The Effect of Chemical Modification on the Rheological Properties and Structure of Food Grade Modified Starches

Starch in its pure form can be used as a functional component of numerous food products; however, much better results both in terms of technological and economical aspects are obtained with the use of modified starches. The aim of the work was to establish how chemical modification affects the molecular structure of potato starch and, as a consequence, its rheological properties as well as texture forming ability. Commercial food-grade potato starch preparations oxidized starch, acetylated starch, distarch phosphate, acetylated distarch phosphate and acetylated distarch adipate were the investigated material. The experimental methods included: viscographic analysis of pasting properties, flow rheometry, texture profile analysis, size exclusion chromatography with triple detection. The obtained data were further analyzed employing principal component and hierarchical cluster analysis. It was found that chemical modification leads to substantial changes in the molecular and functional properties of starch products. Oxidation process leads to depolymerization, which causes a substantial decrease in viscosity. Acetylation results mostly in stabilization of rheological properties during thermal processing. Crosslinking of starch leads to an improvement in thickening capabilities, while the type of crosslinking agent used for modification has a secondary effect. Sterilization of all types of modified potato starch pastes leads only to minor changes in their texture and rheological properties.