The TNO Gastro-Intestinal Model (TIM) is a multi-compartmental model, designed to realistically simulate conditions in the lumen of the gastro-intestinal tract. TIM is successfully used to study the gastro-intestinal behavior of a wide variety of feed, food and pharmaceutical products. Experiments in TIM are based on a computer simulation of the digestive conditions in the lumen of the gut during transit and digestion of a meal in vivo. These conditions include controlled parameters such as gastric and small intestinal transit, flow rates and composition of digestive fluids, pH values, and removal of water and metabolites. Simulation protocols have been developed for young, adult and elderly humans, dogs, pigs and calves after ingestion of various meals. The typical end point from results obtained with TIM is the availability of a compound for absorption through the gut wall (bio-accessibility). Results from TIM—with or without additional intestinal cell assays and in silico modeling—show a high predictability as compared to in vivo data (Marteau et al., J Dairy Sci 80:1031–1037, 1997; Verwei et al., J Nutr 136:3074–2078, 2006; Bellmann et al., TIM-carbo: a rapid, cost-efficient and reliable in vitro method for glycaemic response after carbohydrate ingestion. In: van der Kamp J-W, Jones JM, McCleary BV (eds) Dietary fibre: new frontiers for food and health. Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen, p 467–473, 2010; Van Loo-Bouwman et al., J Agric Food Chem 62(4):950–955, 2014).
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