Recent progress in understanding starch gelatinization - An important property determining food quality

Starch gelatinization is a crucial process in determining both texture and nutrition properties of starch-based foods, while its complex nature is still not fully understood. Kinetics modeling has been recently developed for understanding starch gelatinization under both limited and excessive water content. Amylose with different chain lengths has distinct effects on starch gelatinization temperatures and enthalpy by interacting with amylopectin chains in semi-crystalline lamella. Moisture is a crucial factor in determining starch gelatinization property, with new evidence suggesting that different groups of amylopectin-amylopectin or amylose-amylopectin double helices are involved for multi-endothermic gelatinization peaks under limited moisture content. The presence of salts, sugars, protein, lipids and non-starch polysaccharides can affect starch gelatinization through various mechanisms. All these new insights and future directions in terms of better understanding starch gelatinization property were summarized. This information could help develop new generations of foods with desirable properties through a better understanding of starch gelatinization process.