Abstract
Cereals are often promoted as important sources of dietary fiber. Ninety one breakfast cereals available in Canada and four unprocessed wheat brans were therefore analyzed for neutral detergent fiber (NDF) after rapid digestion with α‐amylase from porcine pancreas. Many breakfast cereals contained less than 5% NDF. Wheat cereals contained 5–30% NDF, oat cereals contained 5% NDF, and corn and rice contained little NDF. Cereal NDF was predominantly hemicellulose (pentosans); pentose sugars liberated under hydrolysis represented up to 15% of processed bran cereals and 20–25% of unprocessed bran.