The digestion of kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) fibre and the effect of kiwifruit on the digestibility of other dietary nutrients

• The soluble dietary fibre of kiwifruit was highly digested in the small intestine.
• The insoluble dietary fibre of kiwifruit was almost completely digested in the hindgut.
• The level of kiwifruit reduced the ileal and faecal digestibilities of several nutrients.
• The intake of kiwifruit for 6 weeks did not affect the ileal and faecal nutrient digestibilities.

The effect of dietary kiwifruit inclusion level on the digestibility of kiwifruit fibre and dietary nutrients was studied. Ileal cannulated pigs (50 ± 1.9 kg) were fed a fibre-free diet for seven days (n = 14) followed by kiwifruit-containing diets (133 or 266 g kiwifruit/kg dry matter) (n = 7) for 44 days followed by the fibre-free diet (n = 14) for seven days. Faecal and ileal samples were collected on days 5, 11, 21, 35, 49 and 56. The soluble kiwifruit fibre was highly digested in the foregut (80%), and the insoluble fibre in the hindgut (95%). Increasing the kiwifruit inclusion level decreased the apparent ileal and faecal digestibilities of several nutrients (P < 0.05), including the faecal digestibility of insoluble kiwifruit fibre and led to higher ileal and faecal concentrations of short-chain fatty acids (P < 0.05). The decreased digestibility was explained by the lower digestibility of kiwifruit itself. The duration of kiwifruit consumption per se did not affect dietary nutrient digestibility (P > 0.05).