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This study was a part of a research project aiming to investigate the texture characteristics of protein -starch interaction in fish based product keropok lekor. Accordingly, the current review study focused on some physicochemical (molecular weight, viscosity, chemical composition and swelling power) and thermorheological (gelatinization, retrogradation and viscoelsticity) characteristics of sago starch alone and in mixtures with other ingredients such as sucrose, salts and hydroclloids. The inferred outcome of this extensive survey revealed that the gelatinisation temperature for sago-water mixture ranged from 69.4-70.1°C which was low compared to sweet potato, tania and yam starches. The role of using hydrocolloids in starch-based foods was to control the rheological properties as well as modifying the texture of the products, enhaning or modifying the gelatinization and retrogradation behaviour and improving water-holding capacity of the system. In the presence of sucrose or sodium chloride, the gelatinisation temperatures of sago starch shifted to higher temperatures and its enthalpy decreased. The addition of salts caused an elevation or depression of gelatinization temperature and gelatinization enthalpy, depending on their types and concentrations used. However, sodium chloride appeared to exhibit a maximum inhibitory effect on starch gelatinisation at a concentration of 6-9%.

Algerian montmorillonite treated with sodium chloride was used as a substitute for the builders sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) and sodium sulfate in a detergent powder. The following performance parameters of the substituted composition powder were examined: pH, foaming, cleaning, sequestering, and ion exchange capacities. The latter factors remained the most important ones for effective detergency. Despite anticipated improvement in hard water ion removal, constant detergency results were observed with the treated montmorillonite-containing powder. This level of efficacy does not meet the cost-effectiveness of a standard detergent powder containing STPP.Synthetic detergent formulators have made tremendous inroads since the discovery of the surfactant sodium alkyl naphthalene sulfonate, the well-known German Nekal. The latter was actually the result of the embargo imposed on Germany during World War I (1,2). That synthetic detergent owed its low detergency to its short alkyl group, namely n-propyl and n-butyl. In contrast, the sodium salt of propylene tetramer benzene sulfonate, the American detergent developed in 1920, exhibited better detergency because of its longer alkyl group (C 12 ). Since 1965, linear dodecyl benzene sulfonate has been substituted for the branched version because of its relatively better biodegradation properties.Despite these advances in surfactant technology, overall detergency of a formulation has remained highly dependent on the added builders in detergent powders. Among these additives, sodium tripolyphosphate (Na 3 P 3 O 9 : STPP), introduced in 1947, and sodium sulfate (Na 2 SO 4 , used mainly as filler) have been indispensable for providing good cleaning performance, especially in hard water. Water always contains hardness, usually measured as the concentrations of Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ . Moreover, the heavy metallic ions present in water, such as Fe 2+ , Cu 2+ , Ni 2+ , and Mn 2+ , are potential catalysts for the decomposition of the perborates that are incorporated as bleaching agents in a detergent formulation. STPP is extremely effective in sequestering these metal ions and improving cleaning performance.Although it is renowned for its sequestering, solubilizing, dispersing, peptizing, and emulsifying capacities, as well as for its alkalinizing and electrolytic properties, STPP can adversely affect the environment because of eutrophication (1,2), a phenomenon linked to its limited biodegradability (1). Potential substitutes for STPP, such as nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA), ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) and zeolites, have other negative issues. For example, zeolites are less alkaline than STPP and therefore require the use of other builders such as the costly sodium citrate to compensate (3). In addition, NTA has proved to be quite toxic when contaminated with heavy metals in drinking water, and EDTA has poor biodegradability characteristics.This paper presents experimental results on the partial substitution of both STPP and sodium sulfate by NaCl-treated Algerian montmorillo...