Dietary fibre in some Norwegian plant foods during storage

The dietary fibre (DF) content of some storage-strong vegetables, grown in Norway, has been determined. The vegetables were collected at harvest time and at intervals during storage, to monitor the DF content during the storage season.Nantes, a variety of carrot, and Hygro, an onion variety, were available throughout the entire period of investigation. A slight decrease in the DF content with length of storage was observed for carrots, but not for onions.With cabbage (Golden Acre, Toten Amager and Blue Top varieties) and rutabaga (Gry and Bangholm varieties) any particular variety was available only for a shorter period (1–4 months), with little overlap between varieties. No systematic change in DF content was observed within any variety during this period. However, differences in DF content from variety to variety within the same vegetable were found.The observed DF variations within each vegetable, whether due to storage or to variety, were relatively slight and need not normally be taken into account when estimating the DF contents of diets containing these vegetables. Some methodological problems are discussed.