Landmark protein study reveals food quality

Protein expert Dr Suzanne Hodgkinson has won The Journal of Nutrition’s inaugural Teresa A. Davis Award in Growth and Protein Nutrition from the American Society of Nutrition. She heads to the United States (US) shortly to receive the prize.

Dr Hodgkinson is a Senior Research Officer who leads the nutrition team at the Riddet Institute, a New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence hosted by Massey University in Palmerston North.

She won the award, along with fellow researcher and Riddet Institute Acting Director Distinguished Professor Paul Moughan, for a landmark Journal of Nutrition article the pair co-authored with six others.

Dr Hodgkinson ran the three-year study focusing on the protein quality of 97 foods. The research determined protein quality by measuring indispensable amino acids in the small intestine during digestion.

The study was published in the Journal of Nutrition last year and was selected for the American Society of Nutrition prize, announced in June. The award was for the most impactful journal article published in 2025.

Dr Hodgkinson said The Journal of Nutrition is the world’s top nutritional journal and is produced by the American Society of Nutrition.

For the research, Dr Hodgkinson directed a team of global scientists to undertake three concurrent studies using identical research methods across three universities: Massey University in Aotearoa New Zealand, University of Illinois in the US and Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands.

She managed all the studies after determining the list of foods to research. The 97 foods ranged from fruits and vegetables to baked goods, fish and meat, in the form they are normally consumed. Foods were classified by food type, establishing a comprehensive baseline dataset.

Dr Hodgkinson said this was the first study to provide a stand-alone database with so many foods assessed simultaneously by internationally-recognised laboratories using standardised methodology.

She said the food industry needs digestible protein data to accurately determine the nutritional value of foods. It has long been known that the current methods used to evaluate protein nutritional value are inaccurate.

Distinguished Professor Paul Moughan said the Teresa A. Davis Award in Growth and Protein Nutrition prize reinforces the Riddet Institute’s international reputation for excellence in nutritional research.

“This prestigious inaugural award recognises Dr Hodgkinson, the wider international team of scientists and the substantial international funding effort, co-ordinated by the Global Dairy Platform in Chicago. This is truly a landmark study," he says.

The award is named after Teresa A. Davis, who is a former Editor-In-Chief of The Journal of Nutrition.

Dr Hodgkinson will receive the award during the science and health conference Nutrition 2026 held from 25-28 July in Washington DC. 

Background

The winning Journal of Nutrition research is part of the Proteos project, a multi-year protein study funded by a consortium of international food organisations, co-ordinated by Global Dairy Platform in the US and led by the Riddet Institute in New Zealand. Proteos researchers have updated protein digestion science by determining the digestible indispensable amino acid score (DIAAS) of foods by looking at data from the small intestine. The food industry currently uses the older Protein Digestibility-Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS) system, an inaccurate method to calculate the protein quality of foods. In 2011, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Expert Consultation recommended the use of DIAAS to calculate protein quality and amino acid composition once enough food digestibility data was available.