Abstract
In order to verify the possibility of comparing the results derived from microbiological and biological assays, the nutritive value of the amino acid fortified noodle and potato grits was determined. The experiments were carried out in parallel on 54 ratsโweanlings, using Tetrahymena pyriformis as the testโorganism. An analysis of the results obtained by the two methods showed their good concurrence. Direct correlation between the food consumption, gain in body weight, values of FER, PER, BV, NPU, the content of total nitrogen in blood, albumins in the serum of rats and BV and RNV of Tetrahymena was established (with an exception of 1โ2 cases). Best accord of the results obtained by the two methods was detected in studies of foodstuffs with a high biological value. The sensitivity of the microbiological assay decreased with a reduction of protein quality. Therefore, the microbiological method using Tetrahymena pyriformis can be applied in industrial laboratories only to the control over the changes of a relative biological value of foodstuffs at different technological stages. During the development of new foodstuffs the microbiological method of assaying quality of a protein must be supplement with the biological method and determination of the degree of disagreement of the results obtained by the two methods.