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ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Commodity Utilization Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #366423
Title: Development of a factory/refinery method to measure total, soluble, and insoluble starch in sugar products

Author
item COLE, MARSHA - Louisiana Technical University
item Eggleston, Gillian
item Gaines, Deriesha

Submitted to: Meeting Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/5/2019
Publication Date: 11/6/2019
Citation: Cole, M., Eggleston, G., Gaines, D. 2019. Development of a factory/refinery method to measure total, soluble, and insoluble starch in sugar products. In: Proceedings of the Advances in Sugar Crop Processing and Conversion 2018 Conference, May 15-18, 2018, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2:56-70.

Interpretive Summary: A rapid and precise industrial starch method based on microwave heating and NaOH/HCI neutralization chemistry has been developed to measure the total, soluble, and insoluble starch concentrations in sugarcane factory products. This industrial method is sensitive, highly selective to starch and, compared to current sugar industry starch methods, it is more accurate, flexible, and can analyze most factory samples with broad starch concentration ranges (i.e., juices, syrups, molasses, massecuites, and raw sugars) and wide Brix values. The average accuracy for the new industrial starch method was between 86-98% for sugarcane factory products and processing by-products with precision values (%CV) between 2-12%, depending on the sample type. Research on the transferability and deployment at Louisiana sugar factories and refineries is on-going.

Technical Abstract: A rapid and precise industrial starch method based on microwave heating and NaOH/HCI neutralization chemistry has been developed to measure the total, soluble, and insoluble starch concentrations in sugarcane factory products. This industrial method is sensitive, highly selective to starch and, compared to current sugar industry starch methods, it is more accurate, flexible, and can analyze most factory samples with broad starch concentration ranges (i.e., juices, syrups, molasses, massecuites, and raw sugars) and wide Brix values. The average accuracy for the new industrial starch method was between 86-98% for sugarcane factory products and processing by-products with precision values (%CV) between 2-12%, depending on the sample type. Research on the transferability and deployment at Louisiana sugar factories and refineries is on-going.