Starch Pros

January 23^rd 2020

Tate & Lyle expands portfolio of non-GMO ingredients to meet growing consumer demand.

Tate & Lyle announces several new additions to its portfolio of Non-GMO texturisers. These include new gelling starches designed to optimise texture in jelly confections and processed cheese and are the company’s first Non GMO starches made from dent corn in the US.

Tate & Lyle, a global provider of food and beverage ingredients and solutions, today announced the expansion of its portfolio of approved Non-GMO Project Verified ingredient solutions. The recent additions include several new texturants made from Non-GMO dent corn; such as two new gelling starches – THINGUM® 107NG and BRIOGEL® 1082 NG – designed to optimise texture in jelly confections and processed cheese respectively as well as MERIZET® 100 NG, a bulking starch that helps optimise texture attributes in sauces, dressings, bakery and snacks.

“These launches further expand Tate & Lyle’s portfolio of Non-GMO ingredients, which will help our customers increase their inventory of products bearing the Non-GMO Project Verified Certification,” said Werner Barbosa, Tate & Lyle Vice President, Global Lead, Texture Innovation and Commercial Development. “One of the most effective ways to reassure consumers that the foods and beverages they purchase are Non-GMO is to offer products that display the Non-GMO Project Verified on-pack seal.”

Today, Tate & Lyle has over 100 Non-GMO corn, and tapioca texturants available for the North American market, including thickening, film forming, gelling and functional power functionalities.

With 76 percent of consumers globally claiming to read ingredient labels, it is critical that food and beverage manufacturers offer clean label products that consumers can trust. “By broadening its line of Non-GMO ingredients Tate & Lyle is adding another level of trust to its extensive portfolio, ensuring that our customers can respond to the clean label trend,” added Barbosa.

Among clean label claims in new products, Non-GMO claims have seen the largest increase, up 13 percent between 2014 and 2018.

In the U.S. Non-GMO products represent $11 billion in sales, up 10 percent versus last year. In 2018, 48 percent of U.S. consumers said they are avoiding GMO products, up from 29 percent in 2010. Indeed, more than a quarter of U.S. consumers claim to be familiar with the Non-GMO Project Verified Seal and seek it out when making food and beverage choices.

Tate & Lyle continues to provide solutions that meet consumer demands for Non-GMO sweetening ingredients, as well. DOLCIA PRIMA® Allulose, a low-calorie sweetening ingredient, is now available as Non-GMO Project Verified. Allulose has the same clean, sweet taste you expect from sugar (sucrose) but without all the calories. Originally identified in wheat, it has since been found in certain fruits including figs and raisins.

Adding the Non-GMO Allulose variant will broaden the usage of DOLCIA PRIMA® Allulose with customers while meeting the demands of the consumers, particularly those following a keto diet or those managing diabetes as it has no glycaemic impact.

Source: https://www.tateandlyle.com/news/tate-lyle-expands-portfolio-non-gmo-ingredients-meet-growing-consumer-demand

January 22^nd 2020

Novel ‘waxy’ wheat variety makes commercial debut in Kellogg’s Hi! Happy Inside.

A new type of wheat developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) breeders and collaborators has made its first appearance in a breakfast cereal made by the Kellogg Company.

The breakfast cereal giant has incorporated the new varietal – called Waxy-Pen – as the main ingredient in its Hi! Happy Inside cereal, launched last year and targeted at consumers in search of enhancing their overall health and specifically, their gut health.

The new wheat cultivar is a soft white spring wheat with a unique starch content that the ARS researchers claim opens the door to novel food uses.

Soft white wheat is typically used to make cookies, cakes, udon noodles, flatbreads and other Asian or Middle Eastern baked goods. The wheat’s starch consists of two kinds of glucose polymer: a branched form called amylopectin, and a straight-chain form called amylose.

