Starch Pros

July 09^th 2026

University of Barcelona (Spain) study produces a biodegradable bioplastic with a low environmental impact using a modified bacterium.

Every year, hundreds of millions of tonnes of petrochemical-based plastics are produced, much of which ends up in the environment or is incinerated. This exacerbates greenhouse gas emissions and the environmental crisis caused by plastic pollution. Now, a study led by the University of Barcelona has produced a biodegradable bioplastic of high industrial value — polyhydroxybutyrate or PHB — from unprocessed potato starch in a single 24-hour step, a strategic breakthrough that could help reduce dependence on oil and the volume of persistent plastic waste.

The study thus establishes that the bacterium Bacillus subtilis is a robust platform of great industrial interest for producing PHB — a biodegradable biopolymer derived from renewable sources — from potato starch, an abundant and low-cost agricultural by-product.

The paper, published in the journal Bioresource Technology, is led by Pere Picart, a professor at the UB’s Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences, with significant contributions from Mercedes Berlanga, from the same faculty and the UB’s Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio).

In this study, the team worked with the bacterium Bacillus subtilis, a safe microorganism widely used in industrial biotechnology to produce enzymes and chemicals.

“Commercial production of PHB requires microbial hosts that are non-pathogenic, genetically tractable, fast-growing, metabolically robust and capable of utilising a variety of carbon sources,” the authors explain.

Until now, the potential of Bacillus subtilis to produce polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) had remained largely unexplored, and systematic metabolic engineering strategies to enable high accumulation of this polymer in the bacterium were still lacking.

Using CRISPR-Cas9-based genetic engineering techniques, the team has redesigned the metabolism of B. subtilis to enhance biopolymer production. “Previous studies showed that the bacterium’s capacity to produce PHB was limited, with accumulations below 13% of dry cell weight,” the team notes. “These low yields required further optimization of pathway expression and polymer granule formation to fully exploit B. subtilis.”

Genetic modification of the bacterium ‘Bacillus subtilis’ opens up a route of great industrial interest for producing a sustainable and cost-effective plastic — PHB — from potato starch in a single step.

The team has genetically modified B. subtilis to create a safe, Gram-positive microbial platform for the efficient and sustainable production of PHB from unprocessed starch. Genomic integration and constitutive expression of phaA, combined with controlled expression of the phaRBC operon, has enabled efficient polymer accumulation from multiple carbon sources. Furthermore, the incorporation of the amyQ gene, which encodes an α-amylase, facilitated the direct conversion of unprocessed potato starch into PHB in a single-step process over 24 hours.

Using this combination, 11.3 g/L of biomass and 5.8 g/L of PHB were obtained in flask-scale cultures, with a polymer purity comparable to commercial standards, reaching 51.8% PHB of dry cell weight.

Unlike conventional petroleum-based plastics, PHB is a renewable biopolymer that helps to partially close the carbon cycle and minimize the accumulation of persistent waste in terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Various environmental analyses and life-cycle studies indicate that bio-based bioplastics, such as PHB, can have a lower carbon footprint and a reduced climate impact compared to many petrochemical plastics, particularly when waste-derived raw materials are used.

“Technologies such as this represent a real opportunity to turn an environmental problem into a valuable resource, contributing to a more circular and decarbonized economy,” concludes the research team.

Reference: Shahayeva, M.; Ferrando, J.; Navarro, J.; Berlanga, M.; Picart, P. (2026). «One-step polyhydroxybutyrate production from potato starch by engineered Bacillus subtilis».

Source: Bioresource Technology, May 2026. DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2026.134933

July 05^th 2026

Giant wheat starch granules—a leap forward in biological engineering with potential benefits for diet, manufacturing.

Scientists have grown wheat containing supersized starch granules—a leap forward in biological engineering with potential benefits for our daily diets and a raft of industrial applications.

