Physicochemical modification and characterization of starch used in the food industry: A review

Starch is a biodegradable polysaccharide that occurs naturally. It is the principal source of energy in the human diet as well as a chief food component. Starches have a wide application in the food along with nonfood industries. However, native starch has restricted function owing to its shortcomings like the high tendency for retrogradation and decomposition, low thermal stability and shear resistance, inertness, and resilience to enzymolysis that are required for the particular type of treatment. To overcome these shortcomings and to meet the current challenging industrial requirements, starch is modified by means of physical (annealing, pregelatinization, heat moisture treatment, osmotic pressure treatment, ultrasonication, pulsed electric field), chemical (cross-linking, esterification, acetylation, acid hydrolysis), enzymatic (α-amylase, β-amylase, isoamylase, pullulanase), or a combination of these. All the techniques bring about physicochemical alterations of the natural starch to advance its utilization in definite food application by tailoring its functional properties.