Cereal Starches Within the European Community – Agricultural Production, Dry and Wet Milling and Potential Use in Industry

Abstract

AbstractThe increasing surplus production of cereals in the EC has greatly stimulated the interest for new outles for cereals. The main part of the 98 million tons of starch produced in cereals in the EC today remains in the grain and is used for food and feed ‐ only a minor part finds application in industry. The total EC production of native starch is only about 4 million of which 1.3 million t is used in non‐food industries. However, there are still numerous not yet fully explored potential applications which will be discussed. A prerequisite for substantial increase in utilization of starch products within the EC is an improvement of the competitiveness towards competing raw materials, mainly petro‐derived. One step towards this goal might be to breed and “industry‐adapted” cereal crop with a high content of starch of a special quality. A study performed by Carlsberg Research Center has shown that starch content is positively correlated with grain yield which is in accordance with the fact that it is “cheaper” for the plant to produce starch than protein or fat. The study also showed that starch content and starch composition can vary widely, not only between species but also within varieties of the same species. Also agronomical and meteorological factors have influence. For instance, it was found that rain (water) applied to leaves will reduce starch content compared to plants given same amount of water to the roots. Also improvements in the processing of grain may increase competitiveness of starch. New dry and wet milling techniques will be discussed.