LETTERS
Like new culinary column
I was thrilled to see your new Culinary Concepts column [“Combining Culinary Arts with Food Science”] in the March issue of Food Technology. This is a topic that I struggle with on a daily basis. Therefore, I’m glad to see additional coverage on this topic in your column.
—Bonnie Vicari, Market Director, Culinary, Quest North America, Hoffman Estates, Ill.
More concise definition of fiber
I want to inform the readers of Food Technology that the American Association of Cereal Chemists disagrees with the Food and Nutrition Board’s definition of dietary fiber and offers a more concise definition.
The Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academies published in 2002 the following definitions: “Dietary fiber consists of non-digestible carbohydrates and lignin that are intrinsic and intact in plants,” “Functional fiber consists of isolated, non-digestible carbohydrates which have beneficial physiological effects in humans,” and “Total fiber is the sum of dietary fiber and functional fiber.”
AACC’s Dietary Fiber Technical Committee, with representation from industry, government, and academia, developed what we consider a more scientifically credible definition of dietary fiber that can form the basis for a regulatory policy worldwide:
“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.”
AACC’s rationale for this position can be found at www.aaccnet.org/news/Dietaryfiberreport.pdf.
—Brendan Donnelly, President, American Association of Cereal Chemists; Grain Science and Industry Dept., Kansas State University, Manhattan
Correction
The Executive Committee structure that appeared on page 49 of the July issue inadvertently omitted several committees. Here is the correct chart as of July 8, 2003.