The unique cereal starch created by the Seung group at the John Innes Center could lead to healthier, slower-digesting pasta and bread. It could also reap dividends for many multimillion-pound industries that use starch in processing and may benefit from larger granules. These include flour milling, papermaking, and the production of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, textiles and biochemicals. The study is published in the journal Science Advances.

The biotechnological achievement fulfills a long-established ambition among researchers investigating the properties of starch, a complex carbohydrate that contributes up to 50% of our dietary calories.

The energy-rich starch that we consume in cereals such as pasta and bread contains a mix of large, flat A-type granules and small, spherical B-type granules.

Granule size has a major influence on how we digest starch. Larger granules digest more slowly because they have less surface area available for digestive enzymes. Starch that resists digestion in the upper gastrointestinal tract is called resistant starch, a form of dietary fiber that is processed in the lower gastrointestinal tract.

This benefits the gut microbiome and avoids the sudden blood sugar spikes linked with type 2 diabetes and obesity associated with regular starches. There is also some evidence that larger starch granules enhance texture in food.

Larger starch granules offer benefits in paper manufacturing and packaging because they are easier to separate, which simplifies processing. In other industries, they assist binding and thickening properties.

However, despite these well-known benefits, the genetic factors that control starch granule size and limit starch granule growth were poorly understood.

The John Innes Center team devised experiments to develop durum wheat, used to make pasta, that might yield starch with larger A-type granules.

They discovered that two cellular factors limit starch granule size—first, the space available for granule growth in the amyloplast, the storage space for starch in wheat grains, and second, the number of granules initiated that compete for growth substrates.

They engineered plants that unblock these two limiting factors by creating a larger starch storage space and fewer granule initiations, resulting in larger granules of unprecedented scale in cereals.

Scanning electron microscopy imaging carried out at the John Innes Center confirmed that the experimental wheat plants produced A-type starch granules that were up to 50 micrometers in size, which is more than double the typical size of 20 micrometers. More than half of the granules were 30 micrometers in size, compared with just 6% in regular wheat starch.

“We were hoping our hypothesis would be correct, that with both a larger space to grow and less competition for substrate, we would get bigger granules—but we were totally surprised by quite how big the new granules were. We even needed to adjust the aperture on the particle size analyzer to capture the full scale,” said Rose McNelly, first author of the study.

The pasta wheat plants engineered to have larger starch granules were produced using traditional breeding methods with a TILLING mutant population at the John Innes Center.

This resource enabled the team to select plants with mutations in the two genes controlling amyloplast size and granule initiation and then breed new double-mutant plants combining both these traits.

There is only minor natural variation among wheat cultivars in starch granule size, which is why the engineering approach in this study was necessary. The findings primarily apply to cereal crops such as wheat and barley, which contain this unique combination of A-type and B-type granules.

The aim of the Seung group, and colleagues at Quadram Institute, is to create pasta made from plants containing these larger starch granules and test them in human trials to see if they are resistant to digestion with all the benefits that follow. This study is a proof of concept that could also be applied to bread wheat.

“We set out to prove an idea that conceptually makes sense. Often in biology things do not always work like that, but in this case it did, completely exceeding our expectations,” McNelly said.

“It’s a perfect example of fundamental science that may in future be useful for public dietary health and industry,” she added.

Dr. Fred Warren, a group leader at Quadram Institute and a co-author on the paper, said, “Variation in starch granule size within a single cereal crop is highly novel, and we do not yet know what the impact may be on food digestion and the gut microbiome. At Quadram Institute we are working with the John Innes Center to understand what the implications of this could be for the development of novel foods with additional health benefits.

“By generating foods such as pasta from this material we can explore if there is the potential to gain benefits such as reduced postprandial glycemia or improvements in gut microbial diversity from consuming these engineered starches.”

Publication details: Rose McNelly et al, Targeting granule initiation and amyloplast structure to create giant starch granules in wheat, Science Advances (2026). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aeh2735. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aeh2735

Source: https://phys.org/news/2026-07-giant-wheat-starch-granules-biological.html

June 30^th 2026

China slaps 73.5% anti-dumping deposit on Canadian pea starch to safeguard domestic industry.

