Interactions between intracellular polyphenols and plant cell‐walls have received little attention. They are becoming recognized as a factor to understand extractability, functional and health effects of polyphenols. The most common polyphenols are phenolic acids and oligo or polymeric flavanols (proanthocyanidins), located inside the vacuole in intact plant cells. The proanthocyanidins bind spontaneously to the plant cellwall polysaccharides through plant tissue disruption, for example during grinding, mastication or thermal treatments, etc. This has profound consequences on the extractability and bioavailability of the polyphenols, on the functional characteristics of extracted polysaccharides, and on the fermentation kinetics of dietary fibers and polyphenols. This presentation will highlight our results on this topic since 2001.