Starch Pros

March 06^th 2023

UA researchers patent water-soluble plastic material based on potato starch.

It does not pollute the seas and is suitable for use as packaging.

The University of Alicante Waste, Energy, Environment and Nanotechnology (REMAN) research group (in Spain) has developed a process for obtaining a water-soluble plastic material based on potato starch, which will soon be introduced on the market through the UA technology-Based Company Solublion, linked to the Alicante Science Park. According to professor of Chemical Engineering Ignacio Martín Gullón, this new material is also compostable and biodegradable, being suitable for use as a flexible film, preferably in bags and packaging, and has great advantages over existing ones.

The development of this new material arose from a thesis on thermoplastic starch for the development of environmentally sustainable materials by now president and CEO of Solublion Daniel Domene López. The thesis’ title reveals the intention that this new material will make a relevant contribution to mitigating the impact caused by the poor management of conventional plastic waste as it does not generate an environmental problem at the end of its useful life in the event that, due to poor waste management, it ends up in natural ecosystems. Domene López explained that the consumption of worldwide plastic materials before the pandemic was around 370 million tonnes, a figure that they estimate could exceed 400 million in the coming years due to the increase in packaging and single-use materials. Of these, before the pandemic, only two million were biodegradable plastics, and by the end of the decade there will be an estimation of eight million tonnes of biodegradable plastics in demand by consumers.

The plastic developed by the REMAN group is highly stable and has a low migration rate. As explained by Ignacio Martín, this group’s solutions are intended for use in the packaging and single-use plastics industry as a direct replacement for conventional alternatives. In addition, their patented technology allows them to offer a wide range of mechanical performance, enabling them to tailor our products to the needs of their customers.

The formulations developed by the research group require the starch to be gelatinised and plasticised in the presence of plasticisers, usually water and another plasticiser with a higher boiling point. Plasticised starch, surrounded by plasticiser molecules, has a high tendency to retrograde, i.e. it partially recovers its original ordered structure, which leads to a decrease in its properties. However, with the technology developed by the group, this migration is largely avoided, extending the useful life of these materials without detriment to their mechanical properties, biodegradability, compostability and water solubility.

Source: https://web.ua.es/en/actualidad-universitaria/2023/march2023/6-12/ua-researchers-patent-water-soluble-plastic-material-based-on-potato-starch.html

March 06^th 2023

This starchy bioplastic could make soggy paper straws a thing of the past.

These new bioplastic straws made using potato starch and lignin are strong in water but still biodegrade.

In the fight against pollution, several regions in the U.S. have banned the use of plastic straws. Alternative materials exist, but most options are either too expensive to scale up, go limp in drinks or taste bad. But now, a team reporting in ACS Omega has developed a new type of bioplastic film from all-natural, degradable materials that can be rolled into a straw that doesn’t get soggy and is stronger than plastic.

As efforts to reduce plastic waste take hold, many researchers and companies have turned to plastic alternatives to fabricate straws that comply with new laws and regulations. But so far, most options either end up breaking down in a drink, like paper straws, or require extra steps and energy to manufacture, like metal or sugarcane straws.

But some biopolymers, such as starch and lignin, are readily available as byproducts of other industrial processes and could serve as cheap bioplastic ingredients. Lignin’s natural strength could help overcome starch’s brittleness, especially when combined with a bio-based crosslinker, such as citric acid. So, Dickens Agumba, Duc Hoa Pham and Jaehwan Kim wanted to see if these materials could be combined into a plastic film that was tough, stable in water, yet would still break down when no longer needed.

To create the straws, the researchers blended lignin with either potato starch or polyvinyl alcohol—a more traditional bioplastic material—then added citric acid. They spread the slurry into a thin layer, rolled it into a cylinder and cured it at over 350 F. The bioplastic naturally self-adhered at the seam, but heat treatment set it and made it even stronger. In tests, the cylinders were stronger than those made of polypropylene plastic, yet still flexible.

After two months outside, the plastic straws remained unchanged, while the team’s straws degraded significantly. The bioplastic film also offered UV protection, which could be useful for other applications, such as a coating for greenhouse windows. The researchers say that this material could not only reduce the amount of plastic waste in the environment, but also be used to create other, more sustainable bioplastic products from otherwise wasted materials.

Source: https://scienceblog.com/536824/this-starchy-bioplastic-could-make-soggy-paper-straws-a-thing-of-the-past/

February 20^th 2023

Tate & Lyle’s facility in the Netherlands helps deliver progress on sustainability.

