Potato starch

Potato starch is starch extracted from potatoes. The cells of the root tubers of the potato plant contain starch grains (leucoplasts). To extract the starch, the potatoes are crushed; the starch grains are released from the destroyed cells. The starch is then washed out and dried to powder.

Potato starch contains typical large oval spherical granules; their size ranges between 5 and 100 μm. Potato starch is a very refined starch, containing minimal protein or fat. This gives the powder a clear white colour, and the cooked starch typical characteristics of neutral taste, good clarity, high binding strength, long texture and a minimal tendency to foaming or yellowing of the solution.

Potato starch contains approximately 800 ppm phosphate bound to the starch; this increases the viscosity and gives the solution a slightly anionic character, a low gelatinisation temperature (approximately 140 °F (60 °C)[1]) and high swelling power.

These typical properties are used in food and technical applications.[2]

Contents

Use

Potato starch and potato starch derivatives are used in many recipes, for example in noodles, wine gums, cocktail nuts, potato chips, hot dog sausages, bakery cream and instant soups and sauces, in gluten-free recipes[3] in kosher foods for Passover[4] and in Asian cuisine.[5] In pastry, e.g. sponge cake, it is used to keep the cake moist and give a soft texture. It is also occasionally used in the preparation of pre-packed grated cheese, to reduce sweating and binding. Helmipuuro is a porridge made from monodisperse grains of potato starch and milk.

It is also used in technical applications as wallpaper adhesive, for textile finishing and textile sizing, in paper coating and sizing and as an adhesive in paper sacks and gummed tape.

Potato starch was also used in one of the earlier color photography processes, the Lumière brothers' Autochrome Lumière, until the arrival of colour film in the mid-1930s.

Potato Varieties

There are many types of potatoes. For the production of potato starch, potato varieties with high starch content (high under water weight) and high starch yields are selected. Recently, a new type of potato plant was developed that only contains one type of starch molecule: amylopectin, the waxy potato starch. Waxy starches, after starch gelatinisation, retrograde less during storage.

The cultivation of potatoes for starch mainly takes place in Germany, the Netherlands, China, Japan, France, Denmark and Poland, but also in Sweden, Finland, Austria and the Czech Republic.

Some potato starch is also produced as a by-product from the potato processing industry, recovered from the peelings produced during production of French fries and potato chips.

See also

References

  1. ^ Starch gelatinization at different temperatures as measured by enzymic digestion method. Agricultural and Biological Chemistry, vol: 47 issue: 11 page: 2421-2425 year: 1983 [1]
  2. ^ James N. BeMiller, Roy Lester Whistler (2009). Starch: Chemistry and Technology, 3rd edition, pp. 511-539, Potato starch: Production, Modifications and Uses, Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-746275-2. [2]
  3. ^ Fenster Carol (2006). 1000 Gluten-free Recipes, John Wiley and Sons, ISBN 978-0-470-06780-2. [3]
  4. ^ Zushe Yosef Blech (2004). Kosher Food Production, p 97 - 114, Kosher for Passover, Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 978-0-8138-2570-0.[4]
  5. ^ Hiroko Shimbo (2000), The Japanese kitchen: 250 recipes in a traditional spirit, ‎The Harvard Common Press, ISBN 978-1-55823-1770 [5]

External links