Wheat starch is low in protein, ash, and fiber and contains no residual sulfites. Approximately 6% of world wheat production is utilized for wet processing into starch and gluten.
Wheat starch is formed out of carbon dioxide and water by the process of photosynthesis and is deposited in plant cells as macroscopic particles of varying size and conformation.
The starch is generally not the main grain constituent of interest to the manufacturer but is rather of secondary importance after the wheat gluten.
While considered a pure carbohydrate, wheat starch contains minor components in the interior and exterior of the granules. Starch is the polymer of D-glucose, most of the hexose units being joined together by alpha-(1-4) bonds.
They are varying properties of amylose and amylopectin, the former being virtually a straight chain, but with a few branch points, while the latter contains numerous side chains attached by 4 to 5% alpha-(1-6)-D-glucosidic linkages.
The starch granules grow in the developing endosperm as single entities in amyloplasts. In wheat starch, they have a bimodal size distribution, with about 3 to 4 % being lenticular and 15 to 40 microns in size and the remainder being small, approximately spherical, granules ranging in size from about 1 to 10 microns.
Wheat starch pastes in foods have traditionally been known to provide a ‘melt-in-your-mouth’ sensation.
A fruit filling made from hydroxypropylated phosphate cross-linked wheat starch had a short, smooth mouthfeel with quick release from the palate.
Starches in wheat
