Functional and Nutritional Aspects of Modified Starches

Abstract

Starch is the principal constituent of the human diet, providing energy, and is an integral ingredient that has extended applications in the food industry. Starchy food products are in greater demand and have been consumed for many years. However, the intrinsic physicochemical attributes of native starch cannot satisfy modern food processing demands due to some shortcomings, such as high retrogradation tendency, thermal stability, and vulnerability to shear resistance and pH. Also, cooked native starches are gelatinised and easily digestible, increasing postprandial blood glucose levels and explaining the high incidence of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and other chronic diseases. The highly flexible starch can be tailored to overcome these limitations using innumerable modific