A paper in Archivos Latinoamericanos de Nutrición reports amino acid composition for raw and processed Mexican foods, including spirulina, amaranth, pulque and edible insects.
The paper reports amino acid composition for several foods produced and consumed in Mexico. For spirulina, lysine is the limiting amino acid, giving a chemical score of 67%, while tryptophan content is 1.16 g/16 gN. Amaranth shows sulphur amino acids ranging from 4.09 to 5.34 g/16 gN, with a protein content of 15 g/100 g. Pulque, described as a Pre-Hispanic beverage, contains tryptophan at 2.58 g/16 gN and sulphur amino acids at 2.72 g/16 gN. Insects are reported as good sources of sulphur amino acids and lysine.
The authors determined amino acid composition using Beckman amino acid analyzers, models 116 and 6300, and measured tryptophan separately with the Spies and Chambers method.
The abstract does not state explicit limitations of the analysis. It frames the work as filling a gap: amino acid data for many foods is already established, but native foods from specific regions, including Mexico, are less documented. The paper does not report chemical scores or digestibility data for amaranth, pulque or insects, only for spirulina.
For nutrition students and food scientists working with regional diets, this gives reference values for calculating chemical scores of specific Mexican foods, useful alongside standard international amino acid tables rather than as a replacement for them.