China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) announced on Tuesday that it will impose a 73.5 percent security deposit on imports of pea starch from Canada, starting Wednesday, after a preliminary determination by the investigating authority found the product was being dumped.

A Chinese expert said the preliminary determination is a routine trade remedy action conducted in accordance with relevant Chinese laws and regulations and World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, aimed at safeguarding domestic industry players and ensuring a fairer and healthier market environment.

On August 12, 2025, MOFCOM announced the decision to initiate an anti-dumping probe into imported pea starch originating from Canada. The investigating authority examined whether the product under investigation was being dumped, the margin of dumping, whether the domestic industry in China had suffered injury and the extent of such injury, as well as the causal relationship between dumping and injury.

After a preliminary investigation, the authority determined that imports of pea starch originating from Canada were being dumped, that China’s domestic pea starch industry had suffered material injury, and that there was a causal link between the dumping and the injury, according to MOFCOM.

Pea starch is mainly used in the production of glass noodles and jelly noodles, and also serves as a thickener, stabilizer, emulsifier and binder. It is widely applied across multiple sectors, including food, pharmaceuticals, paper-making, textiles, coatings and feed industries, MOFCOM said.

“China’s preliminary determination is a routine trade remedy action conducted in accordance with relevant Chinese laws and regulations and WTO rules,” Zhou Mi, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Tuesday. Zhou noted that the investigation found that imports of pea starch from Canada were being dumped and had caused material injury to China’s domestic industry, providing a solid factual and legal basis for the imposition of provisional anti-dumping measures.

Moreover, the investigation was initiated in response to an application from the domestic industry and carried out in accordance with the law through an open, transparent and comprehensive process. Zhou said that its purpose is to safeguard the legitimate rights and reasonable development space of the domestic industry, maintain market stability and foster a fair, healthy and sustainable competitive environment, rather than restrict normal trade, the expert said.

According to the provisions of the Anti-Dumping Regulations, the investigating authority, on the basis of various comparable factors affecting prices, adjusts both the normal value and the export price to the ex-factory level for comparison in a fair and reasonable manner. In calculating the dumping margin, the authority compares the normal value with the weighted average export price to determine the margin of dumping.

In this case, six domestic enterprises submitted responses to the investigating authority’s questionnaire for domestic producers. Following verification, the authority found that the combined output of these six companies from 2021 to 2024 accounted for more than 90 percent of the total production of the like product, representing a major share of domestic output, and thus meeting the domestic industry determination requirements under the corresponding China’s Anti-Dumping Regulations.

The investigating authority preliminarily determined that these six responding companies are representative of the domestic industry, and that their data can be used as the basis for the analysis of injury and causation.

The starch industry is not only an important supplier of consumer goods, with products widely used in food and beverages, but also serves a broad range of industrial applications, Zhou said.

“If dumping exists, it could create significant unfair competition for related industries and enterprises by suppressing domestic market prices and squeezing the normal operating space of domestic producers,” Zhou said, noting that imposing provisional anti-dumping measures in accordance with the law helps restore a fair competitive environment and safeguard the stability of industrial and supply chains.

“Anti-dumping investigations are a commonly used trade remedy instrument under the framework of the WTO. China’s move constitutes a legitimate trade remedy rather than a trade restriction targeting any particular country,” Hu Qimu, a professor at the Maritime Silk Road Institute of Huaqiao University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Hu noted that this is only a preliminary determination, not a final ruling. The investigating authority will make a final determination in accordance with the law based on further verification of the facts, the expert said.

Source: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202606/1364789.shtml

June 08^th 2026

Tate & Lyle agrees £2.7bn takeover by Ingredion.

The deal between the two ingredients companies creates a global powerhouse.

