Location: Functional Foods Research
2022 Annual Report
Accomplishments
1. Identified starch inclusion complexes with improved thermal stability. There is interest in improving the physical and functional properties of starch to overcome the shortcomings associated with native starches, especially, as many companies are reformulating products due to the limited availability and increasing price of many starches and hydrocolloids (gums and thickeners). The addition of water insoluble fatty acids (hydrocarbon chains attached to a single carboxyl group) is one method to modify starch and results in the formation of amylose inclusion complexes (AIC). This category of modified starch is oftentimes regarded as clean-label. ARS researchers in Peoria, Illinois, used an industrially viable processing technique known as steam jet cooking to prepare and subsequently characterize a series of AIC between starch and fatty acids that have two carboxyl groups attached on each end of a hydrocarbon chain (dicarboxylic acids). The additional carboxyl group better anchors the fatty acid into the complex, making the AIC more stable, as evidenced by its higher dissociation temperature. This enhanced stability improves starch properties and functionality by enabling the complexes to survive processing conditions and temperatures used to prepare foods and may show improved resistance to digestion which is beneficial for glycemic control and gut health.