Tate & Lyle PLC (Tate & Lyle), a world leader in ingredient solutions for healthier food and beverages, is working to deliver on its environmental commitments, as demonstrated by strong progress at its facility in Koog aan de Zaan (Koog) in the Netherlands on water use, waste management and carbon emissions reduction.

More sustainably made ingredients.

Engineers at Koog have adapted the production process for Tate & Lyle’s CLARIA® Clean Label Functional Starches, the hero brand in its texturants portfolio, to lower the product line’s carbon footprint and water use by 34% and 35% respectively1. CLARIA® is a corn-based starch used in products such as beverages, soups, sauces, and dressings, providing texture, viscosity, and gelling benefits, amongst others. The production efficiencies, which do not affect the ingredient’s functionality, will be implemented globally for all Tate & Lyle’s CLARIA® production, with the more sustainably made product line available to food and beverage customers in limited supply from early next year. From early 2025, all CLARIA® will be made using the more sustainable method developed at Koog under the new CLARIA® G brand, with trial samples soon available.

This production enhancement at Koog, which also purchases 100% renewable electricity, supports Tate & Lyle’s efforts to deliver on its science-based target to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions2 by 30% by 2030, and to achieve net zero by 2050. This innovation also brings Tate & Lyle one step closer to achieving its target of reducing water use by 15% by 2030.

Beneficially using all waste.

The team at Koog has also recently hit a major waste management milestone by finding a beneficial use for 99.9% of site waste, including providing waste water sludge, organic matter that comes from the corn wet milling process, as nutrients for the animals and land of local farms. This work contributes to Tate & Lyle’s target to beneficially use 100% of the waste it generates globally by 2030.

Paul Clarijs, Plant Manager at Koog aan de Zaan, Tate & Lyle, said: “Finding innovative ways to care for our planet is something our workforce cares deeply about. We operate a continuous improvement mindset and are pleased to have developed new ways of working at Koog that will inspire each Tate & Lyle site on their sustainability journey and provide benefits to our wider network.”

Coralie Falize, Innovation Lead for Texturants at Tate & Lyle, said: “By continuing to expand our texturant portfolio, including diversifying our raw materials, we are building our knowledge of production enhancement that help us and our customers to meet ambitious environmental commitments. Our next generation CLARIA® G, has the same functionality as the existing product line that our customers know and love but with stronger sustainability credentials.”

Anna Pierce, Director of Sustainability at Tate & Lyle, added: “This new, more sustainable process for CLARIA® production will help us increase capacity over time and provide customers with the more sustainable products they are looking for as we partner to tackle the biggest challenge facing society, the climate crisis.”

Source: https://www.tateandlyle.com/news/tate-lyles-facility-netherlands-helps-deliver-progress-sustainability

January 27^th 2023

Scientists have produced a system that produces protein from starch using AI.

Scientists have created an AI system, called ProGen, that generates artificial enzymes from scratch. In laboratory tests, some of these enzymes worked as well as those found in nature, even when their artificially generated amino acid sequences diverged significantly from any known natural protein.

The experiment demonstrates that natural language processing, although it was developed to read and write language text, can learn at least some of the underlying principles of biology. Salesforce Research developed the AI program, called ProGen, which uses next-token prediction to assemble amino acid sequences into artificial proteins.

Scientists said the new technology could become more powerful than directed evolution, the Nobel-prize-winning protein design technology, and it will energize the 50-year-old field of protein engineering by speeding the development of new proteins that can be used for almost anything from therapeutics to degrading plastic.

“The artificial designs perform much better than designs that were inspired by the evolutionary process,” said James Fraser, Ph.D., professor of bioengineering and therapeutic sciences at the UCSF School of Pharmacy, and an author of the work, which was published on Jan. 26, in Nature Biotechnology. A previous version of the paper has been available on the preprint server BiorXiv since July 2021, where it garnered several dozen citations before being published in a peer-reviewed journal.

ProGen works in a similar way to AIs that can generate text. ProGen learned how to generate new proteins by learning the grammar of how amino acids combine to form 280 million existing proteins. Instead of the researchers choosing a topic for the AI to write about, they could specify a group of similar proteins for it to focus on. In this case, they chose a group of proteins with antimicrobial activity.

The researchers programmed checks into the AI’s process so it wouldn’t produce the amino acids, but they also tested a sample of the AI-proposed molecules in real cells. Of the 100 molecules they physically created, 66 participated in chemical reactions similar to those of natural proteins that destroy bacteria in egg whites and saliva. This suggested that these new proteins could also kill bacteria.

