DisplayTitle

Healthy carbohydrates for the manufacture of food and nutrition

2011 AACC International Annual Meeting
http://dx.doi.org/10.1094/CPLEX-2011-1014-01W

Carbohydrates play an important role in our lives, especially starches. They are the most common source of energy. Foods that are high in starches are bread, pasta, beans, potatoes, bran, rice, and cereals. Starch is not only a key player in the delivery of energy but has also a key role in the formation of structure and texture of food. Starch is widely applied as thickener in soups, sauces, etc. Nowadays there is a lot of debate about the role of food on human health. Concerns were raised with the respect to the role of starch as an energy supplier. Starch can be a source of so-called “fast” carbohydrates. This causes a fast increase in blood glucose levels after eating food, which is more and more pointed by nutritionists to be associated with negative effects (i.e., diabetes II, obesity). There are also concerns about the relatively low intake of dietary fibers (<26 g per day), which are known to have good properties related to health and diseases. The Health Council of the Netherlands recommends eating 32–45 g of dietary fibers per day. These health-related issues prompted the food industry to develop new foods that consist of health-promoting ingredients such as starches with slow digestion properties or high dietary fiber content. In both causes, substituting “fast” starch by “slow” starch or introducing more dietary fibers will have a considerable impact on the production of the food product (water uptake, swelling) and the structure, texture and sensory of the food product (viscosity, stability, etc.). In this paper I like to discuss the latest developments in this field.