Dietary Fiber Attractive to Consumers, but Not Always Tasty

Everybody needs dietary fiber. But while Americans consistently rate fiber as an important component to healthy foods, they rarely get enough.

Mintel's recent research into fiber and food finds that 30% of consumers make it a point to eat foods high in dietary fiber.

What's keeping the other 70% from doing the same?

One word: Flavor.

For many of the respondents, and by extension many Americans in general, eating foods high in fiber means eating foods with a dry or cardboard-like consistency.

However, this doesn't need to be the case. And in fact, high-fiber foods that also taste good are immensely popular these days, including the Fiber One line of products, among others.

Food manufacturers looking to capitalize on the popularity of dietary fiber have a variety of options to pursue that won't sacrifice flavor.

These include adding corn fiber, oat fiber, soy fiber, and even cellulose fiber to product lines, the last of which generally doesn't have a taste at all.

Foods that do best with an increase in dietary fiber are usually dense and hearty, since the added fiber will complement that consistency.

Other tricks include adding nuts and dried fruits to breads and cereals, and switching to whole grain flours.

Finally, sweeteners play an important role in high-fiber foods: the dense texture of such products often benefit from a little sweetness to offset the rich and sometimes grainy flavor added by fiber.