Dietary fibre fractions from fruit and vegetable processing waste

Until recently, dietary fibre and its components were regarded as balast substances from vegetal food. These days, they are given increasing attention because of the beneficial physiological effects they may exert on human and animal organisms. Dietary fibre includes a number of components, and each of them displays specific properties. The components of major importance are cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and pectins. The objective of this study was to determine the amounts of particular dietary fibre fractions in samples containing apple, black currant, chokeberry, pear, cherry and carrot pomace. The results revealed the following pattern: in each pomace sample, pectins occurred in the smallest amounts, and the content of lignin was very high (black currant and cherry pomace) or comparatively high (pear, chokeberry, apple and carrot pomace). The other dietary fibre components were difficult to form into clearly defined groups. Their proportions varied from one pomace type to another. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.