Starch in food

Humans and their ancestors have always eaten starchy foods derived from seeds, roots and tubers. The practical use of starch products and perhaps of starch itself, developed when Egyptians, in the pre-dynastic period, cemented strips of papyrus together with starch adhesive made from wheat.

Starch is second only to water as the most abundant component of food.

Starches are carbohydrates that are storage materials in the seed and roots of many plants. Starches are commonly derived from corn, wheat, rice and other grains, as wee as potatoes and other root-like vegetables.

Starch has a negligible osmotic pressure, which allows plants to store large reserves of carbohydrate without disturbing the cell’s water relations.

Starch molecules are polymers of anhydroglucose and occurs in both linear and branched form. The degree of polymerization and accordingly, the molecular weight of the naturally occurring starch molecules vary radically.

Starch is, made up of many units of glucose linked together in different forms. In the intestine, starch is broken down to glucose and utilized of energy.

Moist heat causes starch grains to swell and rupture, thus converting starch to a form that is readily digested.

In the body, much of the glucose may be utilized directly as a source of energy, but some of it is converted into fat, the muscles utilizing fatty acids indirectly as fuel for energy. Excess carbohydrates not required for energy, when ingested (eaten) will be stored in the body as fat.

Food starches are commercially manufactured and available for use in products such as baked food, beverages canned, frozen and glassed foods, confections, dairy products, dry goods, meat products and canned
Starch in food