To investigate community engagement with the health benefits of dietary fibre (DF) and its potential as a framework for the promotion of increased consumption of resistant starch (RS).

A nationwide postal Food and Health Survey conducted in Australia by CSIRO Human Nutrition.

Adults aged 18 years and above, selected at random from the Australian Electoral Roll (n 849).

A cross-sectional design was employed to analyse ratings of (i) the importance of various RS health and functional claims and (ii) receptiveness to different foods as RS delivery vehicles, according to the respondents’ level of fibre engagement as classified under the Precaution Adoption Process Model (PAPM) of Health Behaviour.

There was a high level of recognition (89·5 %) of DF as being important for health. Significant gender differences were found for ratings of RS attributes and RS delivery options. Women were both more fibre-engaged than men and more receptive than men to RS and its potential benefits. Ratings of the acceptability of several foods as means of delivering RS revealed a general preference for healthy staples over indulgences, with the margin between acceptability of staples and indulgences increasing markedly with increased fibre engagement.

Application of the PAPM to awareness of DF reveals a ready-made target group for health messages about RS and pockets of differential potential receptiveness. The findings support the promotion of RS as providing health benefits of DF with the added reduction of risk of serious disease, its delivery through healthy staples and the targeting of messages at both fibre-engaged individuals and women in general.