Physicochemical and structural properties of pregelatinized starch prepared by improved extrusion cooking technology

Pregelatinized starch was made from indica rice starch using a so-called “improved extrusion cooking technology” (IECT) under 30%-70% moisture content. IECT-pregelatinized starch (IPS) had higher water solubility and water absorbability compared to native starch at low temperature. For pasting properties, the breakdown and setback viscosities of IPS were significantly (p < 0.05) lower than native starch, suggesting improved gel stability and reduced short-term retrogradation. The rice starch granules lost their integrity in IPS, and formed a honeycomb-like structure with increased moisture content in the raw material. These properties can be explained in terms of molecular structural features, particularly the large reduction in the size of molecules, but without significant changes in the chain-length distributions of amylopectin component, and no significant change in amylose fraction. These results indicate that IECT is suitable for preparing IPS with desirable water solubility and gel stability properties.