Fiber Components‐quantitation and Relationship to Cake Quality

Cereal and legume brans were fractionated to measure individual dietary fiber components. Wheat brans were similar in dietary fiber content, showing values of approximately 0.8% pectin, 26% water insoluble hemicellulose, 8% cellulose, and 4% lignin. The dietary fiber content of soy, oat, and corn brans varied widely. Oat bran was lowest in most fiber components. Soy hulls was the only bran containing a substantial quantity of pectin. Corn bran contained the largest quantity of water‐insoluble hemicellulose. Fiber components could be used to partially predict the following parameters of cake quality: tenderness, volume, viscosity, cell size, cell wall thickness, and grain. Hemicelluloses appeared to have a large effect on cake quality.