Flexible friend

Starch is the Julio Iglesias of the food world. It's been around forever, but no one's really convinced of its talent and most people are a bit miffed as to how it got to be so much in demand. Yet take it away and you'd be swamped with complaints.National Starch urges manufacturers to explore the ingredient in more detail. "Yes - we sell white powder. It's not sexy, but ultimately what it goes into is something great!" says principal applications technologist of the firm's wholesome and culinary division Janette Callagan. "Manufacturers don't take the time to understand starch," adds National Starch development chef Chris Lightfoot. "They use it because they've always used it."

Callagan agrees: "When people start to reformulate, they think: 'we've always used this product, but what happens if we take it out in order to clean up our label?' And it's only then that they understand why it's so vital for their processing."

Avebe marketing manager Paul Sheldrake has also witnessed a lack of knowledge when it comes to starch's functionality. "While most food scientists understand what a starch granule looks like, they need help understanding how to apply it to food," he says. "They will use the starches they've always used, but they don't actually look at what can offer them the best functional solution. We work with them to show them how to get different textural properties and characteristics."

Tate & Lyle deals with the issue using straightforward comparisons. "We tend to present customers with a finished product with and without starch to demonstrate what it's bringing to a recipe," says product management director James Blunt. "We find that firms will have used a recipe for many years that was developed by people who no longer work there, and so staff may not understand why the starch was used."

If manufacturers aren't using starch properly then they're wasting money, warns Callagan. "If every time they're making a batch of sauce they're over-cooking the starch and then throwing more in at the end of the cook to thicken it up, it's money down the drain."

Functional focus​

Although starch already has an incredible range of functions, which can affect the texture and taste of products, there are still plenty of development challenges, particularly where clean-label is concerned.

"There are going to be areas where you're not going to get a clean version," says Callagan. "It's very, very difficult to come up with a clean-label product using an emulsifier."

Stickiness is quite a challenge, agrees Roquette's head of development, department for nutrition business unit for Europe, the Middle-East and Africa, Jean-Luc Dufour. "To create clean-label starch adhesives, you have to set aside some of your tools. You can develop [basic] clean-label adhesives, eg. flour on fish, but with more technical processes, such as deep freezing, flour won't work."

Sheldrake explains: "With an adhesive starch, you have to change the structure in order to make it stick together. For example, dextrins are produced with heat and acid." He claims that the only way to develop a clean-label adhesive starch based on potatoes would be to breed a potato that has a more tacky structure.

Creating new synergies​

An ingredients firm's responsibility does not end with the development of effective starches. Companies must also ensure that their product can survive harsh processing conditions and analyse how it reacts with other ingredients.

"You have to define what functionality the customer is looking for and then when you have decided which starch to use, you have to decide how to use it - how to treat it, cool it, extrude it and the impact of the other ingredients," says Dufour. "For example, when we manufacture sauces like tomato ketchup, we generally use starch to get a synergistic effect between different hydrocolloids, such as guar gum. The starch swells with water, so there is less water remaining for the guar gum and it becomes more viscose," he explains.

Exploring combinations of starch and other hydrocolloids is a key focus for Tate & Lyle. "This could optimise texture," says Blunt. "For example you could create a low fat product with a high fat texture, which would be difficult to achieve with one ingredient."

The idea of starch mimicking less healthy ingredients strikes a chord with National Starch. "We are further developing what we call co-texturisers - starches that provide special texturising attributes such as creaminess, mouthcoating and crispiness," says Laurent Michoud, marketing director, Europe. "In this way, we are well positioned to respond to ever-changing market needs."

Cargill Texturizing Solutions has also picked up on the opportunities available for starch to help the food industry make healthier products. "Starches will play an important role in all emerging food industry changes, both as texturisers and as replacers of scarce ingredients or of those that have declined in popularity for health reasons," says starch product manager, Chris Hollebek. "We are particularly focusing on the demand for new texturisers and the replacement of other ingredients leading to a more balanced food composition. Current trends in the food industry are offering alternatives for trans- and saturated fats, salt and gelatin."

Starch may be able to offer useful solutions on the health front, but as the price of raw materials rockets, can it still remain cost-effective?

• Price problems**

Rice ingredients manufacturer Beneo-Remy recently announced a 40% price increase on its range of starches. "We have already absorbed half a year of price increases ourselves, but now we have to pass it on," says Beneo-Remy's sales and marketing manager Vincent Caluwaerts. "It's the first time in years that rice consumption has overtaken production. To stabilise the market we need two or three years to get production rates up. "

Cereals have also seen hefty price hikes. Tate & Lyle, which manufactures corn and wheat-based ingredients, has been forced to increase its prices. "Over the last year we've had to pass on increases of 25% on native starches and 15% on modified products," says Blunt.

While the price of potatoes hasn't increased at the same rate as cereals, Sheldrake claims that his potato-based starches are still affected. "The price impact of wheat has a knock-on effect on potato starch. When a farmer is looking at prices, if wheat is going up then he will plant more and then there's less potatoes and they become more expensive."

But despite incurring price increases, it seems that starch is still a cost-effective solution for the food industry. Cargill is confident that it will remain in demand. "In the short- to medium-term, it will be difficult to find an economically interesting, genuine alternative for the traditional raw materials, such as cereals (maize or corn and wheat) or roots and tubers (tapioca and potato)," says Hollebek. "If you consider the value of starch, even at today's higher prices, it is still the best value texturiser on the market."