Challenges in measuring insoluble dietary fiber

Objectives of this review are to define criteria for evaluating insoluble dietary fiber (IDF) methods, discuss their relevance in meeting the nutritional needs of ruminants and herbivores, describe problems with empirical IDF methods, and assess their relative merits. The challenge for the researcher, nutritionist, and analyst is to select fiber methods that are relevant and reproducible. Without relevance, there is no reason to measure IDF, and without reproducibility, there is no value in doing so. Insoluble dietary fiber is a complex matrix of chemical components, and there are no primary standards that can be used to establish the validity of methods. Thus, the definition of fiber is crucial in determining method relevance. For ruminants and nonruminant herbivores, the appropriate physiological definition for selecting IDF methods may be as follows: the organic fraction of the diet that is indigestible or slowly digesting and occupies space in the gastrointestinal tract. Crude fiber does not match this definition, and its use should be abandoned. Acid detergent fiber does not measure all IDF but is useful when included with other dietary fiber methods to describe some feeds. Several current methods, including amylase-treated neutral detergent fiber (aNDF) and enzymatic-gravimetric methods, are relevant for measuring IDF. In a collaborative study, aNDF obtained a standard deviation of reproducibility (SDR) of 1.3%. Enzymatic-gravimetric methods of measuring IDF have been evaluated using too few feed materials to make statistically valid conclusions, but the SDR of IDF, for the few feeds evaluated, were similar to aNDF (0.9 to 2.4%). The enzymatic-chemical method of measuring IDF as the sum of insoluble nonstarch polysaccharides and lignin agrees with NDF, but the SDR of neutral sugar analysis using acid hydrolysis and chromatography is greater (3.2%) than other dietary fiber methods. Empirical methods—such as those used to measure IDF, although based on nutritional concepts—actually define the fraction being measured and must be followed exactly, without modification. The selection of a suitable method for IDF depends on the purpose of analysis. Analysis of sugars in insoluble polysaccharides provides more information but is less reproducible and more expensive to obtain. For routine nutritive evaluation of feeds and formulation of rations, aNDF seems to be a reasonable choice for measuring IDF based on relevance and reproducibility.