After weeks of speculation, UK ingredients company Tate & Lyle has agreed a deal to be bought by Ingredion, a US rival. The £2.7bn (€3.1bn) deal adds significant heft to Ingredion’s portfolio of ingredients. According to Ingredion, the total enterprise value of the transaction would be £3.7bn (€4.3bn). Under the deal, Tate & Lyle shareholders will be entitled to receive 595 pence per share, along with dividends of 20p per share.

Only two weeks ago, the companies confirmed that they were in talks, causing Tate & Lyle’s share price to shoot up by 45%. Now that the deal has been confirmed, it has been greeted with another share price spike.
The combined company comprised of Ingredion and Tate & Lyle could make up around 15% of the world’s alternative sweeteners market, according to market research firm Kline and Company.

The deal would, according to Ingredion, combine its own capabilities in texture and sugar reduction with Tate & Lyle’s in mouthfeel, sweetening and fortification.

“Combining Ingredion and Tate & Lyle’s complementary portfolios establishes a global leader in ingredient solutions with the innovation expertise and geographic reach that will help create the future of food,” says Jim Zallie, chairman, president and CEO of Ingredion.
“The combined business will be better positioned to serve customers’ needs for the development of great-tasting, healthier and affordable food products that consumers demand. This compelling combination will create exciting new possibilities for employees and generate significant value for all stakeholders.”
“Looking forward, we believe the next chapter with Ingredion will create a business with even greater potential, greater scale and increased investment in innovation in support of customers,” adds David Hearn, chair of Tate & Lyle.

Source: https://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Article/2026/06/08/ingredion-buys-tate-lyle/?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=09-Jun-2026&cid=DM1280421&bid=1006392860

May 21^st 2026

9^th EU Starch Value Chain & Fermentation

The 9^th EU Starch Value Chain & Fermentation Conference will be held in Düsseldorf, Germany, bringing together leading European and international stakeholders across the starch, fermentation, and bioprocessing sectors.

The conference focuses on optimising the full EU starch value chain with discussions on plant protein innovations, fibre, valorising waste streams, the role of starch for the EU bioeconomy, and fermentation, including enzymatic and microbial fermentation in the production of various value-added products.

Usually attended by over 100 participants, CMT’s starch conferences is recognised by the industry as a must-attend event and targeted at high-level executives.

A highlight of the event is an exclusive site visit to the Jackering Group’s wheat milling and starch facility, providing participants with firsthand insights into state-of-the-art processing technologies and operational best practices.

More information: https://www.cmtevents.com/aboutevent.aspx?ev=261018&

Source: https://www.eco-business.com/events/9th-eu-starch-value-chain-fermentation/

May 15^th 2026

Ingredion’s Tate & Lyle buy would create a $10B global ingredient powerhouse.

The proposed deal would unite two of the food and beverage industry’s largest ingredients makers.

Global food and beverage ingredients manufacturer Ingredion offered conditionally $3.7 billion (£2.74 billion) to acquire British ingredients maker Tate & Lyle in a deal that would unite two of the industry’s largest players, the companies announced Thursday.

Under the proposal, Ingredion would pay Tate & Lyle shareholders a value up to 615 pence per share, the London-based ingredients company said.

That includes a combination of 595 pence in cash and the right to receive a final dividend for the financial year ended March 31, 2026, of up to 13 pence per share and an interim dividend for the six months ended Sept. 30, 2026, of up to 7 pence per share.

The news caused Tate & Lyle’s share price to spike by 45% on Thursday, jumping from 376.2 pence to 545 pence per share.

Source: https://www.tateandlyle.com/news/statement-regarding-possible-offer-tate-lyle

April 28^th 2026

How a Dutch starch manufacturer is electrifying without a grid upgrade.

Avebe tapped Schneider Electric for an industrial electric boiler and turned into a prosumer, negating the need for upgrading an existing grid connection.

Energy tech major Schneider Electric has partnered with Royal Avebe, a farmer‑owned starch and plant protein cooperative, to electrify a production facility in the Netherlands, without requiring reinforcement of the electricity grid beyond the site’s existing maximum connection.

