Food Hydrocolloids 26 (2012) 398e404

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

Progress in starch modification in the last decade

Bhupinder Kaur, Fazilah Ariffin, 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: Modification of starch is carried out to enhance the positive attributes and eliminate the shortcomings of
Received 3 September 2010 the native starches. Modification of starch is an ever evolving industry with numerous possibilities to
Accepted 17 February 2011 generate novel starches which includes new functional and value added properties as a result of
modification and as demanded by the industry. In this paper, we will highlight the many current
Keywords: methods that have been discovered in starch modification which includes four broad areas that are
Modification of starch
chemical, physical, enzymatical and genetical modification.
Chemical
Ó 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Physical
Enzymatic
Genetic/biotechnology

1. Introduction production costs, increase product all through, eliminate batch

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, film 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 field
of pharmaceuticals, textiles, alcohol-based fuels and adhesives.
New uses of starch include low-calorie substitutes, biodegradable
packaging materials, thin films and thermoplastic materials with
improved thermal and mechanical properties (Biliaderis, 1998).
Modification 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 modification not only decreases retro-
gradation, gelling tendencies of pastes and gel syneresis but also
improves paste clarity and sheen, paste and gel texture, film
formation and adhesion (BeMiller, 1997). Modification 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.: þ60 4 653 2221; fax: þ60 4 657 3678.
E-mail address: akarim@usm.my (A.A. Karim).
rejects, ensure product consistency and extend shelf-life whilst
clearly making starch relevant in all stages of a food product’s life-
cycle (Murphy, 2000; Wurzburg, 1986). Modification 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 modifications.
Over the last few decades, starch has been modified by various
methods to achieve functionalities suitable for various industrial
applications. Basically there are four broad based kinds of modifi-
cations; chemical, physical, enzymatical and genetical. A number of
review articles (BeMiller, 1997; Jobling, 2004; Tharanathan, 2005)
on the subject of starch modification are available. However, within
the last decade there has been intense interest among researchers
to develop novel methods of starch modification with more
emphasis on enzymatic, physical and genetic modifications.
Therefore this paper was written to bring forward all the new
modifications that have taken place in the last decade.
2. Chemical modification
Chemical modification of starch involves the polymer molecules
of the starch granule in its native form. Modification is generally
achieved through derivatization such as etherification, esterifica-
tion and crosslinking, oxidation, cationization and grafting of
starch. However, there has been dearth of new methods in chemical
modifications as this kind of modification gives rise to issues con-
cerning consumers and the environment. There has been a trend to
combine different kinds of chemical treatments to create new kinds
of modifications. Similarly, chemical methods have been combined

0268-005X/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

doi:10.1016/j.foodhyd.2011.02.016
 B. Kaur et al. / Food Hydrocolloids 26 (2012) 398e404 399

