Cereal grain is pretreated before milling, by selectively removing a first fraction of husk components of the cereal, wherein the first fraction includes the outer husk components of the dampened cereal, and wherein 0.2 to 2% by weight of the cereal is removed, then dampening and conditioning the cereal, then selectively removing a second fraction of husk components of the cereal, wherein the second fraction substantially contains dietary fibers of the dampened cereal. The method makes it possible to efficiently obtain contamination-free total dietary fibers. An apparatus for carrying out the method, and advantageous uses of the total dietary fibers are also described.
