Urea enzymatic dialysis procedure for determination of total dietary fiber

A method that uses urea and enzymes for determination of total dietary fiber (TDF) in foods has been developed and compared with the AOAC enzymatic-gravimetric method (43.A14-43.A20). In the evaluation, results for crude protein and ash contamination were higher by the AOAC method, particularly for samples that form gels during ethanol precipitation. The new urea enzymatic dialysis (UED) method quantitatively recovered, with less variation, more of the purified and semipurified dietary fiber products. TDF recoveries for carboxymethylcellulose and locust bean gum were 98% (SD 3.3) and 95% (SD 6.1) by the AOAC method and 99% (SD 1.0) and 100% (SD 0.6) by the UED method, respectively. The UED method was the more effective in removing starch. For kale samples, starch recovery was 3.5 and 0.2% from TDF residues obtained using the AOAC and UED methods, respectively. Differences were not significant among replicate values for determination of TDF in foods by the UED method (P greater than 0.01). Preliminary studies suggest that the new method can separately determine soluble and insoluble dietary fiber. The data indicate that the UED method is more precise and accurate than the AOAC method.