with physical modifications such as microwave, radiation and
extrusion to produce modified starch with specific functional
properties. Overall advantages of these modifications were to
shorten the time of modification and increase production.
Some of the recent chemical modifications 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.
Modification 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 esterification with
hydrolysed coconut oil and DS 0.33 when palmitic acid was the acyl
donor. These modified starches have potential uses in the surface
coating materials and biomedical materials applications (Rajan,
Prasad, & Abraham, 2006; Rajan, Sudha, & Abraham, 2008).
Hydrophobically modified starch was prepared by enzyme-cata-
lyzed reaction of starch and alkenyl ketene dimer (AKD), which is
a fatty acid residue. Enzymes used were lipases from Pseudomonas
sp. and Pseudomonas fluorescens. This modified starch can be used
as an ingredient in applications where high solution viscosity and
hydrophobic interactions are required for example as paint thick-
ener, construction material, emulsion stabiliser and emulsifier in
cosmetics (Qiao, Gu, & Cheng, 2006).
Selective esterification 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-eth-
ylhexyl) sodium sulfosuccinate) to stabilise the microemulsions.
Acylations of 3-caprolactone (CL), vinyl stearate, and maleic anhy-
dride were obtained when AOT-coated dispersions of starch
nanoparticles in toluene were exposed to physically immobilized
CAL-B (Novozym 435). The modified 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).
2.2. Dual modifications
Starch modification using a combination of chemical and
physical or chemical and enzymatical methods have grown rapidly.
A combined method of modification using crosslinking and phos-
phorylation on rice starch, provided modified 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 final viscosity with a decrease in break-
down. Enhancement of osmotic pressure increases the activity
of the crosslinking agent (Varavinit, Paisanjit, Tukomane, &
Pukkahuta, 2007). Starch-based hydrogels were prepared by UV-
induced polymerization of acryloylated starch with zwitterionic
monomer 3-dimethyl(methacryloyloxyethyl) ammonium propane
sulfonate (DMAPS). A unique salt-tolerant swelling behaviour was
observed for this modified starch (Li & Zhang, 2007). Starch
modified through esterification 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 esterification to produce starch maleate
using the dry method had a reaction efficiency of up to 98% and
a reaction time of under 5 min. This is thought to be an efficient
method in esterifying starch (Xing, Zhang, Ju, & Yang, 2006). The
high efficiency 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 esteri-
fication of carboxymethyl cold-water-soluble potato starch with
octenylsuccinic anhydride. They were positively able to shorten the
esterification time from a few hours to a few minutes. The deriva-
tives displayed excellent emulsifying and surfactant performance

properties (Cí zová, Sroková, Sasinková, Malovíková, & Ebringerová,
2008).
Karim, Sufha, and Zaidul (2008) prepared modified corn and
mung bean starch using a dual modification 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 modified
starch proved to have significantly different functional properties
compared to hydroxypropyl starch prepared with untreated native
starch.

2.3. Other methods

Table 1
Recent chemical modification of starch.
Chemical modification
Microwave radiation with lipase as catalyst
Hydrophobic reaction of starch and
alkenyl ketene dimer
Esterification of starch nanoparticles
with lipase as a catalyst
Dual modified crosslink-phosphorylated
Crosslinking coupled with osmotic
pressure
Starch-based hydrogels prepared by UV
photopolymerization
Starch esterified with ferulic acid
Microwave-assisted synthesis of starch
maleate and starch succinates
Microwave and ultrasound irradiation
Hydroxypropylation and enzymatic
hydrolysis
Ozone-oxidised starch
The process of ozonation, oxidises starch and is a powerful
References
oxidant as it has an extra oxygen atom. During the ozonation
Rajan et al. (2006, 2008) process the carboxyl and carbonyl contents were found to increase
Qiao et al. (2006)
with the time of exposure to ozone. There was a difference in the
Chakraborty et al. (2005) extent of starch oxidation among starches from different sources
(Chan, Bhat, & Karim, 2009). Ozonated starches were found useful
Deetae et al. (2008) as thickening agents whereas those treated in the presence of
Varavinit et al. (2007) amino acids were suitable alternatives to highly chemically oxi-
Li and Zhang (2007)
dised starch (An & King, 2009). Ozone is a clean and powerful
oxidant and leaves no residues behind unlike hypochlorite oxida-
Ou et al. (2001) tion process where large amount of salts are produced (Kesselmans
Xing et al. (2006); & Bleeker, 1997).
Jyothi et al. (2005)

