Green Extraction and Modification of Dietary Fiber From Traditional and Novel Sources

In recent years, consumers have become more aware of the importance of having a well-balanced diet to prevent disease. This has led to the development of functional foods. The food industry has embraced this concern by increasing the use of ingredients that provide technological functionality (to maintain or improve the organoleptic properties of their products), but also physiological functionality. Dietary fiber (DF) has been used for this purpose because it has proven to be a regulator in the human body due to its prebiotic nature, anti-inflammatory activity, reduction of blood glucose, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels. In addition, DF possesses the ability to retain and absorb oil and water, gel, swell, emulsify, etc. These properties greatly depend on the chemical composition of the DF, mainly its solubility. For this purpose, traditional and novel treatments have been used to extract and/or modify the DF from different sources. The main objective of the novel treatments is to improve the sustainability of the process by reducing costs, temperatures, or operation times by reducing or eliminating the use of solvents. The increased interest in circular economy and similar concepts has raised the need for use of these technologies. In this chapter, conventional and novel sources of DF are described. In addition, green and traditional extraction and modification treatments are discussed.