Within the active field of in vitro digestion in food research, the COST Action INFOGEST aimed to harmonizein vitro protocols simulating human digestion on the basis of physiologically inferred conditions. A harmonizedstatic in vitro digestion (IVD) method was recently published as a primary output from this network. To validatethis protocol, inter-laboratory trials were conducted within the INFOGEST network. A first study was performedusing skim milk powder (SMP) as a model food and served to compare the different in-house digestion protocolsused among the INFOGEST members. In a second inter-laboratory study applying the harmonized protocol, thedegree of consistency in protein hydrolysis was investigated. Analysis of the hydrolyzed proteins, after the gastric and intestinal phases, showed that caseins were mainly hydrolyzed during the gastric phase, whereas β-lactoglobulin was, as previously shown, resistant to pepsin. Moreover, generation of free amino acids occurredmainly during the intestinal phase.The study also showed that a few critical steps were responsible for the remaining inter-laboratory variability.The largest deviations arose from the determination of pepsin activity. Therefore, this step was further clarified,harmonized, and implemented in a third inter-laboratory study.The presentwork gives an overviewof all three inter-laboratory studies, showing that the IVD INFOGEST methodhas led to an increased consistency that enables a better comparability of in vitro digestion studies in the future

The main purpose of this review is to clarify whether the consumption of food rich in melanoidins and dietary advanced glycosylation end-products (dAGEs) is harmful or beneficial for human health. There are conflicting results on their harmful effects in the literature, partly due to a methodological issue in how dAGEs are determined in food. Melanoidins have positive functions particularly within the gastrointestinal tract, whereas the intake of dAGEs has controversial physiological consequences. Most of the in vivo intervention trials were done comparing boiled versus roasted diet (low and high dAGE, respectively). However, these studies can be biased by different lipid oxidation and by different calorie density of foods in the two conditions. The attraction that humans have to cooked foods is linked to the benefits they have had during mankind's evolution. The goal for food technologists is to design low-energy-dense products that can satisfy humans’ attraction to rewarding cooked foods.

In 1985 carboxymethyl-lysine (CML), the first glycoxidation product, was discovered by Dr Ahmed while trying to identify the major products formed in reactions of glucose with lysine under physiological conditions. From that moment, a significant number of researchers have joined efforts to study its formation routes both in foods and in living beings, and the possibility of the existence of an additive action between food-occurring and in vivo produced CML and to explore all the implications associated with its appearance in the biological systems, regardless of its origin. This review presents interesting information on the latest advances in the research on CML sources, mitigation strategies, intake, metabolism and body fluid and tissue delivery, its possible in vivo synergy with highly modified advanced glycation end products-protein, and the physio-pathological implications derived from the presence of this compound in body fluids and tissues.