A Review on the Role of Vibrational Spectroscopy as An Analytical Method to Measure Starch Biochemical and Biophysical Properties in Cereals and Starchy Foods

D Cozzolino,S Degner,J Eglinton

doi:10.3390/foods3040605

Abstract

Starch is the major component of cereal grains and starchy foods, and changes in its biophysical and biochemical properties (e.g., amylose, amylopectin, pasting, gelatinization, viscosity) will have a direct effect on its end use properties (e.g., bread, malt, polymers). The use of rapid and non-destructive methods to study and monitor starch properties, such as gelatinization, retrogradation, water absorption in cereals and starchy foods, is of great interest in order to improve and assess their quality. In recent years, near infrared reflectance (NIR) and mid infrared (MIR) spectroscopy have been explored to predict several quality parameters, such as those generated by instrumental methods commonly used in routine analysis like the rapid visco analyser (RVA) or viscometers. In this review, applications of both NIR and MIR spectroscopy to measure and monitor starch biochemical (amylose, amylopectin, starch) and biophysical properties (e.g., pasting properties) will be presented and discussed.

Highlights

The starch stored in the seeds and tubers of various agricultural crops including maize, wheat, rice, barley, potato and cassava provides the main source of energy in the human diet [1,2,3,4]
The results reported by the authors showed that near infrared reflectance (NIR) analysis was sufficiently accurate and effective for rapid evaluation of starch physicochemical properties in sweet potato
These results showed that ATR-mid infrared (MIR) spectroscopy is capable of characterising gel samples derived from barley flour samples having different malting characteristics

Summary

Introduction

The starch stored in the seeds and tubers of various agricultural crops including maize, wheat, rice, barley, potato and cassava provides the main source of energy in the human diet [1,2,3,4]. Overall knowledge of the pasting properties of the sample can help to improve starch content in cereals and starchy foods as well as will allow understanding the biophysical and structural properties of the starch to be used in foods (e.g., bread, beer, whisky) and in industrial applications (e.g., polymer production) [13] This can provide with useful information about the specific application of the starch in the selection or screening of new genotypes or lines in breeding programs [6,14]. During the last 20 years, methods based on vibrational spectroscopy in combination with chemometric techniques have resulted in the development of rapid methods to predict and monitor starch biochemical and biophysical properties [8,9,10,11] Desirable characteristics of these tools include speed, ease-of-use, minimal or no sample preparation, and in some case the avoidance of sample destruction. Applications of both NIR and MIR spectroscopy to measure and monitor starch biochemical composition (e.g., amylose, amylopectin and starch) and biophysical properties (e.g., pasting properties, viscosity) will be presented and discussed

Applications of NIR and MIR Spectroscopy

Method and wavelength range

Monitoring of Starch Gelatinization and Processing

Findings

Conclusions