3.3.5. Dietary fibre
Non-germinated food mixture (unprocessed) exhibited total, soluble and insoluble dietary fibre contents of 5.93, 2.95 and 2.98 g/100 g, respectively (Table 5). When the raw mixture was autoclaved, a significant reduction was observed in total and insoluble dietary fibre i.e. 10% and 31%, respectively, whereas soluble fraction was increased by about 12% after autoclaving. Heat treatment might have resulted in conversion of insoluble dietary fibre to short length chains or units which could probably be precipitated along with soluble dietary fibre. The results of present study are in agreement with those reported earlier in cooked vegetables and products where insoluble dietary fibre content decreased, while the soluble fraction was increased (Vidal-Valverde & Frias, 1992). When the autoclaved food mixture was further subjected to fermentation with probiotic curd, it caused again significant (P < 0.05) reduction in total and insoluble dietary constituents by about 16% and 65%, respectively, whereas further improvement was noticed in soluble fraction by about 32%.