Biological Value - Determination of BV

Determination of BV

For accurate determination of BV:

1. the test organism must only consume the protein or mixture of proteins of interest (the test diet).
2. the test diet must contain no non-protein sources of nitrogen.
3. the test diet must be of suitable content and quantity to avoid use of the protein primarily as an energy source.

These conditions mean the tests are typically carried out over the course of over one week with strict diet control. Fasting prior to testing helps produce consistency between subjects (it removes recent diet as a variable).

There are two scales on which BV is measured; percentage utilization and relative utilization. By convention percentage BV has a percent sign (%) suffix and relative BV has no unit.