Scientists said the new technology could become more powerful than directed evolution, a Nobel-prize-winning protein design technology, and will energize the 50-year-old field of protein engineering by speeding the development of new proteins that can be used for almost anything from therapeutics to degrading plastic.

“The language model is learning aspects of evolution, but it’s different than the normal evolutionary process,” Fraser said. “We now have the ability to tune the generation of these properties for specific effects. For example, an enzyme that’s incredibly thermostable or likes acidic environments or won’t interact with other proteins.”

To create the model, scientists simply fed the amino acid sequences of 280 million different proteins of all kinds into the machine learning model and let it digest the information for a couple of weeks. Then, they fine-tuned the model by priming it with 56,000 sequences from five lysozyme families, along with some contextual information about these proteins.

“It was sort of an ‘it looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck’ situation and X-rays confirmed it also walked like a duck,” says Fraser. He was surprised to have found a well-functioning protein in the first relatively small fraction of all the ProGen-generated proteins that they tested.

A similar process could be used to create new test molecules for drug development, though they will still have to be tested in labs, which is time-consuming, says Madani.

“The capability to generate functional proteins from scratch out-of-the-box demonstrates we are entering into a new era of protein design,” said Ali Madani, Ph.D., founder of Profluent Bio, a former research scientist at Salesforce Research, and the paper’s first author. “This is a versatile new tool available to protein engineers, and we’re looking forward to seeing the therapeutic applications.”

Source: https://www.techjuice.pk/scientists-have-produced-a-system-that-produces-protein-from-starch-using-ai/

January 16^th 2023

Chinese researchers find new way to synthesize starch, proteins from corn stalk.

Chinese researchers recently developed a method of high efficiency for synthesizing artificial starch and microbial proteins from corn stalk. This method can cut the production cost of artificial starch and provide a new way to produce food.

Growing populations and climate change pose great challenges to food security. The efficient conversion of agricultural waste into artificial food is an important way to alleviate a food crisis and realize sustainable agricultural development.

The researchers from the Biotechnology Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and other China-based institutions, used a multi-enzyme molecular system and baker’s yeast to convert cellulose in corn stalks to artificial starch, and to produce microbial protein by fermentation under aerobic conditions.

The whole production process requires only a small investment in equipment, does not require coenzyme or energy input and does not lead to sugar loss, offering the possibility of producing artificial starch and microbial proteins at low cost, according to the study.

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095927323000221

January 10^th 2023

Corn prices to remain elevated, says Beroe.

Global corn production has risen by approximately 11 percent over five years as a response to the rise in corn demand by roughly 14 percent during the same period. The end-user industries, including corn starch and animal feed, are the main forces behind supply and demand, impacting price trends.

The key factors driving the growth also include demand from the end-use segments, such as the citric acid market and feed industry in China, Canada switching to green fuels, and increased domestic utilizations in most countries, amid the pandemic. Unfavorable weather conditions in key growing destinations and the loss of Ukrainian grain exports also impacted the global corn market this year.

Since end-use categories are largely concentrated in the U.S. and China, these two nations are the top consumers. Concerning the corn processing end-use segments, citric acid is in high demand post-Coronavirus, while the corn starch market could rise by a CAGR of 4.8 percent in the coming years. This is causing corn demand in the US and China to grow. Top corn processors such as Cargill, ADM, and Ingredion occupy about 70-80 percent of the market share.

LATAM nations have always competed with the US for exports. However, this year dry weather conditions in Brazil, coupled with delayed plantings, are expected to impact second crop quality heavily.

Argentina mainly exports to countries in Asia and the Middle East, with Algeria, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Egypt being the top export destinations. Argentina has sold about 20 MMT of corn in the 2021/22 marketing year. About 1.2 MMT of corn was exported last week of March. Weekly export volumes of corn have surged significantly even amid war conditions.

Corn prices have remained firm and gained significantly owing to worries about the export of shipments via the Black Sea amid strong demands. Ukraine is struggling to export grains via rail as the volumes for export which were earlier shipped through the Odesa terminal, were very high and are not replaceable via rail.

Global supplies remain tight, with Ukraine struggling to export corn, the EU facing a structural deficit, slower pace of the US planting, along with Brazilian crops, threatened by dry weather. CBOT corn prices continue to gain support from these factors amid an acute shortage of fertilizers and rallying freight costs.

