The digestion of non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) and of resistant starch (RS) by rats fed on wholemeal-bread-based diets containing 0-450 g cooked, freeze-dried haricot beans (Phaseolus vulgavis)/kg diet was measured over the final 14 d of a 21 d feeding experiment. The bread and beans provided all the dietary polysaccharide. RS could not be detected consistently in faeces and it was assumed that this fraction was entirely fermented in the large bowel (LB). NSP digestibilities were 0.56 and 0.86 for wholemeal bread and beans respectively with no evidence that the dietary presence of beans affected digestibility of bread NSP. Bean non-cellulosic polysaccharides were highly digestible with values of 0.98, 0.88 and 0.99 for arabinose, xylose and uronic acids components respectively. There were large increases in organic matter flow to the LB when beans were fed which was associated with marked caecal hypertrophy and alterations in caecal volatile fatty acids (VFA) pattern. Calculated VFA absorption from the LB was 5-fold higher with the highest level of beans and this was reflected in higher concentrations of VFA in portal and heart blood.