Starch and Food Processing: Structure, Functionality and Nutrition: 2nd Edition

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Grain".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2025) | Viewed by 1210

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
College of Food Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, China
Interests: interaction between starch and other components during processing; starch structure and functionality; starch digestion/fermentation; resistant starch; healthy starchy foods development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
Interests: carbohydrate polymers; dietary fiber; functional food
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Volume I of this Special Issue (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/foods/special_issues/D7204B1H79) was a great success and gained the attention and interest of many scholars. I take the opportunity here to thank them for their contributions and support. As the topic continues to gain the attention of scholars and play a pivotal role, we are looking forward to the launch of Volume II. I hope it will be as successful as Volume I and of benefit to the field.

Starch is present as a macro-constituent in foods, and its properties are of interest to the food industry and for human nutrition. In recent years, the health-conscious consumer market has shifted to sustainable and natural foods due to the prioritization of health, wellness, and social and environmental awareness, and hence a greater understanding is required of how processing alters the functionality of starch. Variations in processing techniques and settings generally induce significant differences in the multi-scale structure of starch and the interactions among starch and other major food constituents, subsequently leading to a distinct rate and extent of digestion/fermentation in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and health effects. Hence, being able to predict starch’s functionality using knowledge of its structure and explaining how starch interacts with other major food constituents during food processing is a significant subject in food science, nutrition and the food industry. The research outcomes will contribute to optimizing and developing innovative processing techniques to facilitate the design and production of starch-based food products with enhanced nutritional values.

We are pleased to invite you to submit articles addressing recent advances and trends in food processing and their impact on the control of starch functionality, its digestion and fermentation in the GIT, and the quality of starchy foods. We will especially welcome articles with a particular focus on the mechanisms underlying the structural changes in starch during processing, and the design rules, modifications, methodologies and technologies that are employed to enhance the quality and nutrition of starch, thus supporting the design and production of high-quality and nutritious starchy foods.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome and research areas may include, but are not limited to:

  • The evaluation of nutritional properties of starch/starchy foods in terms of digestion and fermentation using in vitro, in vivo and in silico models;
  • Mechanisms underlying the structural changes in starch and its interaction with other major food components (lipids, proteins, bioactive compounds, etc.) during processing;
  • Processing-induced structural changes and their impact on starch functionality, digestion, fermentation and the quality of starchy foods;
  • Biochemical mechanisms associated with the digestion and fermentation of starch in the human GIT.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Chen Chao
Prof. Dr. Haiteng Li
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • starch processing control
  • structure/function relationship and design
  • digestion fermentation
  • gastrointestinal models
  • starchy foods
  • quality and nutrition

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

11 pages, 1809 KiB  
Article
Impact of Cooking on Starch Digestibility in Foxtail Millets
by Xiaojiao Cheng, Yujue Wang, Simeng Li, Shiqing Huang and Shujun Wang
Foods 2024, 13(24), 3983; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13243983 - 10 Dec 2024
Viewed by 909
Abstract
While the digestibility of millet starch has been studied considerably, the effects of cooking on starch digestibility in millet remain insufficiently understood. This study investigated the effects of cooking on in vitro enzymatic starch digestion in eight cooked millet flour cultivars by seeking [...] Read more.
While the digestibility of millet starch has been studied considerably, the effects of cooking on starch digestibility in millet remain insufficiently understood. This study investigated the effects of cooking on in vitro enzymatic starch digestion in eight cooked millet flour cultivars by seeking its correlations with the changes in composition (moisture, total starch, protein, lipids, total dietary fiber, and phenolics), structure, and physicochemical properties. Compared to raw flours, cooked flours had a similar content of total starch and protein, a lower content of moisture, lipids, and total phenolic content, and a higher content of total dietary fiber. Cooking disrupted starch granules and crystalline structures in all eight millets, promoting the formation of starch–lipid complexes and reducing the paste viscosity (except for CS07). The in vitro starch digestion of eight millet flours were lower than that of rice flour. Correlation analysis results revealed that in vitro starch digestibility in cooked millet flours was related to the amounts of starch–lipid complexes and the total dietary fiber content. These findings demonstrated that interactions between starch and other components during cooking are the key determinants for the digestion of starch in cooked foods. Full article
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