The Total Dietary Fiber Assay Kit for the analysis of Total, Soluble and Insoluble Dietary Fiber according to AOAC and AACC approved methods.

View Dietary Fiber Measurement Guide - Which Method for which sample?

Dietary fiber can generally be described as the carbohydrate content of food that is not digested in the human small intestine. It passes into the large intestine where it is partially or fully fermented. These characteristics of dietary fiber are associated with its numerous well documented health benefits.

Dietary Fiber is a mixture of complex organic substances, including hydrophilic compounds, such as soluble and insoluble polysaccharides and non-digestable oligosaccharides, as well as a range of non-swellable, more or less hydrophobic, compounds such as cutins, suberins and lignins. The procedures for the determination and analysis of total dietary fiber as outlined in our assay protocol are based on the methods of Lee et al.1 and Prosky et al.2,3 (AOAC 991.43, AOAC 985.29, AACC 32-07.01 and AACC 32-05.01). However, the enzymes in the Megazyme Total Dietary Fiber Kit can also be used in other dietary fiber analytical methods such as AACC Method 32-21.01 and AACC Method 32-06.01.

1. Association of Official Analytical Chemists. (1985). Official Methods of Analysis, 14th ed., 1st suppl. Secs. 43, A14-43, A20, p.399.
2. Association of Official Analytical Chemists. (1986). Changes in methods. J. Assoc. Off. Anal. Chem., 69, 370.
3. Association of Official Analytical Chemists. (1987). Changes in methods. J. Assoc. Off. Anal. Chem., 70, 393.

See General Referee Reports: Journal of AOAC INTERNATIONAL, Vol. 81, No. 1, 1998. 

Two separate methods are described in the associated assay protocol:

METHOD 1: DETERMINATION OF TOTAL, SOLUBLE AND INSOLUBLE DIETARY FIBER
Based on AOAC Method 991.43 “Total, Soluble, and Insoluble Dietary Fiber in Foods” (First Action 1991) and AACC Method 32-07.01 “Determination of Soluble, Insoluble, and Total Dietary Fiber in Foods and Food Products” (Final Approval 10-16-91).

METHOD 2: DETERMINATION OF TOTAL DIETARY FIBER
Based on AACC method 32-05.01 and AOAC Method 985.29.

Note that a letter of endorsement from the original method developer, Dr. Leon Prosky, is included in the Documents Tab.

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