Starches are the major storage polysaccharides in foods of plant origin. Common food starches are derived from seed (such as wheat, maize, rice barley) and root (such as potato, cassava/tapioca) sources.
Starch has a negligible osmotic pressure, which allows plants to store large reserves of carbohydrate without disturbing the cell’s water relations.
Starch is composed by two glucose polymers – amylose and amylopectin. The amylose to amylopectin ratio is normally 1:3 for most cereal, tube and root starches.
Moist heat causes starch grains to swell and rupture, thus converting starch to a form that is readily digested.
In the body, much of the glucose may be utilized directly as a source of energy, but some of it is converted into fat, the muscles utilizing fatty acids indirectly as fuel for energy. Excess carbohydrates not required for energy, when ingested (eaten) will be stored in the body as fat.
The starch plays an important role in formation of texture and quality of the starch-based food products.
Starches are used mainly in the food and paper industries, with 57% of produced starch consumed in the food industries and 43% in the nonfood sector.
Food starches are commercially manufactured and available for use in products such as baked food, beverages canned, frozen and glassed foods, confections, dairy products, dry goods, meat products and canned food.
Starch content in food
