Food Hydrocolloids 26 (2012) 398e404

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Food Hydrocolloids
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodhyd

Progress in starch modication in the last decade

Bhupinder Kaur, Fazilah Arifn, Rajeev Bhat, Alias A. Karim*
Food Biopolymer Research Group, Food Technology Division, School of Industrial Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 3 September 2010
Accepted 17 February 2011

Modication of starch is carried out to enhance the positive attributes and eliminate the shortcomings of
the native starches. Modication of starch is an ever evolving industry with numerous possibilities to
generate novel starches which includes new functional and value added properties as a result of
modication and as demanded by the industry. In this paper, we will highlight the many current
methods that have been discovered in starch modication which includes four broad areas that are
chemical, physical, enzymatical and genetical modication.
2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords:
Modication of starch
Chemical
Physical
Enzymatic
Genetic/biotechnology

1. Introduction
Starch is made up of two fractions: amylose which is made up of
essentially a-(1 / 4) D-glucopyranosyl units and amylopectin
which is made up of a large number of short chains linked together
at their reducing end side by a a-(1 / 6) linkage (Biliaderis, 1998).
Starch affects texture, viscosity, gel formation, adhesion, binding,
moisture retention, lm formation and product homogeneity. It is
used mainly in soups, sauces and gravies, bakery products, dairy
confectionery, snacks, batters and coatings and meat products
(Davies, 1995). Non-food applications of starch include in the eld
of pharmaceuticals, textiles, alcohol-based fuels and adhesives.
New uses of starch include low-calorie substitutes, biodegradable
packaging materials, thin lms and thermoplastic materials with
improved thermal and mechanical properties (Biliaderis, 1998).
Modication of starch was carried out to overcome shortcomings
of native starches and increase the usefulness of starch for industrial
applications. Native starches when cooked can easily retrograde and
there is a gelling tendency of pastes besides easily undergoing
syneresis. Therefore starch modication not only decreases retrogradation, gelling tendencies of pastes and gel syneresis but also
improves paste clarity and sheen, paste and gel texture, lm
formation and adhesion (BeMiller, 1997). Modication of starches
has brought about an evolution of new processing technologies and
market trends. These highly functional derivatives have been
tailored to create competitive advantage in a new product, improve
product aesthetics, simplify product proclamation, lower recipe/

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 60 4 653 2221; fax: 60 4 657 3678.

E-mail address: akarim@usm.my (A.A. Karim).
0268-005X/$ e see front matter 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
doi:10.1016/j.foodhyd.2011.02.016

production costs, increase product all through, eliminate batch

rejects, ensure product consistency and extend shelf-life whilst
clearly making starch relevant in all stages of a food products lifecycle (Murphy, 2000; Wurzburg, 1986). Modication of starch is an
ongoing process as there are numerous possibilities. There is a huge
market for the many new functional and added value properties
resulting from these modications.
Over the last few decades, starch has been modied by various
methods to achieve functionalities suitable for various industrial
applications. Basically there are four broad based kinds of modications; chemical, physical, enzymatical and genetical. A number of
review articles (BeMiller, 1997; Jobling, 2004; Tharanathan, 2005)
on the subject of starch modication are available. However, within
the last decade there has been intense interest among researchers
to develop novel methods of starch modication with more
emphasis on enzymatic, physical and genetic modications.
Therefore this paper was written to bring forward all the new
modications that have taken place in the last decade.
2. Chemical modication
Chemical modication of starch involves the polymer molecules
of the starch granule in its native form. Modication is generally
achieved through derivatization such as etherication, esterication and crosslinking, oxidation, cationization and grafting of
starch. However, there has been dearth of new methods in chemical
modications as this kind of modication gives rise to issues concerning consumers and the environment. There has been a trend to
combine different kinds of chemical treatments to create new kinds
of modications. Similarly, chemical methods have been combined

B. Kaur et al. / Food Hydrocolloids 26 (2012) 398e404

with physical modications such as microwave, radiation and

extrusion to produce modied starch with specic functional
properties. Overall advantages of these modications were to
shorten the time of modication and increase production.
Some of the recent chemical modications that have been
studied are summarised in Table 1.

