“Clean label” – Starches and their functional diversity

Abstract

Modern starch milling technologies not only produce the common native starches from corn, wheat, potato and cassava but also can extend the range of commercially available starches by native starch specialities such as waxy and high amylose varieties of corn, potato, pea and rice starch. The functionality of these native starches in form of swelling and gelling characteristics is defined by botanical characteristics such as granule size, amylose-, phosphate and lipid content. The diversity of these native starch functionalities can be extended by physical and enzymatic starch modification techniques. Pregelatinized starches are obtained by drum and roll drying, extrusion or spray cooking often complemented by agglomeration. Heat moisture treatment and annealing result in cold water swelling granular starches and resistant starch, respectively. This extended range of clean label functional native starches is successively replacing E-number coded chemically modified food starch additives from the ingredient list of modern convenience and processed foods.