171. The effect of commercial sterilization on the nutritive value of milk. IIa. biological value and digestibility of the proteins (nitrogen) of milk

Abstract

1. The biological values and true digestibilities of the proteins of raw and commercially sterilized milks from the same bulk have been compared on rats by the method of Mitchell.2. For raw milk a biological value of 84·3 and a true digestibility of 96·4 were obtained, while the figures for sterilized milk were 79·1 and 95·3 respectively.3. Statistical tests showed that the difference in true digestibility was not significant but that the lowering of the biological value by about 6% could be ascribed to the effect of the heat treatment, the odds against chance factors being 625: 1.