2.1. Starch esters

Development of new methods to produce hydrophobic starch
has been carried out in the last decade to produce hydrophobic
starch as an alternative to the process patented by National Starch
and Chemical Corporation.
Modication of maize and cassava starch with microwave
radiation was used to esterify free fatty acids with lipase as catalyst.
The free fatty acids were obtained from recovered coconut oil
which was hydrolysed with lipase. A DS (degree of substitution) of
1.1 was obtainable using microwave radiation for esterication with
hydrolysed coconut oil and DS 0.33 when palmitic acid was the acyl
donor. These modied starches have potential uses in the surface
coating materials and biomedical materials applications (Rajan,
Prasad, & Abraham, 2006; Rajan, Sudha, & Abraham, 2008).
Hydrophobically modied starch was prepared by enzyme-catalyzed reaction of starch and alkenyl ketene dimer (AKD), which is
a fatty acid residue. Enzymes used were lipases from Pseudomonas
sp. and Pseudomonas uorescens. This modied starch can be used
as an ingredient in applications where high solution viscosity and
hydrophobic interactions are required for example as paint thickener, construction material, emulsion stabiliser and emulsier in
cosmetics (Qiao, Gu, & Cheng, 2006).
Selective esterication of starch nanoparticles was done using
Candida antarctica Lipase B (CAL-B) in its immobilized and free
forms as catalyst. Acylation reactions were made accessible for the
starch nanoparticles by formation of Aerosol-OT (AOT, bis(2-ethylhexyl) sodium sulfosuccinate) to stabilise the microemulsions.
Acylations of 3-caprolactone (CL), vinyl stearate, and maleic anhydride were obtained when AOT-coated dispersions of starch
nanoparticles in toluene were exposed to physically immobilized
CAL-B (Novozym 435). The modied starch nanoparticles were
found to retain their nanodimensions upon the removal of the
surfactant when dispersed in DMSO or water (Chakraborty, Sahoo,
Teraoka, Miller, & Gross, 2005).

399

2.2. Dual modications

Starch modication using a combination of chemical and
physical or chemical and enzymatical methods have grown rapidly.
A combined method of modication using crosslinking and phosphorylation on rice starch, provided modied rice starch with good
freeze-thaw stability (Deetae et al., 2008).
Crosslinking of tapioca starch with sodium trimetaphosphate in
the presence of osmotic-pressure enhancing salts caused an
increase in the peak and nal viscosity with a decrease in breakdown. Enhancement of osmotic pressure increases the activity
of the crosslinking agent (Varavinit, Paisanjit, Tukomane, &
Pukkahuta, 2007). Starch-based hydrogels were prepared by UVinduced polymerization of acryloylated starch with zwitterionic
monomer 3-dimethyl(methacryloyloxyethyl) ammonium propane
sulfonate (DMAPS). A unique salt-tolerant swelling behaviour was
observed for this modied starch (Li & Zhang, 2007). Starch
modied through esterication with ferulic acid giving rise to
starch ferulate showed lower viscosity, higher water holding
capacity and much less retrogradation during low temperature
storage compared to native starch (Ou, Li, & Yang, 2001).
Microwave-assisted esterication to produce starch maleate
using the dry method had a reaction efciency of up to 98% and
a reaction time of under 5 min. This is thought to be an efcient
method in esterifying starch (Xing, Zhang, Ju, & Yang, 2006). The
high efciency in producing succinylated cassava starch with
microwave assistance was also observed by Jyothi, Rajasekharan,
Moorthy, and Sreekumar (2005). This is a good method to
decrease the use of chemicals to enhance production.
Microwave and ultrasound irradiation was used for the esterication of carboxymethyl cold-water-soluble potato starch with
octenylsuccinic anhydride. They were positively able to shorten the
esterication time from a few hours to a few minutes. The derivatives displayed excellent emulsifying and surfactant performance

properties (C
zov, Srokov, Sasinkov, Malovkov, & Ebringerov,
2008).
Karim, Sufha, and Zaidul (2008) prepared modied corn and
mung bean starch using a dual modication process, whereby the
native starch was treated to partial enzymatic hydrolysis using
a mixture of fungal a-amylase and glucoamylase followed by
hydroxypropylation with propylene oxide. The resultant modied
starch proved to have signicantly different functional properties
compared to hydroxypropyl starch prepared with untreated native
starch.
2.3. Other methods

