Today in Indonesia, we can see that so many products of meat in dry and wet market (bakso/meatball, sausages, nuggets, etc). It means the consumption of meat products is increasing everyday.  

Many people say that those meat products are not healthy, one of the reason is because it contains no dietary fiber or less dietary fiber. The suggested amount of dietary fiber intake as published by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is 20 to 30 g daily. But, the average individual almost never consumes enough dietary fiber.

Dietary fiber defined as the edible parts of plants or analogous carbohydrates; it cannot be digested and absorbed in the small intestine, but can be partially or wholly utilized for fermentation in the large intestine  (The American Association of Cereal chemist).

Based on differences in solubility, dietary fiber could be categorized as watersoluble and water-insoluble. Water-insoluble fiber is often used for preventing and treating colonic diseases, preventing and treating constipation and other related diseases, as well as regulating body weight.. Water-soluble dietary fiber is beneficial in treating diabetes and reducing serum cholesterol and blood fat. Water-soluble fiber can also reduce cardiovascular diseases.

Dietary fiber can be produced by different kind of plants, such as wheat, bamboo, oat, apple, potato, etc.

The dosage in meat products is about  0,5 - 3%

The advantage of adding fibers in meat products are Improve the water binding capacity (WBC). Dietary fibers has a wide surface so it can adsorb water very well.

The WBC is an important characteristic in meat industries. If the factory can improve the WBC without change in the product (product still firm), they can make a cheaper product. Because if the WBC increasing, we can add the amount of water to the product, and since the water price is not expensive, the more water in product, the cheaper product can be made.