Craig Morris, a research chemist at the ARS Western Wheat Quality Laboratory – part of the Wheat Health, Genetics, and Quality Research Unit – and his team spent more than a decade of conventional breeding to create a wheat kernel with a starch composition that contains 100% amylopectin. Normal wheat kernels typically contain about 75% amylopectin.

According to Morris, Waxy-Pen is the first commercially available, soft white spring wheat that contains 100% amylopectin starch, a trait known as ‘full-waxy’.

Waxy starch gels form a paste at lower temperatures and swell with more water than regular or partially waxy wheat starches (those containing less than 25% amylose).

They also do not lose water upon exposure to freezing and thawing. Food-bodying agents, shelflife extenders and shortening replacement are some potential uses envisioned for full-waxy starches, including those from rice, corn and barley.

“Waxy starch has dramatically different processing properties, such as lower gelatinisation temperature and higher water swelling. It puffs really well, with large expansion and crispy texture,” said Morris.

The researchers developed the new wheat using conventional plant breeding techniques that enabled them to combine three deficient forms of the gene for granule-bound starch synthase (GBSS), the enzyme responsible for making amylose. Since the deficient forms cannot make GBSS, no amylose is made either.

Waxy-Pen was initially released in 2006 – then named Penawawa-X – and Morris approached numerous bakers, millers and food companies to explore possible uses for WaxyPen. Ultimately, Kellogg’s came on board and this month, rolled out the whole-grain ingredient in its Hi! Happy Inside cereal.

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific research agency.

Source: https://tellus.ars.usda.gov/stories/articles/new-breakfast-cereal-made-with-ars-wheat/

January 07^th 2020

Vietnam to face difficulties in cassava starch exports.

It is expected that throughout 2020 China will continue making adjustments to the Value Added Tax for cassava starch that are imported through official channels from 13 per cent to 10 per cent, resulting in the price of cassava starch being exported through border areas becoming less competitive.

According to the Agro Processing and Market Development Authority under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Vietnam’s exports of cassava and cassava-based products during 2019 reached 2.5 million tonnes with a value of US$973 million, representing a rise of 3.2 per cent in volume and 1.6 per cent in value against the figures from 2018.

The average export price of cassava and cassava-based products throughout the previous year was at an estimated US$386 per tonne, down 2.3 per cent compared to 2018.
With regard to the market structure, China continued to be the largest importer of the country’s cassava products last year, making up 89.2 per cent of the market share, up 0.6 per cent in volume and down 1 per cent in value compared to 2018.

They were followed by the Republic of Korea’s with 3.1 per cent of the market share, Taiwan at 1.5 per cent, Malaysia at 1.2 per cent, and the Philippines at 1.2 per cent.
Most notably, the import demand for Vietnamese cassava chips and starch from China experienced a downward trend.

In addition, the northern neighbour also tightened regulations regarding labeling, packaging, and information on all cassava starch products coming from Vietnam, while closely monitoring imports through border trade channels in the process.
At present, the supply source of cassava chips from the 2019 to 2020 crop continues to suffer a decline as a result of scarce inputs, while cassava starch processors are speeding up their purchases.

Moreover, the price of maize and wheat has also experienced an upward trend, meaning that the demand for cassava chips within the animal feed industry is predicted to enjoy positive growth over the course of the year.

Source: https://customsnews.vn/exports-of-cassava-starch-to-face-hurdles-this-year-13129.html

January 02^nd 2020

Early modern humans cooked starchy food in South Africa 170 000 years ago.

According to a statement released by the University of the Witwatersrand, researchers including scientists Lyn Wadley and Christine Sievers have found evidence that early modern humans collected and cooked starchy plant parts known as rhizomes some 170,000 years ago. The charred rhizomes were recovered from fireplaces and ash dumps at South Africa’s Border Cave, which is located in the Lebombo Mountains, and identified with a scanning electron microscope as Hypoxis, a plant also known as the Yellow Star flower. The researchers suggests that a wooden digging stick discovered in the cave may have been used to dig such rhizomes out of the ground. Wadley also explained that cooking the rhizomes would have made them easier to peel and digest. She thinks that since the rhizomes were cooked in the cave, rather than in the field, they may have been shared with others who shared the cave as a home base. Today, the plant is still valued for the nutrition, energy, and fiber it provides.

