Native, modified and clean label starches in foods and beverages - Natural Food Additives, Ingredients and Flavourings - page 161

Fig. 7.1 Appearance of various starches.

native starch by modifi cation through one or more of the processes set out in
Section 7.7. The modifi cations are carried out to improve the starch's functionality
(e.g. its ability to withstand low pH conditions and high temperatures), as native
starches are typically not 'process friendly'.
Native starches are considered clean label ingredients, whereas chemically
modifi ed starches carry an E number designation and are not perceived as
natural. Incidentally, the term native is applied to extracted non-processed
starches, rather than natural, as this implies untouched by human hand. In terms
of starch, this would mean the use in foods of the whole vegetable or botanic
plant from which the starch is derived and reliance on the starch being extracted
upon cooking (i.e. addition of a whole potato to soup rather than potato starch).
There has, therefore, been a drive in recent years to modify native starches using
physical processes to make them as functional as their chemically modifi ed
counterparts, thus retaining the label declaration 'native' which prefers a
commercial advantage.
This chapter set outs to explain what starches are, their sources, how they are
extracted, their characteristics, reasons for modifi cation, typical applications and
functional properties. It summarises the types of modifi cation employed and
discusses the creation of clean label functional starches.

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7.2 Manufacture of starch in plants
Green leaves of plants contain chlorophyll, which is able to absorb light quanta
and utilise the energy to catalyse the formation of glucose and oxygen from carbon
dioxide and water. This process is known as photosynthesis and can be written as
follows (simplifi ed):

6H 2 O + 6CO 2 light/chlorophyll C 6 H 12 O 6 + 6O 2 [7.1]

water + carbon dioxide glucose + oxygen