Dietary fibre fractions in cereal foods measured by a new integrated AOAC method

The reliable determination of soluble, insoluble and total dietary fibre in baked goods and cereal flours is an important issue for research, nutritional labelling and marketing. We compared total dietary fibre (TDF) contents of selected cereal based foods determined by AOAC Method 991.43 and the new AOAC Method 2009.01. Fifteen bread and bakery products were included in the study. Our results showed that TDF values of cereal products determined by AOAC Method 2009.01 were always significantly higher than those determined by AOAC Method 991.43. This was explained by the inclusion of low molecular weight soluble fibre fractions and resistant starch fractions in the TDF measurement by AOAC 2009.01. This documents that nutritional labelling of cereal products poses the challenge how to update TDF data in nutrient databases in a reasonable time with an acceptable expenditure.

► Total dietary fiber (TDF) of cereal foods were measured by AOAC Method 2009.01.
► High and low molecular soluble and insoluble fractions were quantified seperately.
► Inclusion of low molecular weight soluble fibre increased TDF content significantly.
► Updating nutrient databases and labelling with respect to TDF will be problematic.