Table 1
Recent chemical modication of starch.
Chemical modication

References

Microwave radiation with lipase as catalyst

Hydrophobic reaction of starch and
alkenyl ketene dimer
Esterication of starch nanoparticles
with lipase as a catalyst
Dual modied crosslink-phosphorylated
Crosslinking coupled with osmotic
pressure
Starch-based hydrogels prepared by UV
photopolymerization
Starch esteried with ferulic acid
Microwave-assisted synthesis of starch
maleate and starch succinates
Microwave and ultrasound irradiation
Hydroxypropylation and enzymatic
hydrolysis
Ozone-oxidised starch

Rajan et al. (2006, 2008)

Qiao et al. (2006)
Chakraborty et al. (2005)
Deetae et al. (2008)
Varavinit et al. (2007)
Li and Zhang (2007)
Ou et al. (2001)
Xing et al. (2006);
Jyothi et al. (2005)

C
zov et al. (2008)
Karim et al. (2008)
Kesselmans and Bleeker (1997);
An and King (2009);
Chan et al. (2009)

The process of ozonation, oxidises starch and is a powerful

oxidant as it has an extra oxygen atom. During the ozonation
process the carboxyl and carbonyl contents were found to increase
with the time of exposure to ozone. There was a difference in the
extent of starch oxidation among starches from different sources
(Chan, Bhat, & Karim, 2009). Ozonated starches were found useful
as thickening agents whereas those treated in the presence of
amino acids were suitable alternatives to highly chemically oxidised starch (An & King, 2009). Ozone is a clean and powerful
oxidant and leaves no residues behind unlike hypochlorite oxidation process where large amount of salts are produced (Kesselmans
& Bleeker, 1997).
3. Physical modication
Physical modication can be safely used as a modication
process in food products as it does not involve any chemical presence. There has been a wave of new methods in the physical

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B. Kaur et al. / Food Hydrocolloids 26 (2012) 398e404

modication of starches. Some of the new physical modications

that have been investigated in the last decade are given in Table 2.
Osmotic-pressure treatment (OPT) was carried out in the
presence of high salt solutions (Pukkahuta, Shobsngob, and
Varavinit, 2007). Starch solution was suspended in sodium
sulphate to obtain a uniform starch suspension and heat distribution. The potato-starch treated changed from a B to a A type after
treatment with the gelatinization temperatures increasing signicantly. A uniform heat distribution is provided for using this
method as compared to heat-moisture treatment and modied
starch is able to be produced in a large scale.
Deep freezing and thawing of moistened starch increased the
 ska, Krok, & Tomasik, 2000)
crystallinity of the granules (Szymon
 ska, Krok,
but multiple deep freezing and thawing (Szymon
Komorowska-Czepirska, & Re bilas, 2003) caused an irreversible
disruption of the crystalline order. Iterated syneresis was similar to
multiple deep freezing and thawing. The freezing and thawing was
repeated until the moisture content in the solid phase was less than
20%. All modied starches showed a change towards B-type X-ray
diffraction pattern indicating a disruption of the crystalline prop
erty (Lewandowicz & Soral-Smietana,
2004). Again as there are no
chemicals involved then there is no concern for the effect on the
environment and safety issues to be addressed.
The instantaneous controlled pressure drop, DIC, process
involves a short pressurisation obtained as a result of injection of
saturated steam at a xed pressure and predetermined time before
it drops towards vacuum (Maache-Rezzoug et al., 2009; Zarguili,
Maache-Rezzoug, Loisel, & Doublier, 2006). Gelatinization transition temperatures and enzymatic hydrolysis increased whereas
gelatinization enthalpy decreased after treatment.
The use of friction, collision, impingement, shear and other
mechanical actions to alter the crystalline structures and properties
of the starch granule refers to mechanical activation or micronization. This process causes large particles to crush to form smaller
particles whereas the tiny particles agglomerate and form large
particles. The gelatinization temperature and viscosity is decreased
for the treated sample (Che, Li, Wang, Chen, & Mao, 2007; Huang,
Lu, Li, & Tong, 2007).
A non-thermal food preservation method, pulsed electric eld
(PEF) technology has been used to study the effect of the treatment
on starch. Re-arrangement and destruction of starch molecules
were observed as well as a decrease in gelatinization properties,
viscosity and crystallinity (Han, Zeng, Zhang, & Yu, 2009). The
solubility, gel consistency and clarity of starches decreased with
increase of exposure time to corona electrical discharges (Nemtanu
& Minea, 2006).
Thermal inhibition of starch is done by dehydrating starch until
it is anhydrous (<1% moisture) and treating it to a temperature of

