'If you want to get human screening off the ground, it takes months. If you want to use this model, it takes hours.'

Ferruzzi said testing with the model could allow researchers to predict how a new product formula might change the product's properties.

The model also can be adapted to simulate the digestive characteristics of other animals or humans as originally intended.

'Having the vitamin C seems to do it,' Ferruzzi said. 'And if you don't want to squeeze a lemon into your cup, just have a glass of juice with your green tea.'

Ferruzzi said the next step in the research is to stage a human clinical trial, says a Purdue release.

These findings were published in the early online edition of Food Research International.