Working together at Avebe’s Foxhol production plant in Groningen, Netherlands – a starch derivatives area – the two companies say they have demonstrated a milestone in electrification.

Specifically, they say the site shows that it is possible to add a new industrial electric boiler, eliminate fossil-fuel heating, and become an active energy prosumer, all within the limits of the site’s existing grid connection. This negates the need for reinforcing the public electricity grid or joining a capacity waiting queue.

Critically, says Schneider Electric, the project actively supports grid balancing, creating headroom for more businesses and renewable generators to connect.

Avebe engaged Schneider Electric’s Advisory Services team to rethink how the Foxhol site uses, manages, and exchanges energy.

The result, says Schneider Electric, is an integrated electrification strategy and platform.

The platform consolidates data from over 1,000 points across the site, including 542 smart medium-voltage relays, into a single operational view.

When grid demand rises, the system automatically shifts electrical loads to operate within the site’s contracted grid limits and technical constraints.

When renewable energy is abundant and local grid demand is low, the plant absorbs the surplus and actively supports grid stability.

Commenting in a release was Joyce de Vries-Pieterman, Director Communication & Public Affairs, Avebe: “Further electrifying our production processes is an important step in making our operations more sustainable.

“Together with Schneider Electric, we are demonstrating that it is possible to make concrete progress toward future-proof and more energy-efficient production within the limits of what our existing grid connection allows.”

Said Neil Smith, President, Consumer-Packaged Goods, Schneider Electric.”What Avebe has achieved at Foxhol is a proof of concept for industrial Europe. Grid constraints need not mean decarbonisation delays. With the right combination of electrification, open automation, and digital intelligence, manufacturers can act now.”

Schneider Electric’s solution for Avebe includes:

• EcoStruxure Foxboro DCS for unified process control;
• EcoStruxure Electrodynamic Controller for real-time load orchestration;
• EcoStruxure Control HMI for operator visibility and intervention;
• EcoStruxure EPAS for engineering environment and configuration;
• AVEVA PI system integration, which consolidates over 1,000 data points from 542 smart MV relays and legacy devices into a single operational view.

According to Schneider Electric, Avebe’s approach is designed to scale.

The same combination of dynamic load management, real-time energy intelligence, and prosumer capability can be applied at any energy-intensive industrial site across Europe facing similar grid constraints.

For manufacturers in food and beverage, chemicals, paper, and other sectors — industries that collectively represent a significant share of Europe’s remaining industrial emissions — it offers a way to move forward on decarbonisation without waiting for large-scale grid infrastructure expansion that may be a decade away.

Additionally, says the company, the Foxhol plant is now positioned to integrate onsite renewable generation and advanced IIoT asset monitoring as the next step, building on the digital foundation in place.

See also the video illustrating the above; https://youtu.be/2RWOFsb_2NA?si=s5IhXABt_fRTTVjP

Source: https://www.enlit.world/library/how-a-dutch-starch-manufacturer-is-electrifying-without-a-grid-upgrade

April 27^th 2026

New cassava processing plant breaks ground in Kampong Speu to boost value addition.

A new cassava processing plant broke ground today in Kampong Speu province, marking another step in Cambodia’s efforts to expand value-added agro-industry.

The project, developed by Guanshen Shengda Agriculture Industry Co., Ltd., involves a total investment of approximately USD 20 million and is expected to strengthen domestic processing capacity while supporting farmers and export growth.

Speaking at the ceremony, Son Senghout, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology & Innovation (MISTI), underlined the strategic importance of cassava in Cambodia’s agricultural sector, noting that “The cassava sector is shifting from raw commodity exports towards domestic processing, enabling Cambodia to capture higher value within the country.”

He highlighted that Cambodia produced around 13.89 million tonnes of cassava in 2023 and that the sector continues to attract major private investment aligned with industrial transformation goals.

Cambodia currently has 16 cassava processing factories, an increase of nine from just seven in 2020, reflecting rapid growth in domestic processing capacity.

