Which physiological effects make extracted and synthetic non-digestible carbohydrates into dietary fibre?

The definition of dietary fibres has been a long subject of debate during the past years. Whilst a compromise has been reached by the Codex recently, there is still a lack of clarity on how to assess whether or not carbohydrates polymers not naturally occurring in foods can be classified as dietary fibres. According to the European Commission Directive (2008/100/EC), dietary fibres may show one or more physiological effects that are beneficial to health. By means of a survey to the experts in this field, the ILSI Europe Dietary Carbohydrates Task Force aims to shed more light on the beneficial physiological effects a dietary fibre may have. It will develop an evolving list of potentially beneficial physiological effects, as such a list may help maintaining one worldwide definition of dietary fibres; particularly interesting will be those carbohydrates polymers not naturally occurring in food.