Expanded corn starch

Doi, S., J.H. Clark, D.J. Macquarrie and K. Milkowski, New Materials Based on Renewable Resources Chemically Modified Expanded Corn Starches as Catalysts for Liquid Phase Organic Reactions, Chemical Communications, 2632-2633 (2002). 

Whey may be substituted for starch by as much as 25% in extruded corn snacks, but the product does not puff as much as com alone, as the water-holding whey protein does not react with the starch matrix (Onwulata et al., 1998). WPCs or isolates can be added along with starch to create expanded snack foods with boosted nutritional content however, without texturization, whey proteins in amounts larger than 15% may interfere with expansion, making the products less crunchy. To counter this effect, whey proteins can be texturized with starch to improve their interaction with other food components in a formulation, principally to increase extmdate expansion. In one successful application, between 25% and 35% of the flour was replaced with whey protein (Onwulata et al., 2001a,b). 

Figure 1 Expanded chromatograms from Dionex ion chromatograph of enzyme hydrolysates of corn and potato starch, the use of a single enzyme, amyloglucosidase (AMG), and a mixture of AMG, a-amylase (a-A), and pullulanase (PU), to show the effect on hydrolysis of limit dextrin. Anion exchange column AS6, with pulsed amperometric detection. Gradient flow solvents (1) ISOmmolT NaOH and (2) ISOmmoll NaOH + 500mmol I NaOOCCHs. Postcolumn addition of 0.3mmoll NaOH.

Research on starch-based plastics has taken place in many coim-tries around the world. The Australian government funded a 1995 research project on development of starch-based plastics from corn and wheat, using water and glycerine as a plasticizer. In Japan, the Biodegradable Plastics Society was formed in 1989, with 48 member companies located mainly in Japan. By 1990, the membership had expanded to 69 companies, and included a significant number of non-Japanese members. In 1992, the U.S. Bio/Environmentally Degradable Polymer Society was formed, and had over 200 members by 1998.2 2... 

Application of food extruders gives much better results in processing of starch-based materials than conventional plastic extruders due to the plant origin of the biopolymer. Most of the experimental works which apply extmsion-cooking for the production of starchy loose-fill foams started in the Department of Food Process Eng., Lublin University of Life Sciences in 2012. Their objective is to achieve commercially acceptable biodegradable products based on locally produced potato, corn- and wheat starch, which can replace popular expanded polystyrene loose-fill foam products. Results of the first phase of this study are presented in their work (Mitrus and Moscicki 2014). 

Approximately 75% of US domestic corn use is allocated to livestock feed. Food, seed, and industrial uses of corn comprise 25% of domestic utilisation. The market for food made from corn is matnre, and food nses of corn are expected to expand at the rate of popnlation growth. Besides starch, corn is also processed by wet millers into high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), glucose, dextrose, corn oil, beverage alcohol and fuel ethanol. 

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