For more details follow the link below.

Source: http://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/

December 20^th 2019

Ingredion employees cheer Cedar Rapids plant’s 125-year history.

Even more than a century ago, representatives from what now is Ingredion’s plant in Cedar Rapids were bullish on its future in the city.

“There has been a general increase in our business for the last six weeks and there is no indication of a falling off,” an employee with then-Douglas Starch Works told the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette in an article published Aug. 24, 1914.

“We are running to full capacity seven days a week … . We anticipate a tremendous demand for our products this fall.”

That demand has persisted to the present day. Current holiday shoppers across the nation likely have had products from Ingredion’s Cedar Rapids facility show up on their doorsteps without even knowing it — the plant is the starting point for starches often used to reinforce cardboard boxes for delivery.

More than 100 years after its inception, the Cedar Rapids facility still is chugging along, now manufacturing industrial starch and ethanol, in what plant officials say is a rare show of resiliency in the industrial world.

Plant Manager Roxie Simon attributed that local longevity to the plant’s employee base and its “good, solid Midwestern values.”

“I think it’s the leadership and the vision of those who’ve run the facility to say, ‘OK, we’re going to evolve with changing markets and we’re going to make something that’s going to make money,’ but then you’ve got to have a strong, resilient, team-oriented workforce to make it happen too,” Simon said.

“If you have one and not the other, you’re not going to be successful. For me, I think it’s really the combo of both in terms of how we’ve been able to not just weather but then thrive in different parts of our history.”

When times get tough.

The plant on First Street SW has undergone seven ownership changes over the years — most recently in March 2015, when Westchester, Ill.-based Ingredion, a specialty ingredients company, acquired Penford Corp. to the tune of $340 million.

George Douglas Jr. and his brother Walter originally established Douglas Starch Works in 1903 approximately where Ingredion sits today, after founding what became Douglas and Co. in 1894 — the year Ingredion uses in marking its 125-year anniversary in Cedar Rapids.

Though Douglas Starch Works by 1914 had grown into the world’s largest independent cornstarch works, employees were left to rebuild after May 22, 1919, when a fire of unknown origin resulted in an explosion that reduced the plant to rubble.

Forty-four employees were killed, with numerous others injured, and the company was left to pay more than $44 million in today’s dollars for repairs and payments to the victims’ families.

Shades of that rebuilding process carried over nearly 90 years later, on June 11, 2008, when then-Penford Products was swamped during the Cedar Rapids flood, in some places up to 20 feet, experiencing damages estimated in excess of $56 million.

Though Simon, who has overseen the plant for two and a half years and was not present at that flood, she said those experiences from longtime employees were among the first she heard upon joining.

“This plant was underwater. We were not operating for two months in one part of the plant and our ethanol business was down,” she said, adding that a “can-do attitude” both from leadership and employees helped Penford pull through.

“The stories are pretty remarkable. … When times get tough, you’ve got to make a decision and come together.”

More modernized.

Ingredion’s Cedar Rapids facility currently manufactures dry and liquid industrial starches and fuel-grade ethanol.

Other products the plant has manufactured across its history run the gamut from soap stock and brewer’s grits to 68 different labels of corn syrup and molasses in 1954, when then-Penick and Ford was the world’s largest distributor of those wares.

Among Ingredion’s current largest customers serviced out of its Cedar Rapids plant are Domtar Industries, which uses ethylated starch for the surfaces of copy paper at a mill it operates in Ashdown, Ark., Ingredion production planner Curt Rollo said.

Industrial starch also is shipped to Conyers, Ga., where cardboard box manufacturer Pratt Industries uses the product to create stiff, hard-to-break boxes for customers such as Amazon.com to use for deliveries, Rollo said.

