Title of page

a) methods to measure total carbohydrates (i.e. by difference or directly) and individual carbohydrates. These methods are closely related to the chemical classification of carbohydrates.

b) methods to measure dietary fibre. These methods rely on the functional/nutritional classification of carbohydrates.

In this case you will learn more about

• The classification of carbohydrates in foods, both from a chemical/analytical and a functional/nutritional perspective.

• The methods to measure carbohydrates and fibre.

Carbohydrate Contents of Foods: A Tower of Babel and Confusion

(…)The multiplicity of the currently accepted analytical protocols for carbohydrate analyses leads to the need for 88 tag names which in turn causes a great deal of confusion for the end user of the carbohydrate composition data. Even for the most expert in the field the potential for miss assignment of tag names is significant. For those less than expert, the probability of mistakes in identification has to be very high. I expect that almost no one knows how to assign a nutritional importance to each group of carbohydrates that has an individual tag name. This area of food composition data badly needs updating and simplification(…)

(…) The need for the 88 tag names comes from a lack of agreement on the appropriate analytical methodology for measuring the carbohydrate contents of foods (…).

Kent K. Stewart

Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A.

Journal of food composition and analysis. 9: 98–99 (1996), editorial

(…) Making sense of food components that can be classified as carbohydrates, dietary fibre, or constituents of these, can be difficult. The large number of methods for expressing and/or analysing carbohydrates and dietary fibre and the continuing debate about the meanings of these terms creates problems for those who generate, compile, and use food composition data (…)

Monro, J and Burlingame, B. Journal of food composition and analysis. 9: 100–118 (1996)

On the previous page you learned that food composition database differ largely with respect to the information that is included on carbohydrates and fibre. The following citations from scientific papers further illustrate the confusion with respect to the classification and analysis of carbohydrates in foods.