The country has also developed four Cambodian standards for the cassava industry—CS056:2007 for tapioca flour, CS058:2008 for tapioca starch, CS328:2014 for sweet cassava, and CS516:2014 (aligned with CAR/RCP73-2013) for controlling hydrocyanic acid (HCN)—to meet quality and market requirements.

Upon completion and operation, the plant is expected to generate annual sales of around USD 90 million, with a production capacity of 100,000 tonnes of refined cassava starch, 100,000 tonnes of dried cassava chips, and 30,000 tonnes of feed-grade residue per year.

Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501887101/new-cassava-processing-plant-breaks-ground-in-kampong-speu-to-boost-value-addition/

April 02^nd 2026

Leading Chinese State enterprise eyes investment in Cambodia’s cassava processing sector.

Guangxi State Farms Mingyang Starch Development plans to purchase one million tons of local cassava and establish a high-tech processing facility

Guangxi State Farms Mingyang Starch Development Co., Ltd., a prominent Chinese state-owned enterprise, has expressed its intention to explore the establishment of a value-added processing plant directly in Cambodia. This development follows a high-level meeting on March 26, 2026, between His Excellency Sun Chanthol, Deputy Prime Minister and First Vice-Chairman of the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), and Mr. Chen Mingyu, the Chairman of the company.

During the discussions, Mr. Chen Mingyu revealed that the company’s current visit aims to significantly increase its procurement of Cambodian cassava. The company plans to purchase approximately one million tons of cassava to supply its production chain, a process that will be facilitated through coordination with the Ministry of Commerce. This move signals a major commitment to integrating Cambodian agricultural products into global industrial networks.

Furthermore, Mr. Chen highlighted the company’s interest in studying the feasibility of building a dedicated processing facility within the Kingdom. Beyond infrastructure, the company is looking to foster knowledge transfer by collaborating with the Royal Academy of Cambodia. This partnership would focus on sharing advanced cultivation techniques and high-level processing methods with Cambodian farmers, potentially transforming the local agricultural landscape.

In response, His Excellency Sun Chanthol expressed his strong support for the proposed processing plant. He emphasized that such investments align with the government’s goals of industrial diversification and value addition within the agricultural sector. The Deputy Prime Minister welcomed the prospect of technical cooperation, noting that the transfer of expertise would be instrumental in enhancing the productivity and livelihoods of Cambodian farmers while strengthening the nation’s export capabilities.

The proposed initiative marks another step in the strengthening economic ties between Cambodia and China, particularly in the realm of agro-industry and sustainable development. As the project moves into the feasibility study phase, it holds the potential to become a cornerstone of Cambodia’s strategy to move up the global value chain in agricultural exports.

Source: https://construction-property.com/leading-chinese-state-enterprise-eyes-investment-in-cambodias-cassava-processing-sector/

March 25^th 2026

Starch Convention in Detmold, Germany 14 – 15 April 2026.

For more than 75 years, the Association of Cereal Research (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Getreideforschung e.V.) organizes the highly esteemed international starch convention in cooperation with the Max Rubner-Institute, Detmold.

The convention attends by managers and technologists of the worldwide starch and bioethanol industries, suppliers of technology, processing aids and researchers in carbohydrate chemistry.

The themes, discussed by more than 300 participants from all over the world, includes:

• Developments from the raw material to the application of starch products in food and technical industry
• Use of starch and sugar raw materials in the production of biofuels and as a renewable raw material
• Use and modifications of byproducts in industry and food
• Technology and plant design of starch production
• Enzyme technology for the improvement of starch conversion

A working group of very experienced members of the starch and bioethanol industry arranges the program of the starch convention.

An exhibition of suppliers of starch machinery, analytical equipment, and processing aids for example enzymes accompanies the starch convention.

The conference language is English.

Program: https://www.agfdt.de/termin/starch-convention-kopie.html?file=files/agf/downloads/Staerke/st26/Starch-Convention-2026_PROGRAM.pdf

Source: https://www.agfdt.de/termin/starch-convention-kopie.html