Table 2
Recent methods of physical modication of starches.
Physical modication

References

Osmotic-pressure treatment
Deep freezing
Multiple deep freezing and thawing
Instantaneous controlled pressure
drop (DIC) process
Mechanical activation-with stirring
ball mill
Micronization in vacuum ball mill
Pulsed electric elds treatment
Corona electrical discharges
Thermally inhibited treatment
(dry heating)
Iterated syneresis
Superheated starch

Pukkahuta et al. (2007)

 ska et al. (2000)
Szymon
 ska et al. (2003)
Szymon
Zarguili et al. (2006);
Maache-Rezzoug et al. (2009)
Huang et al. (2007)
Che et al. (2007)
Han et al. (2009)
Nemtanu and Minea (2006)
Chiu et al. (1998); Lim et al. (2002)

Lewandowicz and Soral-Smietana
(2004)
Steeneken and Woortman (2009)

100 C or greater for a period of time enough to inhibit starch. An

alkaline condition enhanced the effect of heating. Pastes formed
from theses starches had increased resistance to viscosity breakdown and a non-cohesive texture (Chiu, Schiermeyer, Thomas, &
Shah, 1998). Thermal inhibition with ionic gums had sodium alginate, CMC and xanthan behaving as crosslinking agents and were
able to form graft copolymers through ester formation (Lim, Han,
Lim, & BeMiller, 2002).
Superheated starches were prepared by heating a starch solution to a temperature between 180 and 220  C to produce
spreadable particle gels with spherulite morphology and creamlike texture upon cooling. Dry superheated starches mixed with
cold water are able to give immediate gel-like texture (Steeneken &
Woortman, 2009).
Extrusion heating (EH) and uidized bed heating (FBH) was
used on amaranth starch-rich fraction. EH caused a high degree of
granule disruption and almost complete loss of crystallinity
whereas FBH saw some loss of crystallinity but granule integrity
was preserved (Gonzlez, Carrara, Tosi, An, & Pilosof, 2007).
4. Enzymatic modication
Enzymatic modication has mainly used hydrolyzing enzymes
in its modication and one of its products is syrup be it glucose
syrup or high fructose corn syrup. With research, there are more
enzymes being identied for use in modication of starch.
The use of amylomaltases (EC 2.4.1.25) to modify starches is
expected to nd applications in the food industry as a plant and
chemical free alternative to gelatine (Euverink & Binnema, 1998).
Starch treated with a-1,4ea-1,4 glucosyl transferases also known as
amylomaltases is used in forming a thermoreversible gel. This is
done by breaking an a-1,4 bond between two glucose units to
subsequently make a novel a-1,4 bond. These enzymes are found in
the Eukarya, bacteria and archaea representatives. The enzyme
used has to be free of enzymatic components that can cause
undesirable damage to the starch molecule. The starches that can
be used for modication should contain amylose such as potato,
maize, wheat, rice and tapioca starch. The average molecular
weight, reducing power and branching percentage remain
unchanged from the starting material. It is believed a mutual rearrangement between the starch molecules has occurred without
an increase in oxidation-sensitive places or parts having reducing
activity. Little or no retrogradation occurs. This modied starch can
be used in foodstuffs, cosmetics, pharmaceutics, detergents, adhesives and drilling uids. It is also a good source of plant-derived
substitute for gelatine except that it forms a turbid gel whereas
gelatine gels are transparent (Euverink & Binnema, 1998; Kaper, van
der Maarel, Euverink, & Dijkhuizen, 2003; van der Maarel et al.,
2005). Similar work was also done by Oh, Choi, Lee, Kim, and
Moon (2008) on granular corn starch. The thermodynamics of
this gelatine-like starch-based system was studied by Hansen,
Blennow, Pedersen, and Engelsen (2009). An amylomaltase-modied potato starch has been used as a fat replacer and enhancer of
creaminess in yoghurt (Alting et al., 2009). In the study by Hansen,
Blennow, Pedersen, Nrgaard, and Engelsen (2008) on gel texture
formed in the modication of potato, high-amylose potato, maize
and pea starch with amylomaltase (AM) isolated from the hyperthermophilic bacterium Thermus thermophilus, there was an
improvement in gel texture compared to the parent starch. All the
modied starches showed broadened amylopectin chain length
proles. Fig. 1 shows a schematic representation of the reaction
taking place.
A putative glycogen branching enzyme (GBE) was cloned and
expressed from Streptococcus mutans, thereafter known as SmGBE.
This enzyme differs from the rst bacterial GBE group in that it is

