Starch and Starch Derivatives

Probably the most important carbohydrate polymer in food, certainly from a nutritional standpoint, is starch and this chapter presents three units that can be used for starch isolation and characterization. We condense many different starch isolation methods into one scheme for starch isolation from virtually any plant source. We present a simple enzymatic analysis method that can be used for estimation of starch in food. Finally, we describe a colorimetric method to determine starch amylose content. Different sections of this chapter can be used to characterize starch from any source.