The European nations are constantly trying to get Ukrainian grain stocks out of the country through rails. Shipments are currently directed to Austria and Germany. Global corn prices are expected to remain elevated along the short-medium term due to ongoing supply chain disruptions and increasing production costs.

Reduction in corn shipments from Ukraine has caused European farmers to opt for genetically modified animal feed from South America and US. Non-GMO corn from Ukraine constituted half of EU imports. However, 92 percent of US corn imports are GM. Incidentally, EU companies do not have to label meat or animal products fed with GM grains.

China has bought only 126,727 MT of corn from Ukraine, compared to 1.26 MMT in 2021. Corn shipments from all origins to China between January to May fell by 2.9 percent, according to customs data, while only in May did shipment volumes fall by 34.1 percent. The Chinese feed industry demand for corn remains under pressure leading to lowered livestock margins.

Besides the supply crunch and surging corn production costs, logistics is also adding to the corn prices. Fertilizer availability remains grim, which could impact corn quality in top-production countries. The total corn production cost for the US was $634/acre. The total operating and allocated overhead costs comprise 48.7 percent and 51.3 percent of the total cost, respectively.

Corn is planted during April and May, while harvest usually begins around September. The planting and harvesting of corn influence the price trend cycles in the US. Generally, the prices trend downward between September and December due to harvest. The downward trend continues from January to March as harvest supply enters the market. Prices could then trend upward or downward between April and August, depending on demand and farmer preferences, such as rotation with soy. Costs could become more favorable for procurement as major production countries begin harvest. Supplies from US and Brazil could ease prices in the medium term.

India is planning to launch 20% ethanol mixed gasoline in 2023 to cut down alternate fuel import requirements. Oil prices are hard hit this year, due to which the country is trying to expedite efforts to increase domestic stocks. The government also plans to approve the increased use of feedstock such as corn, sugar, molasses, and damaged grains for biofuel production.

Innovation plays a vital role in the corn industry in developing new varieties for pest, insect, and disease resistance. Innovation is also used for high profitability in end-use markets like the ethanol, polyol, and sweetener industries.

Seed companies are developing new corn varieties and hybrids capable of pest resistance and increasing water use efficiency. Breeding initiatives concentrate on creating more disease-resistant corn hybrids.

Crop protection companies, such as Provivi, are working towards protecting acres of cultivation land from pest infestation. The company is expected to supply pheromone-based Mating Disruption products against Fall Armyworm infestation in corn to small-scale farmers in India.

The National Corn Growers Association is working with US farmers to improve land efficiency by 12 percent, reduce soil erosion by 13 percent, reduce GHG emissions by 13 percent, improve energy use efficiency by 13 percent and increase irrigation water use efficiency by 15 percent. The organization is committed to achieving these targets by 2030.

These efforts have the potential to influence global pricing and sustainability. While the demand for corn varies, production and distribution will always be progressive.

Source: https://www.beroeinc.com/press/corn-prices-to-remain-elevated-says-beroe/

December 15^th 2022

Wearable electronics could soon be made with a starch-based material to prevent e-waste.

Soft, wearable sensors can improve our lives, but these soft and stretchable electronic devices are nearly impossible to recycle. As a result, this electronic waste usually ends up in landfills or polluting the environment. Polymer scientists from the University of Groningen have developed a starch-based polymer that makes it possible to create a fully biodegradable soft material for sensors. They published a paper on this new material in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces on 13 December.

Soft, stretchable polymers are used to make various kinds of electronic devices. They are used for example in smart watches to make contact with the skin. Sensors in shoes or clothing are also often based on these materials, as is the screen of your smartphone. ‘These soft materials are often made from mixtures of polymers, which are difficult to purify. As a result, they are dumped in landfills, often with the toxic metal components of the sensor still present. This kind of electronic waste is becoming a serious problem’, says Xiaohong Lan, first author of the paper and postdoc at the University of Groningen Polymer Science group led by Professor Katja Loos.

Backbone
Lan, Loos, and their colleagues have developed an alternative to these complex polymers: a biodegradable material that decomposes in a matter of weeks to a few months. ‘There are easy ways to remove the metal and polymers from the e-waste’, says Lan. ‘Of course, you could try to recycle the soft polymers, but that is often too complex, and therefore too expensive.’ The researchers’ new polymer decomposes, leaving only water and carbon dioxide behind.