B. Kaur et al. / Food Hydrocolloids 26 (2012) 398e404

401

Fig. 1. Schematic representation of the enzymatic conversion of potato-starch-derived amylose and amylopectin into ATS by amylomaltase. Reprinted from Alting et al. (2009),
Copyright (2009) with permission from Elsevier.

encoded with four highly conserved regions of the a-1,4-GBE family

and does not have the extra N-terminal stretch. SmGBE is able to
modify starches and produce shorter branches with more branched
structure compared to native starch. Starch retrogradation is also
retarded with enzyme reaction due to low temperature storage
(Kim, Ryu, Bae, Huong, & Lee, 2008). Cyclomaltodextrinase (CDase;
EC 3.2.1.54), isolated from alkalophilic Bacillus sp. I-5 (CDase I-5)
was used to modify rice starch to produce low-amylose starch
products. The amylose content was found to have decreased
signicantly from 28.5 to 9% while there was no signicant change
in the side chain length distribution of the amylopectin. Storage of
the modied rice starch at 4  C for 7 days, showed that the retrogradation rate had signicantly retarded compared to the control
sample (Auh et al., 2006).
As GI (glycemic index) in foods is related to diabetes, prediabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity (Ludwig, 2002) it is
becoming important to have more low GI foods to control these
diseases. One of the methods is to produce foods containing starch
that is digested slowly. There was a signicant reduction of rapidly
digested starch by 14.5%, 29.0%, 19.8%, and 31.0% for maize starch
modied with b-amylase, b-amylase and transglucosidase, maltogenic a-amylase, and maltogenic a-amylase and transglucosidase,
respectively. An increase in the starch branch density and crystalline structure in the modied starches was thought to contribute to
the slow digestion (Ao et al., 2007).
In the reaction of glucoamylase (1,4-a-D-glucan glucohydrolase,
EC 3.2.1.3) with starch, 8e32% of the D-glucose remains inside the
granule during the early stages of the reaction, but over 80% of the
D-glucose is found in the reaction supernatant outside the granule
during the later stages of the reaction. Kim and Robyt (1999)
reacted glucoamylase with waxy maize, maize and amylomaize-7
starches to retain 100% of the D-glucose produced inside the
granule by controlling the length of time of the reaction and the
type of starch. The amount of water used in the reaction was also
decreased to an amount equal to the weight of starch which gave
a solid-granule reaction system. The amount of water used was
enough for hydrolysis to take place, but the solid granules did not
allow diffusion of the D-glucose. The starch granules containing
D-glucose, rapidly diffuse out the D-glucose when suspended in
water. Besides this the same authors (Kim & Robyt, 2000) worked
with cyclomaltodextrin glucanosyltransferase (CGTase, EC 2.4.1.19)
in the presence of isoamylase to produce cyclodextrins (CDs) with

