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
