Tiếng ViệtAbout Tapioca Starch and Application in Food Production
Currently, tapioca starch is being used a lot in life to create dishes that are familiar to us such as cake soup, pearl milk tea, etc. However, there are still many people who are confused and do not understand. the nature of this starch. Therefore, this article will help you better understand tapioca starch, as well as its properties and potential applications in food production!
General introduction about tapioca starch
Tapioca starch (also known as tapioca starch, tapioca starch) is starch extracted from the roots of the tapioca plant (cassava plant). Some people often confuse tapioca starch with tapioca flour (made from the tapioca plant) or flour (made from the wheat plant).
Tapioca starch is different from other starches because of its very low content of residual substances (such as fat, protein, ash), which is an important factor that distinguishes tapioca starch from the starch of other starches. cereal type. In addition, tapioca starch has a lower amylose content than other starches and the molecular weight of amylose and amylopectin is high. Small amounts of phosphorus in tapioca starch are not bound as phosphate esters as in potato starch.
Generally, tapioca starch contains about 17-20% amylose and there is no major change in amylose content over time, unlike corn starch (0-70% amylose) and rice starch (0-40%) amylose). Regarding the molecular structure, the amylose of tapioca starch is not completely branched and the branching rate is lower than that of corn, rice, potato and wheat starch. In addition, amylose in tapioca has a higher molecular weight than other starches. The amylopectin of tapioca starch is mostly short chains, with less than 1% being extremely long chains.
Tapioca starch granules are spherical, smooth, 4-35 µm in diameter. The layers in tapioca starch grains can be as thin as 0.2µm, and each seed can have as few as 40 layers. When compared with potato starch, the starch granule structure is coarser, consisting of only a few layers a few µm thick.
Properties of tapioca starch
When heated in excess water, starch undergoes an irreversible structural transformation known as gelatinization. It is the process of breaking the bonds between starch molecules in the presence of water and heat, including 3 main processes that occur:
- During the heating process, water will be absorbed into the amorphous space of the starch, resulting in swelling.
- The water then enters the tightly bound regions of the amylopectin’s double helix structure. At room temperature, these regions do not allow water to enter, but as heat makes these regions more diffuse, the amylose chains begin to dissolve, dissociating into the amorphous form.
- Finally, water ingress causes swelling, the amylose molecules are completely dissolved in the water, and the particle structure is broken down.
The gelatinization process of tapioca starch compared with other starches
For tapioca starch, gelatinization will be more difficult than for potato starch, possibly because of the tighter starch granule structure. When the starch solution is cooled, the viscosity increases due to the reverse degradation process. This process is the rearrangement of the molecules and the formation of bonds such as amylose-amylose, amylose-amylopectin and amylopectin-amylopectin, and hydrogen bonding with water, making the amylose molecules longer and the amylopectin branched. longer.
Starches high in amylose form hard gels, while starches rich in amylopectin form a more stable and softer gel. This property is very common for starches, but is less noticeable for tapioca starch because of its low amylose content and higher amylose molecular weight than other types.
Factors affecting physicochemical properties of tapioca starch
Similar to other starches, the physicochemical properties of tapioca starch are also affected by many factors such as cultivar, growing season, plant age, cultivation conditions, etc. In addition, the properties of Tapioca starch is also affected by processing conditions, for example sulfur dioxide is often used in the isolation of tapioca starch at the centrifugation or extraction stage to increase extraction yield and improve whiteness. of the product. However, residual sulfur dioxide in the finished product changes starch properties such as decreasing viscosity and increasing gelatinization temperature.
Application of tapioca starch in food
The main source of raw materials for the production of food products
Applications of tapioca starch are diverse in the food industry. Some very popular products made from tapioca starch are tapioca starch, tapioca pearls, filtered flour cakes, soup cakes, etc. Tapioca starch is kneaded with hot water to form a mixture of gelatinized and unsweetened starch. gelatinize at 50%, then form the desired shape.
Use as thickener and stabilizer
Another important application of tapioca starch is as a thickener and stabilizer. Tapioca starch is especially popular because it has no flavor, so when added it doesn’t change the taste of the product. In addition, of the 7 most common food allergies, 2 were related to starch sources from wheat and corn. Thus, tapioca starch is an effective and indicated alternative to address food allergy concerns.
Tapioca starch has long been the starch of choice in baby food because of its physical properties in terms of texture and stability, as well as its low taste. In addition, tapioca starch is also combined with other flours to be used in the production of noodles to help support water absorption. Starches from other root and grain sources do not give noodles the texture and flavor they do with tapioca starch, because the high amylose content makes it harder to absorb water due to the reverse degradation process.
Source of raw materials for the production of dextrin
In addition, tapioca starch is also a very suitable source of raw materials for the production of dextrin, as there is almost no fat in the composition, which hinders the dextrinization process. That gives the dextrin produced from tapioca starch with high color and stability.
Producing sourdough starch
Sour tapioca starch (known as Polvilho azedo in Brazil and Almidon agrio in Colombia) is a starch that is fermented and naturally sun-dried for 30 days, widely used to make snacks and cookies. The characteristics of products made from this starch are high density, high swelling and brittleness, that is, it produces products with similar characteristics to extruded snacks.
Some other apps
Different ingredients in food also have an effect on the properties of tapioca starch. The addition of sucrose and sodium chloride shifted the gelatinization point of tapioca starch to a higher temperature. However, the effect of salt on the gelatinization of tapioca starch was concentration dependent. Salt tends to slow the reverse degradation of tapioca gel, while sucrose usually has no effect. Some other additives such as glycerol when combined with tapioca starch increase the molecular mobility of the glucan chain, which improves the properties in the production of bio-edible films.
Tapioca starch currently has a lot of development prospects due to the advantages of ingredients that are almost free of other substances, and the “empty” flavor properties that make tapioca starch a promising one when the consumer trend Consumers switch to foods with less fat and avoid starches from grains. Therefore, understanding the properties of tapioca starch helps manufacturers to improve and develop more diverse applications in the future.
William F. B. et al. “Tapioca/Cassava Starch: Production and Use,” Starch: Chemistry and Technology, Third Edition. 2009.
From foodnk.com