a maximum yield of 3.4 and 100% retention inside waxy maize

starch granules. Cyclomaltodextrins are also formed in situ, with
the retention of CDs in the granule and this leads to the production
of a new material that has properties of starch granules and
cyclomaltodextrins. Formation of complexes of organic molecules
with cyclomaltodextrins provides stabilisation of light, heat and
oxygen-sensitive materials in the starch granules and also a mechanism for their slow release besides providing special tastes, odors
and avours to the starch granules.
5. Genetic/biotechnology modication
The advancement of genetic engineering technologies has
made the genetic modication of starch in planta possible by targeting the enzymes of the starch biosynthetic pathway. This
transgene technology has a potential to produce novel starches
which can reduce or eliminate the use of environmentally
hazardous post-harvest chemical and enzymatic modication
(Davis, Supatcharee, Khandelwal, & Chibbar, 2003). The activity of
these enzymes affects the reactivity, functionality, applicability in
food processing and food applications of these modied starches
therein enabling a market for niche products. Genetic modication can be carried out by the traditional plant-breeding techniques
or through biotechnology (Johnson, Baumel, Hardy, & White, 1999).
The genetic modication that is carried out uses the methods as
shown in Fig. 2.Some of the modication of starches that has been
done genetically are shown in Table 3. The data in the table has
been adapted from Jobling (2004).
Repression of GWD (starch phosphorylating enzyme R1) was
used in the alteration of specic structural motifs of potato starch
(Viks-Nielsen, Blennow, Jrgensen, Jensen, & Mller, 2001). An
Escherichia coli glg B encoding a glycogen branching enzyme from
a patatin promoter onto potato lines was done by Wischmann et al.
(2005). Starch containing amylopectin molecules with a relatively
higher number of amylopectin branches and higher amount of
short amylopectin chains with lower content of phosphate was
obtained. This starch also gave rise to hard and adhesive gels.
AGPase (ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase) was used as a catalyst to
increase the total cassava root biomass by 2.6 fold (Ihemere, AriasGarzon, Lawrence, & Sayre, 2006). When a full length cDNAs
encoding a second starch branching enzyme (SBE A) isoform was
isolated and an antisense SBE A RNA was generated on transgenic

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B. Kaur et al. / Food Hydrocolloids 26 (2012) 398e404

Fig. 2. Modication of starch and their end-uses. The makeup, modication and levels of starch can be manipulated via genetic and biochemical means. The resulting changes can
alter the properties and applications of starch. Note: the text shades used in the modication portion correspond to those found under end-uses. An arrow pointing upwards
indicates an increase in the level of an enzyme; an arrow pointing downwards indicates a decrease in the level of an enzyme; a plus symbol indicates the addition of reactive groups.
Abbreviations: DBE, debranching enzyme; GBSSI, granular-bound starch synthase I; SBE, starch branching enzyme; SBE A, class A SBE; SS, starch synthase. Reprinted from Slattery,
Kavakli, and Okita (2000), Copyright (2000) with permission from Elsevier.

potato plants, a complete reduction in SBE A was observed. The

composition and structure of the potato starch was completely
altered in that the average chain length of amylopectin was greater.
This caused an increase in the apparent amylose content and higher

levels of phosphorous was observed too (Jobling et al., 1999).

Similar observation had been detected by Safford et al. (1998).
Potato starches of low SBE values showed an increase of up to 5  C
in DSC peak temperature and viscosity onset temperature. This was

Table 3
Genetic modication of starch.
Modied

Starch

Enzyme

Properties

Reference

Amylose-free
waxy

Maize-commercial, barley,
sorghum, amaranth, wheat,
sweet potato, potato

Crossing partial waxy

mutants,
Inhibition of GBSS

Gelatinises easily,
Clear paste,
Stabiliser, thickener,
Emulsier,
Improved freeze-thaw
stability

