Tailoring Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) Starch: Cross‐Linking Starch from This Non‐Conventional Source towards Improved Technologically Relevant Properties and Enabled Food Applications

Abstract This contribution adds to the research on starch isolation from non‐conventional sources using green protocols, on which starch nanoparticles from breadfruit ( Artocarpus altilis (Parkinson) Fosber), a traditionally underexploited, though starch‐rich species have previously reported. Here, it is demonstrated how cross‐linking can be used to overcome several technical limitations of native breadfruit starch that may hamper its use in food. Specifically, breadfruit starch is cross‐linked using a combination of sodium tripolyphosphate and sodium trimetaphosphate, which decreases the apparent amylose content while increases those of phosphorus and ash. Upon cross‐linking, starch density and oil uptake remain unchanged, water uptake is increased, and paste clarity is decreased by ca. 75%. Cross‐linking rendered breadfruit starch less prompt to retrogradation after five freeze‐thaw cycles. Native breadfruit starch swells less at 70 °C (2.68 g/g) than its cross‐linked counterpart (5.5 g/g), but the opposite behavior is observed at 90 °C (9.83 and 4.2 g/g, respectively). The greater resistance against syneresis and the lower swelling at higher temperatures drive cross‐linked breadfruit starch towards food products and processes that involve thermal treatment. Noteworthy, these benefits are achieved at a low degree of cross‐linking, which maintains phosphorus contents within the permitted levels.