The reinvigoration of food industry in the field of designing new or enriched foods and expanding product ranges is an element of competition between both the food industry branches and the individual producers. Food producers endeavour to offer consumers the widest possible range of products that are advantageous in terms of their nutritional properties, health promoting properties, extended shelf life and attractive prices. This market strategy makes it possible to gain a competitive advantage and to promote the applications of the most recent technological solutions. The increased interest and awareness of consumers in the area of proper nutrition caused  the quality requirements, including the nutritional value of foods, to increase. This requires necessary changes in the production processes so as to ultimately satisfy as many consumers as possible. Dietary fibre exemplifies an ingredient that enriches foodstuffs and, recently, both the producers and the consumers are more and more interested in it; most of all, they consider it as a health-promoting food ingredient. Over the last century adding dietary fibre to food was very often associated with the development of disadvantageous texture of the product. Now modern cellulose preparations are produced that have a positive effect on the texture, functional and sensory properties of food, and which are characterized, among others, by the following properties: water binding capacity,  increasing the volume of products, neutral smell and taste, or the possibility of being used as a fat substitute. The paper covers the history and breakdown of functional food, the definition and breakdown of  dietary fibre; also the possible applications are discussed of this ingredient when designing and enriching food products.