Conclusion

Gastric emptying is influenced by numerous meal-related and personal factors. Considering all these factors in a forensic case is nearly impossible. Nevertheless, detailed gastric emptying times in healthy persons for commonly consumed meals are presented here to contribute to forensic death time estimation. This approach may seem more practically relevant than considering meal-related factors in isolation.

If the composition of the meal differs from the reference meals, it might be roughly useful to choose a reference meal with a comparable total calorie count as this may be a decisive factor for gastric emptying.

Further validation across larger and more heterogeneous populations is required to improve forensic applicability.