AbstractThe polysaccharide content of some cereal foods is reported, measured by a recently described technique. This method allows accurate determination of plant cell wall and other plant polysaccharides and identification and measurement of starch made resistant to digestion by α‐amylase and pullulanase during food processing (resistant starch). The results reported are at variance with values for dietary fibre measured by other published methods by a factor of up to 10 in some foods. This is due partly to the failure of some methods to identify resistant starch separately from NSP and partly to other details of methodology. Implied in these findings is the need to critically assess methods used for the chemical determination of non‐starch polysaccharides and the need to be cautious in interpreting dietary‐fibre‐intake data especially in population studies.