ACACIA GUM (GUM-ARABIC) - A NUTRITIONAL FIBER METABOLISM AND CALORIFIC VALUE

Gum Arabic (Acacia gum, INS 414, E414) is extensively toed as a food a dditive, but there is no regulatory or. scientific consensus about its calorific value. It is a complex polysaccharide, primarily indigestib le to both humans and animals, not degraded in the intestine, but ferm ented in the colon under the influence of microorganisms. Despite a ra nge of animal studies, there are no usable data for humans which can q uantify the utilizable energy of Gum Arabic. Estimates in the literatu re from animal experiments vary from 0 to 4 kcal/g. After certain allo wances are made for the energy losses from volatile and gaseous fermen tation products, an upper level of 2 kcal/g for rats has been set. The situation in man is demonstrably different, with greatly reduced amou nts of such products, and the need to adapt for varying periods before Gum Arabic is attacked br colonic bacteria. In the absence of an agre ed scientific assignment, the FDA in the USA insist upon 4 kcal/g in n utritional labelling, whereas in Europe, no value has been assigned to soluble dietary fibre, such as Gum Arabic. This review argues that ba sed on present scientific knowledge only an arbitrary value can be use d for regulatory purposes.