Cí zová et al. (2008)
Karim et al. (2008) 3. Physical modification
Kesselmans and Bleeker (1997); Physical modification can be safely used as a modification
An and King (2009); process in food products as it does not involve any chemical pres-
Chan et al. (2009)
ence. There has been a wave of new methods in the physical
400 B. Kaur et al. / Food Hydrocolloids 26 (2012) 398e404
modification of starches. Some of the new physical modifications
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 distribu-
tion. The potato-starch treated changed from a B to a A type after
treatment with the gelatinization temperatures increasing signifi-
cantly. A uniform heat distribution is provided for using this
method as compared to heat-moisture treatment and modified
starch is able to be produced in a large scale.
Deep freezing and thawing of moistened starch increased the
crystallinity of the granules (Szymon  ska, Krok, & Tomasik, 2000)
but multiple deep freezing and thawing (Szymon  ska, Krok,
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 modified 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 fixed pressure and predetermined time before
it drops towards vacuum (Maache-Rezzoug et al., 2009; Zarguili,
Maache-Rezzoug, Loisel, & Doublier, 2006). Gelatinization transi-
tion 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 micron-
ization. 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 field
(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 modification of starches.
Physical modification References
Osmotic-pressure treatment Pukkahuta et al. (2007)
Deep freezing Szymon  ska et al. (2000)
Multiple deep freezing and thawing Szymon  ska et al. (2003)
Instantaneous controlled pressure Zarguili et al. (2006);
drop (DIC) process Maache-Rezzoug et al. (2009)
Mechanical activation-with stirring Huang et al. (2007)
ball mill
Micronization in vacuum ball mill Che et al. (2007)
Pulsed electric fields treatment Han et al. (2009)
Corona electrical discharges Nemtanu and Minea (2006)
Thermally inhibited treatment Chiu et al. (1998); Lim et al. (2002)
(dry heating)
Iterated syneresis 
Lewandowicz and Soral-Smietana (2004)
Superheated starch 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 break-
down and a non-cohesive texture (Chiu, Schiermeyer, Thomas, &
Shah, 1998). Thermal inhibition with ionic gums had sodium algi-
nate, 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 solu-
tion to a temperature between 180 and 220  C to produce
spreadable particle gels with spherulite morphology and cream-
like 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 fluidized 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 (González, Carrara, Tosi, Añón, & Pilosof, 2007).
4. Enzymatic modification
Enzymatic modification has mainly used hydrolyzing enzymes
in its modification and one of its products is syrup be it glucose
syrup or high fructose corn syrup. With research, there are more
enzymes being identified for use in modification of starch.
The use of amylomaltases (EC 2.4.1.25) to modify starches is
expected to find 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 modification 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 re-
arrangement between the starch molecules has occurred without
an increase in oxidation-sensitive places or parts having reducing
activity. Little or no retrogradation occurs. This modified starch can
be used in foodstuffs, cosmetics, pharmaceutics, detergents, adhe-
sives and drilling fluids. 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-modi-
fied 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, Nørgaard, and Engelsen (2008) on gel texture
formed in the modification of potato, high-amylose potato, maize
and pea starch with amylomaltase (AM) isolated from the hyper-
thermophilic bacterium Thermus thermophilus, there was an
improvement in gel texture compared to the parent starch. All the
modified starches showed broadened amylopectin chain length
profiles. 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 first bacterial GBE group in that it is
 B. Kaur et al. / Food Hydrocolloids 26 (2012) 398e404
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
significantly from 28.5 to 9% while there was no significant change
in the side chain length distribution of the amylopectin. Storage of
the modified rice starch at 4  C for 7 days, showed that the retro-
gradation rate had significantly retarded compared to the control
sample (Auh et al., 2006).
As GI (glycemic index) in foods is related to diabetes, predia-
betes, 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 significant reduction of rapidly
digested starch by 14.5%, 29.0%, 19.8%, and 31.0% for maize starch
modified with b-amylase, b-amylase and transglucosidase, malto-
genic a-amylase, and maltogenic a-amylase and transglucosidase,
respectively. An increase in the starch branch density and crystal-
line structure in the modified 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
401
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 mech-
anism for their slow release besides providing special tastes, odors
and flavours to the starch granules.
5. Genetic/biotechnology modification
The advancement of genetic engineering technologies has
made the genetic modification of starch in planta possible by tar-
geting 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 modification
(Davis, Supatcharee, Khandelwal, & Chibbar, 2003). The activity of
these enzymes affects the reactivity, functionality, applicability in
food processing and food applications of these modified starches
therein enabling a market for “niche” products. Genetic modifica-
tion can be carried out by the traditional plant-breeding techniques
or through biotechnology (Johnson, Baumel, Hardy, & White, 1999).
The genetic modification that is carried out uses the methods as
shown in Fig. 2.Some of the modification 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 specific structural motifs of potato starch
(Viksø-Nielsen, Blennow, Jørgensen, Jensen, & Møller, 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, Arias-
Garzon, 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
402 B. Kaur et al. / Food Hydrocolloids 26 (2012) 398e404