‘To create a biodegradable polymer, we started out with a backbone of starch-derived dextrin carbohydrates,’ explains Lan. ‘Most polymer backbones contain chemical bonds, which are very strong. The dextrin backbone can be degraded by natural enzymes that are present in soil.’ Long fatty acid tails were added to the dextrin in the backbone, and the researchers were able to use the amount of fatty acids added per glucose unit to regulate the hydrophobicity of the polymer. ‘The enzymes that degrade the polymer require water, so if a material is too hydrophobic, they cannot do it. If the polymer is too hydrophilic, on the other hand, the material will not have the right properties.’

Brushes
The material needs to be soft and stretchable, but also dielectric, which means that the sensors can charge themselves with the electricity created by rubbing against fabric. Apart from the fatty acid tail, the modified dextrin polymer was also grafted with lactone monomers in a brush-like pattern. These brushes give the material its stretchability. The resulting ‘Advanced Scalable Supersoft Elastic Transparent material’ (ASSETm) has all the right properties. Experiments revealed that it is suited to seal in electrodes to produce sensors. ‘We compared our sensors with state-of-the-art commercial sensors, and found that ours worked at least as well,’ says Lan.

The production process is scalable, so there is no reason why this biodegradable ASSETm should not replace traditional soft polymers in smart electronics. Lan: ‘However, we do have to change our attitude towards starch, which is usually seen as a food product.’ Currently, approximately 60% of all starch is used in animal feed, 30% for human consumption, and 10% in medical applications. ‘However, starch consumption is decreasing, and there is a downward trend in cattle numbers.’

Discussion
Group leader Katja Loos is also enthusiastic about the new material: ‘We hope that our paper will launch a discussion on further curbing e-waste. This degradable polymer can really help reduce the amount of e-waste.’

Source: https://www.rug.nl/sciencelinx/nieuws/2022/12/wearable-electronics-from-starch-to-prevent-e-waste?lang=en

December 08^th 2022

11^th Starch Value Chain ASIA, January 31^st and February 01^st 2023.

CMT’s 11th Starch World ASIA series is back this year with a new improved version!

Rebranding to 11th Starch Value Chain ASIA, this event brings all players in the starch supply chain to share and discuss developments on realising the full potential of starch crops, value added pathways for cassava , protein and fibre value of pulses, rice, wheat and the importance of these components in the current shift towards healthy & sustainable diets.

The event will follow through with another conference on Sustainable Plant Protein & Fermentation Solutions – as nowadays starch and protein goes hand in hand together.

Thailand is promoting a vision of bio-economy for national development based on the sugarcane and cassava sectors. The vision of bio-economy of the Government of Thailand is to modernize agriculture by adding value to raw materials from farmers’ fields.

Highlights:

• CMD resistance in Thailand in normal and waxy pipelines.
• Cassava developments in the supply zone of Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia, and the pre-emptive work on some other diseases.
• A sustainable and integrated approach for cassava starch processing in Indonesia.
• Cassava based biodegradable plastics.

Source: https://www.cmtevents.com/aboutevent.aspx?ev=230103&

November 17^th 2022

Potato starch versus potato flour: what’s the difference?

Those on a gluten-free diet may be familiar with potato starch and potato flour, but there’s a lot more to them than meets the eye. One is the secret to ultra-crispy, deep-fried foods, and the other to long-lasting yeast breads. Here’s everything you need to know before you hit the baking aisle.

How is potato starch made?
Potato starch starts with washed and peeled raw potatoes. Using high-speed machinery, the starch is extracted from the potatoes, then dried. The result is a very fine, white powder, resembling cornstarch. Potato starch may also be produced as a by-product of processed potato foods, such as French fries or even potato chips.

What is potato starch used for?
Like corn starch, potato starch can be used to thicken soups, stews, sauces, or fruit pie fillings. For this reason, it makes an excellent cornstarch substitute.

Use it in place of cornstarch when deep frying foods, as it has a high-temperature endurance and gives a crisper result. Try sprinkling it on dinner rolls to keep them from going stale as quickly, or use it to dust the counter when rolling dough or fondant.

How is potato flour made?
Potato flour, like potato starch, starts with whole potatoes, but this is where their similarities end. The potatoes are cooked, dried, and ground into a fine powder. The result is a powder that’s more beige in color, similar in appearance to whole-wheat flour.

Potato flour is of course much higher in nutritional value than starch. Plus it’s rich in vitamins, minerals, protein, and fiber, making it a healthier, gluten-free alternative to wheat flour. It does have a much stronger potato flavor than potato starch.

