Efficiencies of Corn Starch Application in Today’s Food Industry

Starch is one of the essential food ingredients in terms of sheer effectiveness of applications in today’s food processing industry. The modified starches from different sources like corn, potato, wheat, etc. are extensively used in various processed foods. Modified starches offer stable viscosity along with freeze-thaw stability under different process conditions. The modified starches have been customized to create competitive benefit in a food product to reduce production costs, improve product aesthetics, extend shelf life and ensure product consistency. Starches, modified starches along with their applications find great relevance in the fast growing food processing industry worldwide.

How Starch Is Obtained from Corn?

The maximum amount of starches all across the world is obtained from corn. In order to get starch from corn, the crucial thing is to particularly discharge the starches from the cell structure, without damaging the germ, thereby gaining extracted corn starches with the smallest amount of fat content possible.

Therefore, conventional procedures subject the corn to around 50 hours steeping method with the inclusion of sulfur dioxide before processing. This is required to make the corn grain amorphous in structure while achieving perfect separation of gluten and starch. In initial separation, this process is affected by a highly effective nozzle separator. After the starch phase has been washed with the help of hydrocyclones, it is dewatered and dried.

How Modified Starches and Starches Are Used in Processed Food?

Starch can be modified through chemical, physical methods as well as the integration of both the treatments. Physical treatment enhances water solubility while chemical modifications help in adding functional properties. The most common chemical processes involved in starch modification include oxidation, cross linking, acid treatment, combination and the substitution of two or more of these methods. During the growth phase of the plant,the advent of biotechnology has aided in starch modification. Various amylose levels and amylopectin structure can be formed with the assistance of biotechnology.

Tube Bundle Dryer

There are many leading engineering company offering tailored configurations of tube bundle dryers.Tube bundle dryers are efficient corn starch processing machine and they are extensively used to dry loose material, such as corn fiber, corn germ, corn gluten DDGS and wheat fiber, powder, flakes, granules and other materials devoid of too sticky ingredients in food and beverage industry.

Some of the features of this machine include low heat consumption, high effectiveness, a wide array of drying materials, water evaporation and large capacity, high drying elasticity, high automation, constant operation as well as an Intermittent operation for particular processes.

An Overview of Glucose Syrup Production Method

Glucose syrup is clear and colorless food syrup made from hydrolysis of corn, wheat, cassava and potato and rice starch widely used as a sweetener in food industry mainly. It is less sweet than cane sugar or sucrose. Glucose syrup is used in huge quantities in bakery products, fruits, crystallized fruits, pharmaceuticals, liquors and brewery products. For glucose production plant, raw materials include starch, activated carbon and HCL acid mainly.

With a converter, slurry of starch of around 60 % water is both prepared and treated with HCL acid. This way, the reaction that takes over at 150 degree centigradeis maintained for 15 minutes. Then the treated slurry is transferred to a tank to be neutralized with NaOH. Then it is filtered from protein before refining by activated carbon for de-coloring. After refining and de-coloring it passes through a plate or candle filter for active carbon removal. Refined and filtered solution goes through Ion exchanger to remove salt and improve de-coloring process. Finally an evaporator is employed to reach desire concentration of glucose.

The choice of glucose syrup depends on applications and customers or end users requirement. Generally , high converted syrup are used as sweeteners. Glucose syrup can be categorized in 4 main categories based on degree of conversion in the glucose production process:

1. Low DE : 25-30
2. Medium DE: 30-50
3. High DE: 50-70
4. Extremely high: 70-98

Generally the following machinery and equipment are used in glucose production acid conversion: starch transportation system, starch slurry making tanks, convertor, filter press, candle or vacuum filter, plate or candle filter , ion exchanger and evaporator .

Other Methods of Glucose Production

There are several methods for glucose making from starch. Acid conversion, enzymatic process and carbon free process. Many parameters have to consider choosing the right process. The following main items have to be considered in choosing the process:

1. Investment
2. Capacity
3. Level of automation
4. Availability of enzyme
5. Glucose quality

Generally, for small processing line and countries which done have good access to enzyme and don’t need very high quality glucose, acid conversion is recommended but for higher capacities, very high quality glucose and high automation, enzymatic or carbon free process is recommended which need more investment.

Author bio: Rose Darani is an experienced market professional associated with a leading engineering company that specializes in advanced starch and glucose production machinery and technology. In this article, she gives an overview of the glucose syrup processing methods and comparing various glucose production methods.