Fig. 2. Modification of starch and their end-uses. The makeup, modification 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 modification 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 levels of phosphorous was observed too (Jobling et al., 1999).
composition and structure of the potato starch was completely Similar observation had been detected by Safford et al. (1998).
altered in that the average chain length of amylopectin was greater. Potato starches of low SBE values showed an increase of up to 5  C
This caused an increase in the apparent amylose content and higher in DSC peak temperature and viscosity onset temperature. This was

Table 3
Genetic modification of starch.

Modified Starch Enzyme Properties Reference

Amylose-free Maize-commercial, barley, Crossing partial waxy - Gelatinises easily, Sharma, Sissons, Rathjen, and
waxy sorghum, amaranth, wheat, mutants, - Clear paste, Jenner (2002); Ishada, Miura, Noda,
sweet potato, potato Inhibition of GBSS - Stabiliser, thickener, and Yamauchi (2003);
- Emulsifier, Kimura et al. (2001); Noda et al. (2002);
- Improved freeze-thaw Zheng and Sosulski (1998);
stability Jobling, Westcott, Tayal, Jeffcoat,
Potato Inhibition of GBSS, and Schwall (2002); Fulton et al. (2002);
SS II, SS III Jobling (2004)

High-amylose Maize-commercial Mutation of SBE IIb,
starch (50, 70, 90% amylose), Inhibition of SBE I
cereals, potato, & SBE II for
amylose 60% and
greater,
Inhibition of SBE II for still
higher amylose content,
SS IIa is missing
Barley sex6 mutant
- High gelling strength Bird, Brown, and Topping (2000);
- Film forming ability Jobling et al. (1999, 2003);
- Resistant starch Schwall et al. (2000); Morell et al. (2003)
- Adhesive
- Starch does not swell when
heated to 100 C
- Increased short chains
in amylopectin
- Lower gelatinization
temperature

Altered amylopectin Potato SS II and SS III isoforms - Low gelatinization Edward et al. (1999); Umemoto, Yano,
structure Rice inhibited temperatures (<50  C) Satoh, Shomura, and Nakamura (2002)

Phosphate content Potato Inhibition of GWD - Performance of potato starch Lorbeth, Ritte, Willmitzer,
does not correlate directly with and Kossmann (1998);
phosphate level Ritte et al. (2002);
Blennow, Hansen, et al. (2003);
Blennow, Bay-Smidt,
Leonhardt, Bandsholm, and Madsen (2003)

Granule size Cereal Isoamylase - Effects granule number Burton et al. (2002); Dinges, Colleoni,
and number and form 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 identified: 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 modification involve modifi-
cation of starch that is safe to the consumer and kind to the envi-
ronment. The physical, enzymatic and genetic modification of
starch has been most promising with a large number of newer
methods in starch modification. Osmotic-pressure treatment,
multiple deep freezing and thawing as well as ozone-oxidised
starch modification 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-modified starch can find appli-
cation as a gelatin alternative. As pointed out by Hansen et al.
(2008), the textural profile of starch gels was very different from
gelatin. The elasticity of gelatin gels was much higher, making them
firmer than starch gels. In addition, amylomaltase-modified
starches formed opaque gels, while gelatin gels were fully trans-
parent. Therefore, Kaper et al. (2005) suggested that amylomaltase-
modified starch should not be regarded as a replacement for gelatin
but rather as an extension of the variety of available gelling prod-
ucts with their own specific applications. Products using dual or
more modification processes are also being looked at for forming
new novel products with conventional and non-conventional
properties. Genetic modification has come a long way and now
there is a greater understanding of biosynthesis pathway of starch
making it easier to be manipulated.
Starch modification has come a long way since it was first
carried out in the 1800s. As with any modification, the possibilities
are numerous with starch modification 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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