DHA bioaccessibility in infant formulas and preschool children milks

[Display omitted] •Infant formula showed an average of 9% of bioaccessible DHA.•Preschool children milk showed an average of 7% of bioaccessible DHA.•No matrix effect was noticed on DHA bioaccessibility.•Addition of egg phospholipids did not improve DHA bioaccessibility.•Different digestion methods resulted in different amounts of DHA micellization. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n–3) is an essential long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid associated with the development of the nervous system that has to be consumed by infants through breast milk or complementary food sources and which consumption is also usually inadequate in preschoolers. In this work, the in vitro bioaccessibility of DHA from two commercial infant formulas (8.9 and 9.1%) and two preschool children milks (6.9 and 7.2%), with similar DHA contents but formulated with different ingredients, was not improved by the presence of egg phospholipids in the product formulation. In addition, the importance of the choice of an age-appropriate in vitro digestion method was demonstrated by comparing the DHA bioaccessibility from the infant formulas by the Infogest 2.0 standardized method and a simulated digestion method specific for infants.