Functional food design based on a virtual food component: wheat bran equivalents for faecal bulk

This paper reports the first use of a virtual food component (VFC), which is a value that represents the functional efficacy of a food in the format of a food component, to accurately formulate a functional food and evaluate its efficacy. The effect measured was faecal bulking and the functional food was a cereal bar. The faecal bulking efficacy of ingredients was determined as their content of the VFC, wheat bran equivalents for faecal bulk (WBEfb), which represents faecal bulking efficacy expressed in terms of the amount of wheat bran that would produce an equivalent effect. Using a validated animal model, we measured the faecal bulking efficacy of cereal bar ingredients individually and after combining them in a cereal bar recipe, before and after the combined ingredients had been baked. The sum of the WBEfb contents of the ingredients was 29.7 WBEfb per bar (SEM 2.4). The WBEfb of the recipe mixture before baking was 33.2 WBEfb per bar (SEM 2.4) and after baking was 28.5 WBEfb per bar (SEM 2.9). Faecal bulking efficacy was not related to dietary fibre content. We conclude that the WBEfb content of ingredients can be used to design cereal bars of specified faecal bulking efficacy and that the functionality is resistant to baking.