Report of the Dietary Fiber Definition
Committee to the Board of Directors of AACC International

Submitted January 10, 2001

"Dietary fiber is the edible parts of plants or analogous carbohydrates that are resistant to digestion and absorption in the human small intestine with complete or partial fermentation in the large intestine. Dietary fiber includes polysaccharides, oligosaccharides, lignin, and associated plant substances. Dietary fibers promote beneficial physiological effects including laxation, and/or blood cholesterol attenuation, and/or blood glucose attenuation."

Executive Summary
Establishing a definition for dietary fiber has historically been a balance between nutrition knowledge and analytical method capabilities. While the physiologically based definitions most widely accepted have generally been accurate in defining the dietary fiber in foods, scientists and regulators have tended, in fact, to rely on analytical procedures as the definitional basis in fact. As a result, incongruencies between theory and practice have resulted in confusion regarding the components that make up dietary fiber. In November 1998, the president of AACC International appointed a scientific review committee and charged it with the task of reviewing, and if necessary, updating the definition of dietary fiber. The committee was further charged with assessing the state of analytical methodology and making recommendations relevant to the updated definition. Over the course of the next year, the committee held three workshops (two of them public forums), accepting input and debate from scientists who could be present in person. In addition, an international website, available to all web users worldwide, was set up to receive comments from scientists. Results of the workshops were reported in a timely fashion in Cereal Foods World (1-9) and on the website to assure that all interested parties were provided with additional opportunity for comment. After due deliberation, an updated definition of dietary fiber was delivered to the AACC International Board of Directors for consideration and adoption. The updated definition includes the same food components as the historical working definition used for almost 30 years (a very important point, considering that most of the research of the past 30 years delineating the positive health effects of dietary fiber are based on that working definition). But the updated definition more clearly delineates the makeup of dietary fiber and its physiological functionality. As a result relatively few changes will be necessary in analytical methodology. Current methodologies, in particular AACC International Approved Method of Analysis (10) 32-05 (AOAC Official Method of Analysis (11) 985.29) or AACC International 32-07 (AOAC 991.43) will continue to be sufficient and used for most foods. A small number of additional methods will be necessary to quantitate the dietary fiber levels in foods containing fibers such as fructans (polymers and oligomers of fructose, inulin), modified dextrins, and/or synthetic dietary fiber analogues.

CLICK HERE FOR THE REPORT
AS IT APPEARED IN THE MARCH, 2001 ISSUE OF Cereal Foods World
(15 pages, PDF FORMAT)

return to top

AACC International Sends Comments to FNB Regarding theProposed NAS Definition of Dietary Fiber

On May 22, 2001 Julie Miller Jones, AACC International's Chair of the Board and Past President, sent a letter on behalf of AACC International and the dietary fiber definition committee to the U.S. Food and Nutrition Board giving AACC International's thoughts on the proposed National Academy of Sciences Definition of Dietary Fiber. The letter was meant to communicate 4 main points:

(a) to promote further consideration of the AACC International definition, which was first released publicly at the IFT meeting in Dallas in June of 2000 after lengthy scientific investigation and careful deliberation

(b) to discuss parts of our definition that may have been interpreted by the NAS panel differently than intended by the AACC International committee

(c) to recognize the elements of the NAS definition and report which agree with the scientific consensus of the AACC International definition, and to applaud those decisions

(d) to discuss those parts of the definition that are particularly troubling to the those at AACC International involved in rethinking the definition

To view a copy of the letter sent to the Food and Nutrition Board and for complete information on AACC International's dietary fiber definition, click here. At the end of the comment period, the Food and Nutrition Board will formulate and submit a definition to the FDA from which a legal definition will be devised for labeling. More information about the National Academy of Sciences can be found at http://www4.nationalacademies.org/nas/nashome.nsf.

return to top