As the Cedar Rapids facility has evolved over the years, so, too, have its technologies.
Employees now can perform basic tasks, such as opening or closing tank valves, with computer commands, rather than walking down a flight of stairs to physically do so, said corn elevator operator Debra Ties-Rodriguez, a plant employee for nearly 27 years.

“Over the years, it’s really come a long way. Everything has gotten more modernized,” said Ties-Rodriguez.

She now weighs corn trucks as they enter and exit the facility, and uses a computer to calibrate their bushels deposited.

Starch building operator James Kersten said he uses about 60 different screens to monitor hundreds of pieces of equipment each day, with access to around 120 screens in total.
Training new employees to make use of the technology takes around three months, and though he estimated it takes most people a year to become fully comfortable overseeing the machines, employees come from all different backgrounds.

“We have everyone from bakers, video-store operators to people with an engineering background,” Kersten said.

Also noticeable among the Cedar Rapids plant’s workforce are what Kersten described as a large number of family members, including his younger brother, Thomas, who joined as a general utility worker in 2015.

“I’ve never been at a place that has so many family members hired,” he said, attributing the trend to Ingredion’s pay, benefits and union representation. “When I first came here, it seemed very alive to me through the years.”

Juan Rodriguez, who works with liquid and natural additives at the facility, said his 28-year-old son also became an employee in April.

“Since I started here, I learned a lot from the older people,” Rodriguez said. “What we try to do is pass it on to the younger people who are coming behind us.”

That current Ingredion employees recommend jobs at the facility to family members is the most “telling” indicator of their engagement, said Simon, the plant manager.

“You look at our economy being so strong and unemployment being so low, people have a choice in where they want to work, especially within manufacturing, and the people who come to work here are referrals,” she said.

“They’re people who say, ‘Yep, my dad works here, my brother works here, my neighbor works here,’ and they say it’s a good place to work.”

By the numbers:

• 100 to 200 1,000-bushel trucks deposit corn at Ingredion’s Cedar Rapids facility each day
• 90,000 bushels of corn grind capacity per day
• 3,200 bags of dried starch packaged at the facility each day
• 580 million pounds of starch dried at the plant on an annual basis
• Four to five 20,000-gallon rail cars transport ethanol from the plant each day
• 200 salaried and hourly employees currently working at the plant
• $5.84 billion in net sales for 2018, across all Ingredion facilities

Source: https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/business/ingredion-employees-cheer-cedar-rapids-plants-125-year-history-20191220

December 19^th 2019

Partnership with IMCD expands access to ADM Starch portfolio.

Archer Daniels Midland Company will expand the reach of its starch portfolio to the Canadian market through a partnership with IMCD, a leading distributor of specialty chemicals and food ingredients, effective immediately. ADM texture solutions available to buyers in the Canadian market will include tapioca starch, corn starch and tapioca maltodextrin in addition to a range of other ADM solutions.

“We are excited to partner with IMCD to expand the availability of our texture portfolio to the Canadian market,” said Kristopher DiTommaso, ADM vice president of starches. “In addition to making high-quality, on-trend solutions available to a broader market, we’re also able to support formulators and developers in Canada with access to a wide range of capabilities and value-added services, including market-ready applications support, and assurance of supply backed by ADM’s global supply chain.”

ADM’s clean tasting starch solutions improve texture and tenderness in a variety of foods and play a critical role in helping formulators satisfy growing consumer demand for clean label, gluten-free and plant-based offerings.

“Our strategic partnership with IMCD will enhance the ability of the food industry to innovate and meet consumer needs in the Canadian market,” DiTommaso added.

“ADM is a respected name in the industry, and IMCD is honored to expand our relationship and be the exclusive distribution channel for ADM starches in Canada,” said Devin Chan, IMCD Food & Nutrition vice president of Americas. “Its growing portfolio of clean-label starch solutions complements our existing product offering and our technical value proposition of providing market-trend innovations to our food and beverage customers in this key market in North America.”

