future.COST action FA1005 Infogest22 (http://www.cost-infogest.eu/) is acknowledged for providing funding for travel, meetings and conferences