Potato

Inhibition of GBSS,
SS II, SS III

Sharma, Sissons, Rathjen, and

Jenner (2002); Ishada, Miura, Noda,
and Yamauchi (2003);
Kimura et al. (2001); Noda et al. (2002);
Zheng and Sosulski (1998);
Jobling, Westcott, Tayal, Jeffcoat,
and Schwall (2002); Fulton et al. (2002);
Jobling (2004)

Maize-commercial
(50, 70, 90% amylose),
cereals, potato,

Mutation of SBE IIb,

Inhibition of SBE I
& SBE II for
amylose 60% and
greater,
Inhibition of SBE II for still
higher amylose content,
SS IIa is missing

High gelling strength

Film forming ability
Resistant starch
Adhesive

Bird, Brown, and Topping (2000);

Jobling et al. (1999, 2003);
Schwall et al. (2000); Morell et al. (2003)

High-amylose
starch

Barley sex6 mutant

- Starch does not swell when

heated to 100 C
- Increased short chains
in amylopectin
- Lower gelatinization
temperature

Altered amylopectin
structure

Potato
Rice

SS II and SS III isoforms

inhibited

- Low gelatinization
temperatures (<50  C)

Edward et al. (1999); Umemoto, Yano,

Satoh, Shomura, and Nakamura (2002)

Phosphate content

Potato

Inhibition of GWD

- Performance of potato starch

does not correlate directly with
phosphate level

Lorbeth, Ritte, Willmitzer,

and Kossmann (1998);
Ritte et al. (2002);
Blennow, Hansen, et al. (2003);
Blennow, Bay-Smidt,
Leonhardt, Bandsholm, and Madsen (2003)

Granule size
and number

Cereal

Isoamylase

- Effects granule number

and form

Burton et al. (2002); Dinges, Colleoni,

James, and Myers (2003)

Abbreviations: GBSS-granular-bound starch synthase; SS-starch synthase; SBE-starch branching enzyme; GWD- a-glucan water dikinase.

B. Kaur et al. / Food Hydrocolloids 26 (2012) 398e404

speculated to be due to an alteration in amylopectin branch

patterns.
Three mutagenised grains of the diploid oat, Avena strigosa
Schreb, was identied: mutants lam-1, lam-2 and sga-1. lam-1 and
lam-2 lacked in GBSS activity and amylose component therefore
representing mutations of the waxy type. The nature of mutation in
sga-1 is yet to be discovered (Verhoeven, Fahy, Leggett, Moates, &
Denyer, 2004).
6. Conclusions and future outlook
The challenges involved in starch modication involve modication of starch that is safe to the consumer and kind to the environment. The physical, enzymatic and genetic modication of
starch has been most promising with a large number of newer
methods in starch modication. Osmotic-pressure treatment,
multiple deep freezing and thawing as well as ozone-oxidised
starch modication are capable of producing a variety of starches
with numerous properties that will be applicable in the food
industry.
The use of amylomaltases in producing thermoreversible gel is
a breakthrough in having an alternative product for gelatine and
products using gelatine. However, certain issues need to be
considered before amylomaltase-modied starch can nd application as a gelatin alternative. As pointed out by Hansen et al.
(2008), the textural prole of starch gels was very different from
gelatin. The elasticity of gelatin gels was much higher, making them
rmer than starch gels. In addition, amylomaltase-modied
starches formed opaque gels, while gelatin gels were fully transparent. Therefore, Kaper et al. (2005) suggested that amylomaltasemodied starch should not be regarded as a replacement for gelatin
but rather as an extension of the variety of available gelling products with their own specic applications. Products using dual or
more modication processes are also being looked at for forming
new novel products with conventional and non-conventional
properties. Genetic modication has come a long way and now
there is a greater understanding of biosynthesis pathway of starch
making it easier to be manipulated.
Starch modication has come a long way since it was rst
carried out in the 1800s. As with any modication, the possibilities
are numerous with starch modication but there should be an eye
on the safety and health measurements taken for consumers and
the environment.
Acknowledgments
Dr. Bhupinder Kaur is the recipient of USM Post-Doctoral
Fellowship in Research.
References
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