Source: https://www.adm.com/news/news-releases

December 10^th 2019

Nouryon introduces natural starch for the personal care market.

Nouryon has introduced a certified natural starch that can replace petrochemical-based products in a variety of personal care applications. Amaze™ Nordic Barley, derived from barley starch, addresses the fast-growing growing consumer demand for natural, biodegradable and clean label ingredients.

The product is the result of a partnership between Nouryon and Oat Services Ltd, a UK company specializing in products and technologies derived from oats, which will be the exclusive supplier of barley starch to Nouryon.
“Amaze Nordic Barley shows excellent performance in improving the aesthetics of skin and hair care products, including dry shampoos,” said Jens Müller, Global Technical Marketing Manager Personal Care at Nouryon. “It reduces the greasiness of the formulation, while leaving a pleasant after-feel. In dry shampoos, the unique shape of the barley starch provides a soft, conditioned after-feel. It is the ideal choice to develop high-performance products with minimal environmental impact.”

Larry Ryan, Executive Vice President, Performance Formulations added: “This is an important extension to our product range of native and modified starches. It also reflects our focus on working with others to develop more sustainably-sourced products and helping our customers to meet growing consumer demand for more natural products.”

Nouryon has been expanding its range of innovative products to customers in the personal care market, one of the company’s key growth segments. These include a recently launched bio-based polymer that is perfect for natural hair styling products and a film-forming polymer for use in long-lasting, high SPF sunscreen products.

https://www.nouryon.com/news-and-events/news-overview/2019/nouryon-introduces-natural-starch-for-the-personal-care-market/

November 28^th 2019

9^th Starch World Asia.

Key Highlights:

• An update on the Cassava Mosaic Disease, extent of the damage and how the industry is tackling this issue
• Changing dynamics of the Thai root market and implications for starch and chip producers
• Key Role of Tapioca Fiber in the Fast Growing Healthy Processed Food Market
• Development and breakthrough of novel waxy tapioca starch and trends on clean food solution
• Promoting circularity concept in the production of amino acids from cassava – the biocycle concept
• Beverage trends in Asia & the bubble tea phenomenon – We examine the proliferation of bubble tea houses  and how it affects demand for tapioca starch
• Innovative technology that slows starch digestibility in carbohydrate diet
• Sustainable starch based polymers & opportunities in Asia
• Transitioning towards the production of higher value added products from cassava
• Bioplastics from cassava – Indonesian perspective
• China Waxy Corn Starch production & supply for the modified starch industry
• Wastewater treatment in the starch industry – Taking the lead from Thailand
• High amylose wheat : Opportunity to raise resistant starch levels in foods

Source: https://www.cmtevents.com/aboutevent.aspx?ev=200207&

Novermber 25^th 2019

Tapioca imports to Japan surge, thanks to bubble tea popularity.

Taiwan has overtaken Thailand as top tapioca starch supplier.

The huge popularity of bubble tea in Japan is driving an import boom in tapioca.

Japan imported some 6,300 tons of tapioca in the first seven months of this year, already more than double the amount for the entire 2018. Imports from Taiwan, in particular, have skyrocketed. The island overtook Thailand as the top supplier to Japan last year.

The export price of tapioca starch also shot to a seven-year high of $550 per ton in May 2018. That price has since fallen to around $450, which is still high by historical standards.

The original bubble tea is a cold, sweet, milky tea drink with dollops of gooey tapioca balls in it. First sold in Taiwan, it is now popular in many forms and flavors throughout Asia.

Indeed, the craze has seized Japan, which imported 2.1 billion yen ($19.4 million) of tapioca and its substitutes during the January-July period, according to government trade data. The volume and the value of tapioca imports in 2018 were record highs.

Imports from Taiwan during the first seven months of this year reached 5435 tons, a whopping 790% leap from the same period last year. Taiwan now has an 87% share of the Japanese market.

