The present work was undertaken to observe the effects produced on the structure of gel, dough and bread crumb by dietary fibres (DF), either from natural origin, such as locust bean gum, and fructo and gluco-oligosaccharides, or from synthetic preparation, such as carboxymethylcellulose having thickening, gelling properties. Rheological, viscometric, sensory and image-analysis investigations were carried out in order to study the physical/functional performances of final and intermediate products, and to identify the main actions of fibres at replacement level from 0% up to 12%. Avrami non-linear regression equation was chosen as useful mathematical model to properly study bread crumb firming kinetics. Significant relationships were found between several parameters obtained from the different analyses performed on raw materials, intermediate and final products. Data from factor analysis strongly proposed the viability of locust bean and carboxymethylcellulose/prebiotic blends as sources of DF for the production of healthy baked goods with extended shelf-life. Crown Copyright (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.