Beef meat was cooked at 373 K for 10 and 30 min to investigate the effect of the cooking conditions
generally used during beef stew and curry preparation on protein digestibility. The cooked meats, along
with a raw control, were digested using an in vitro digestion model to simulate gastric and smallintestinal
conditions. Samples taken at different digestion times were analyzed using SDS-PAGE, RPHPLC,
ninhydrin assays for amino N and transmission electron microscopy. Simulated gastric conditions
quickly led to the loss of basic sarcomere structure in raw meat myofibrils whereas the sarcomere
structure of the compact cooked meat myofibrils remained intact after 30 min of gastric digestion.
Prolonged cooking of meat (30 min) resulted in incomplete digestion of small MW (