Chun Shui Tang and Gong Cha – bubble tea chain stores – have expanded sharply over the past several years. Launched in 2013, Chun Shui Tang has grown to a nationwide chain of 14 shops, mostly in Tokyo and Fukuoka. It is planning to open its 15th store next month in Hiroshima.

Making tapioca drinks and sweets at home has also become a fad among young Japanese. The search frequency for the word “tapioca” in Cookpad, an online cooking recipe site, jumped 560% in August from a year earlier, according to Tabemiru, Cookpad’s search data service.

Many supermarkets now also sell frozen tapioca. Sometimes called pearls, tapioca balls are made from starch extracted from the root of cassava, a woody shrub native to South America. But the plant is now grown in tropical and subtropical regions and can easily be propagated.

Nigeria and Congo are among the leading cassava producers, but the crop is consumed mostly at home in these countries. The top cassava exporter is Thailand. Cassava root prices in the country soared in 2017 due to a supply shortage, but have seen little impact from the bubble tea boom, according to an executive at a Japanese trading house.

Source: https://www.cmtevents.com/eventposts.aspx?feedid=2402&ev=200207

November 12^th 2019

Cassava roots: Bioplastic from cassava starch is as tough as traditional plastics made of petroleum.

A team of scientists in Brazil has developed a biodegradable plastic that could be used for food packaging or carrier bags, by applying ozone gas to cassava starch.

The ozone (O₃) gas changes the molecular properties of the starch from the root vegetable to produce a bioplastic 30 per cent tougher than those made of the starch of potato, rice or maize, the researchers say.

The world currently produces around 300 million tonnes of plastic waste every year — equivalent to the weight of the entire human population — according to UN Environment.

Carla Ivonne La Fuente Arias, a chemistry engineer at the University of São Paulo’s Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture, told SciDev.Net: “Our tests indicate that this new technique is able to generate a biodegradable plastic as strong as traditional ones made of petroleum.”

The ozone gas has also enabled them to improve the transparency of the cassava-based plastic, according to Arias, lead author of the study published in the International Journal of Biological Macromolecules.

Arias said she and her team had requested the patent for their invention and were in talks with a number of companies about developing the technology, but production costs remain unclear.

“At the moment it will undoubtedly be higher than the cost of producing traditional plastics,” she said.. “However, it should drop when produced on a large scale.”

Bioplastics are considered less harmful to the environment because they may be decomposed by the action of living organisms, carbon dioxide (CO2), biomass or water.

Arias is confident that the new material has potential to help tackle the rampant consumption of plastics and pollution generated by their improper disposal.

Alexander Turra, a biologist at the University of São Paulo’s Oceanographic Institute believes, however, that the issue of plastic waste is more complex and related to socioeconomic problems.

“The pollution caused by plastics is related to the way the global economy is structured and also the societies’ consumption logic, which is, in turn, related to the way garbage is discarded,” he said.

“It is essential to think about this in order to change consumer behaviours, even if it involves biodegradable waste,” he points out, although he recognises “this new technological solution is important, and it may act as a palliative measure for the environment.”

An estimated 8.9 billion tonnes of virgin plastic (non-recycled) and secondary plastic (produced from recycled products) have been manufactured since the middle of the last century, when plastics began to be produced on an industrial scale.

About two-thirds of this total — 6.3 billion tonnes — has been discarded as waste, while 2.6 billion tonnes is still in use, according to a study published in 2017 in Science Advances.

The manufacture of virgin plastic so far in the 21st century is equivalent to the volume produced in the previous 50 years. In 2016, production reached 396 million tonnes, says a report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) published in March this year.

WWF’s projections indicate that if the increase in production is not contained, the world will have to deal with about 550 million tonnes of the material by 2030.

“It is essential to prevent all sorts of waste, biodegradable or not, from reaching the environment,” added Turra.

To do so, he said, governments should invest in reducing social inequality, tackling access to basic sanitation and efficient waste collection systems, and improving environmental education.

http://humanitariannews.org/20191113/scientists-develop-biodegradable-plastic-cassava-starch-scidevnet