What is potato flour used for?
Potato flour can be used in conjunction with other types of flour (such as rice flour), for gluten-free baking. However, we don’t recommend using it as the sole flour because it holds a lot of moisture and can result in a too-dense, gummy baked good.

But potato flour’s ability to absorb moisture is also its strength: Add a small amount to yeast bread to help retain the freshness of the bread.

Like other flours, potato flour makes an excellent thickening or binding agent. Try using it in breading for meat — you’ll get a crisper result than you would with wheat flour. It can also help to enhance the potato flavor in potato dishes as well, like potato rolls.

Can you use them interchangeably?
Not really. The one exception is if you’re using potato flour for the purpose of extending the shelf-life of yeast breads, potato starch can be substituted. It’s not a one-to-one ratio, however. Potato flour is mostly starch, but not all, so you’ll want to use slightly less potato starch than you would flour (a ¾:1 potato starch to potato flour ratio). Otherwise, there are better substitutes for potato starch and flour that we’ll go over below.

Substitutes for potato starch.
Starches are a lot easier to substitute for than flour. Here are some common substitutes and ratios:

Corn starch: Use one tablespoon of cornstarch for every one tablespoon of potato starch.
Tapioca Starch: Use two tablespoons of tapioca starch for every one tablespoon of potato starch.
Arrowroot Powder: Use one tablespoon of arrowroot powder for every one tablespoon of potato starch.

Substitutes for potato flour.
The best substitute for potato flour is going to be potato flakes, which is essentially potato flour that hasn’t been ground as fine. You can either dissolve it into batter for baking, or use a blender or food process to grind it into a fine powder. Potato flakes can be substituted for potato flour using a 1:1 ratio.

If you’re using potato flour as a thickener, you can substitute two tablespoons of tapioca flour for every one tablespoon of potato flour.

Source: https://www.google.com/search?q=potato+starch+versus+potato+flour&ei=Qwl1Y7CeAt__7_UPl7K2sAw&start=0&sa=N&ved=2ahUKEwjwy8ykibP7AhXf_7sIHReZDcY4HhDy0wN6BAgEEAQ&biw=1553&bih=789&dpr=1

November 07^th 2022

Ingredion makes progress toward texturizer capacity expansion plans to meet increased global demand for specialty food starches.

Ingredion Incorporated, a leading global provider of ingredient solutions to the food and beverage manufacturing industry, today announced that it has completed one-third of its $160 million in capital investments to significantly expand capacity for a range of modified and clean label specialty starches across its global supply chain. At the Company’s June Investor Day, its leadership team announced $160 million in capital investments through 2024 to selectively expand and increasingly localize its production capacity to meet customers’ growing demands for specialty starches that provide texture for taste along with formulating and label-friendly options for food and beverages. In September, the Company also announced that it had opened a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Shandong, China, which more than doubles its starch production capacity and capabilities in the country.

“Over the last year and a half, we have seen strong customer demand recovery for our starch solutions in both foodservice applications as well as traditional packaged food and beverages. In addition, the Ukraine conflict has disrupted corn and other grain markets, which has forced an increase in the cost of many food ingredients. During this time, as customers managed the challenges of rising formulation costs, they have looked to specialty starches given their versatility and affordability relative to other ingredients,” said Pierre Perez y Landazuri, senior vice president of corporate strategy, specialties and the president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

“In addition to releasing capacity through continuous improvement initiatives, the investments we have announced will enable us to meet the heightened demand more sustainably for our customers with increased local sourcing in the U.S., Europe, and Asia-Pacific. These investments are improving our global supply chain flexibility for corn, waxy corn, tapioca, potato, and rice-based specialty starches. The actions we are taking combined with our deep market expertise, technical knowledge and decades-long experience innovating with specialty starch solutions will continue to make us a trusted partner for our customers,” concluded Perez y Landazuri.

In addition to providing capacity expansion for future growth, the moves are being made to reduce long-term delivered cost while taking into account the environmental footprint of the products being sold to customers. The Company recently announced that it is the first major food ingredients company to engage with HowGood, the world’s largest product sustainability database for the food and beverage industry. The relationship will deliver increased transparency for the Company’s ingredients and will further enable its customers to innovate to meet the growing demand for more sustainable products.

Source: https://ir.ingredionincorporated.com/news-releases/news-release-details/ingredion-makes-progress-toward-texturizer-capacity-expansion