Non-cereals Starch Resources

DINI, C.; FLORES, S.; KUPERVASER, M. G.; SOSA, C.; TRAFFANO-SCHIFFO, M. V.; VIÑA, S. Z.

Designing gluten-free bakery and pasta products

Springer Nature

Año: 2023; p. 63 - 113

To produce bakery goods, the gluten protein is the key factor due to its contribution to water absorption capacity and because it provides extensibility, elasticity and cohesiveness to bread dough. This allows the fermentation gas remains occluded and maintained in the liquid phase during dough development, leading to obtain high-grade breads (Wieser 2007). However, gluten has been identified as the responsible of celiac disease (Ronda et al. 2009), and the only effective treatment for patients is to follow strictly a gluten-free (GF) diet (Witczak et al. 2016). It has been observed that, if formulation is not properly adjusted, baked products without gluten could result in lower quality attributes, reduced nutritional characteristics and consumer acceptance (Naqash et al. 2017). Therefore, the development of GF products appropriate for consumers with disorders related to gluten intake was growing in importance (Zhang et al. 2017). Formerly, hydrocolloids and starch were the major ingredients in GF diets (Shi and Bemiller 2002). From last decades, the demand of new food ingredients suitable for GF products is expanding in order to obtain more foods for a wider diet without potentially allergenic proteins. Among those ingredients, alternative starches resources are intensely searching. Starch is one of the most abundant and consumed natural polysaccharide in human diet. It is a biopolymer composed of glucose and it is obtained from plants such as grains, legumes, and tubers (Karmakar et al. 2014). Despite its high abundance, commercially sustainable sources of starch are limited to corn, wheat, cassava, potato and rice. With respect to corn, the global market reached 78 million tons (Mt) in 2020, being mainly produced in the United States, Europe and China (70–80%), whereas wheat is produced (6.3 Mt) mostly in Europe China and India (98%). The cassava starch (CS) production (6.9 Mt) comes from Asian Pacific region (Thailand, China and Indonesia) and Brazil (75%). Finally, potato starch (PS) which global market attained 3.4 Mt, accounting the highest productions from China, India, United States and Europe (80%); while rice is produced particularly in Asia (Expert Market Research 2020; Murphy 2000). Each region has a more convenient source of starch production mostly determined by climatic and logistic requirements (Semeijn and Buwalda 2018). C. Dini et al.65 For food production (noodles, baked goods, etc.), starch is widely used as a gelling, thickening, and/or stabilizing agent (Fonseca et al. 2021; Rożnowski et al. 2014), besides being processed and used as binder, sweetener and as emulsifier (Mahmood et al. 2017; Bello-Pérez et al. 2006). In particular, natural starches with low or without gluten are intensely requested because of their possibility to be used in the formulation of GF bakery products. In this context, corn and potato are the most commonly used starches, together with cassava and rice (Masure et al. 2016), due to their beneficial characteristics, such as neutral taste, soft texture, and high digestibility. They are frequently used in combination with proteins and hydrocolloids to counter their minimal structure-building potential, contributing to the structure, texture and stability of food through their thickening or gelling behaviour and surface properties (Capriles and Arêas 2014; Doublier et al. 2000). Other cereals, like minor or pseudo-cereals, like sorghum, millet, quinoa, amaranths and buckwheat, are being tested as alternative ingredientes tolerated by celiac patients (Comino et al. 2013). In addition, new sources of non-cereal starch are being explored including beans (pea, chickpea), sweet potato and other ethnical tubers, carrots, nuts and some fruits as banana or mango (unripe pulp and kernel) (Witczak et al. 2016; Punia Bangar et al. 2021; Lagunes-Delgado et al. 2022). Till the moment, many reports are found describing general properties of such novel starches but there are not clear applications yet. To better understanding the functionality of starch in food production, some general aspects about structure, functional, nutritional properties and a brief mention to available techniques to modify starches is described in the following sections. A special description and some applications of potato, cassava and others non- conventional resources starches is also exposed.