Effect of steeping corn with lactic acid on strach properties.

HAROS, M; PÉREZ, OSCAR E; MOLINA ROSELL, CRISTINA

CEREAL CHEMISTRY

American Association of Cereal Chemistry

Año: 2004 vol. 81 p. 10 - 14

0009-0352

Pasting and thermal properties of starch from corn steeped in the presence of lactic acid and at different steeping times (8,16,24,32,48 hr) were investigated. Corn kernels were steeped at 52ºC with 0.2% (w/v) SO2 and with and without a.5% (v/v) lactic acid. The isolated starch obtained by corn wet-milling was characterized by determining starch recoveries, retrogradation and melting transition properties of the lipid-amylose complex by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and pasting properties by the Rapid Visco Analyser (RVA). Damaged granules and the starch granule size were determined by using microscopic techniques. Starches from corn steeped in the presence of lactic acid (LAS) were compared with compared with control starch (CS) steeped without lactic acid. Greater starch recoveries were obtained for LAS samples than for CS samples, and practically no damaged satrch was present in the former preparations. The presence of lactic acid affected the RVA profiles and steepin time affected the viscosities of the starch suspensions. In general, the RVA parameters of LAS suspensions were lower than those of CS suspensions. No great modification of the thermal properties was observed; only a slight decrease in amylopectin retrogradation and in the melting enthalpy of the amylose.lipid complex were observed. Hydrolysis of the strach during steepins seems the more probably explanation to the strach modifications produced by lactic acid addition.