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Measurement of Total Dietary Fiber Using AOAC Method 2009.01 (AACC International Approved Method 32-45.01): Evaluation and Updates

¹Megazyme International Ireland, Bray Business Park, Southern Cross Road, Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland. ²Corresponding author. Phone: + 353 1 286 1220. Fax: + 353 1 286 1264. E-mail: barry@megazyme.com

The Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling recently recommended 14 methods for measurement of dietary fiber, eight of these being type I methods. Of these type I methods, AACC International Approved Method 32-45.01 (AOAC method 2009.01) is the only procedure that measures all of the dietary fiber components as defined by Codex Alimentarius. Other methods such as the Prosky method (AACCI Approved Method 32-05.01) give similar analytical data for the high-molecular-weight dietary fiber contents of food and vegetable products low in resistant starch. In the current work, AACCI Approved Method 32-45.01 has been modified to allow accurate measurement of samples high in particular fructooligosaccharides: for example, fructotriose, which, in the HPLC system used, chromatographs at the same point as disaccharides, meaning that it is currently not included in the measurement. Incubation of the resistant oligosaccharides fraction with sucrase/β-galactosidase removes disaccharides that interfere with the quantitation of this fraction. The dietary fiber value for resistant starch type 4 (RS₄), varies significantly with different analytical methods, with much lower values being obtained with AACCI Approved Method 32-45.01 than with 32-05.01. This difference results from the greater susceptibility of RS₄ to hydrolysis by pancreatic α-amylase than by bacterial α-amylase, and also a greater susceptibility to hydrolysis at lower temperatures. On hydrolysis of samples high in starch in the assay format of AACCI Approved Method 32-45.01 (AOAC method 2009.01), resistant maltodextrins are produced. The major component is a heptasaccharide that is highly resistant to hydrolysis by most of the starch-degrading enzymes studied. However, it is hydrolyzed by the maltase/ amyloglucosidase/isomaltase enzyme complex present in the brush border lining of the small intestine. As a consequence, AOAC methods 2009.01 and 2011.25 (AACCI Approved Methods 32-45.01 and 32-50.01, respectively) must be updated to include an additional incubation with amyloglucosidase to remove these oligosaccharides.