부산대학교 도서관

Starch is the primary source of carbohydrate in the human diet and is an important food ingredient. Functional native starches are more in need than ever as food formulators search for clean-label ingredient alternatives to meet consumer demands in recent years. Applications of these functional starches include organic frozen foods, soups, sauces, dairy and alternative-dairy products, yogurt, baby food, frozen desserts, puddings, fruit, and other preparations. However, many chronic illnesses, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease, are linked to how starch is digested. The level of resistant starch and slowly digestible starch is low in most of functional native starches. In addition, the properties of some native starches may not be desirable for all applications. In order to meet the food applications and nutritional requirement, native starch has to be modified. Many approaches are available to modify starch to meet the requirements of a specific application. These include physical, chemical, and biotechnological modification. Due to environmental and food safety concerns, physical, and biotechnological modification will be preferred as opposed to chemical methods in the manufacture of modified starch. In this presentation, Dr. Liu will discuss and present his research results on how changes in the starch structure on annealing, heat-moisture treatment, dual hydrothermal treatment, gamma irradiation and extrusion influence the level of resistant starch and slowly digestible starch, and development of innovative research techniques to modify and characterize the structural and physicochemical properties of starch.