Preparation and characterisation of dietary fibre from sugar beet pulp

Dried sugar beet pulp was ground and washed with 95% ethanol in order to obtain a colourless and odourless product which could be used as dietary fibre after drying and sieving. Sugar beet fibre had the same chemical composition as the initial pulp: 26–32% of hemicelluloses, 22–24% cellulose, 21.5–23% uronic acids, ∼1–2% lignin, ∼7–8% protein, 7.5–12% ash and ∼0.5% residual sucrose. The main physicochemical properties such as density, cation exchange capacity (∼0.6 meq g −1 ) and water holding capacity (24–32 g g −1 ) were determined. The water holding capacity of sugar beet fibre was only slightly affected by pH and ionic strength (adjusted by NaCl or CaCl 2 ) but it held less water in the H + form than in the salt form, Na + or Ca 2+ .