In the Duodenum
As acidic chime enters the duodenum, it stimulates the pancrease to secrete pancreatic juice. Sodium bicarbonate, present in pancreatic juice neutralizes the acidity of chime and provides the correct pH for the enzymes in the pancreatic juice to work. These include the protein digesting trypsin, the starch-digesting amylase and the fat-digesting lipase. Trypsin, secreted in its inactive form, trypsinogen, is activated by an enzyme from the intestines, enterokinase. Trypsin hydrolyses proteins and polypeptides into peptides.
Bile Salts from the liver emulsify fats found in the chicken patty into smaller droplets. This increases the surface area over which the fat-digesting enzymes, or lipases, can act.
As food molecules diffuse through the epithelial cells, chemical digestion is completed by enzymes contained in these cells.The peptidases such as erepsin split polypeptides into amino acids. Carbohydrases such as sucrose, lactase and maltase convert dissacharide sugars such as sucrose, lactose and maltose into their monosaccharide component. Lipases split fats into glycerol and fatty acids.