Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Calcium is an essential nutrient required for biological functions. The recommended daily intake according to the WHO is 1000 mg of calcium per day for adults. However, calcium deficiency is widespread worldwide. Half of the world's population does not have adequate access to dietary calcium, particularly in diets with low dairy consumption. In addition, we are moving towards a healthier and more sustainable diet where it is recommended to increase the consumption of plant-based foods and reduce animal products (including dairy).This work aimed to study the bioaccessibility of calcium of 12 food sources of dietary calcium (plant food sources and dairy products), using an in vitro static gastrointestinal digestion model (INFOGEST). Calcium bioaccessibility was determined by the soluble fraction relative to total calcium present in the matrix. Soluble calcium content was measured at different time point of the gastric and intestinal digestion using inductively coupled optical emission spectrometry.During in vitro digestion, it was observed that the pH influenced the solubility of calcium for all the food matrices tested. Calcium is almost completely solubilized during the gastric phase at pH 3. During the intestinal phase, calcium solubility decreases considerably due to the increase of pH to 7. The presence of fat apparently affects calcium solubility in our model, probably though the formation of insoluble complexes in the intestinal phase. Indeed, matrices with higher fat content have a lower calcium solubility in the intestinal phase. A yogurt made from partially skimmed milk (1 g fat /100 g of food) has 0,52 g/L of soluble calcium whereas semi skimmed milk (1,6 g fat /100 g of food) has only 0,31 g/L. In addition, the best bioaccessibility at the end of the intestinal phase was observed for partially skimmed milk yogurt (34% ±0) followed by broccoli (27%± 1) and cheese (19%± 2). Calcium enriched plant-based drinks seem closer to semi-skimmed milk (21%±3 vs 26%± 2, respectively). On the other hand, fresh cheese, chickpea, whole almond, soy dessert and plant-based cheese-like product have very low calcium bioaccessibility (≤6%). If the ingested portion is considered to calculate calcium bioaccessibilities, dairy products (cheese, milk and yoghurt) are the best source of bioaccessible calcium. Indeed, ingesting a portion of yogurt (125 ml) represents 64.8mg of bioaccessible calcium compared to a portion of broccoli (80 g) which represents only 13.5mg of calcium.Thus, calcium is more bioaccessible in dairy products than in plant food sources.
Source: HAL
Institution: Science et Technologie du Lait et de l'Oeuf
Language: English
Subfield: Food Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7206587872