Analysis of dietary fibre

Abstract An analytical procedure for the determination of dietary fibre in food is described. The method consists of an enzymic in vitro digestion with pepsin, pancreatin arid glucoamylase. Insoluble fibres are recovered by centrifuging and soluble fibres by precipitation with ethanol. The method has been applied to 19 cereal fibres, vegetables and fruits and compared to the neutral and acid detergent methods. The soluble fibres accounted for 4–60% of the total dietary fibre. The component sugars and uronic acids of several fibre fractions have been quantitatively determined. The mild biochemical treatment of the samples makes it possible to study further physical properties of dietary fibres important for their physiological action.