Starch retrogradation is a process in which disaggregated amylose and amylopectin chains in a gelatinized starch paste reassociate to form more ordered structures. Starch retrogradation has been the subject of intensive research over the last 50 years, mainly due to its detrimental effect on the sensory and storage qualities of many starchy foods. However, starch retrogadation is desirable for some starchy food products in terms of textural and nutritional properties. To better understand the effect of starch retrogradation on the quality of starchy foods, measurement methods of starch retrogradation and factors that influence starch retrogradation have been studied extensively. This article provides a comprehensive review of starch retrogradation including the definition of the process, molecular mechanisms of how it occurs, and measurement methods and factors that influence starch retrogradation. The review also discusses the effect of retrogradation on the in vitro enzyme digestibility of starch. Spectroscopic methods such as FTIR and Raman are considered to be very promising in characterizing starch retrogradation at a molecular level, although more studies are needed in the future.
Starch retrogradation is a term used to define the process in which gelatinized starch undergoes a disorder-to-order transition. A thorough understanding of starch retrogradation behavior plays an important role in maintaining the quality of starchy foods during storage. By means of DSC, we have demonstrated for the first time that at low water contents, the enthalpy change of retrograded starch is higher than that of native starch. In terms of FTIR and Raman spectroscopic results, we showed that the molecular order of reheated retrograded starch samples is lower than that of DSC gelatinized starch. These findings have led us to conclude that enthalpy change of retrograded starch at low water contents involves the melting of recrystallized starch during storage and residual starch crystallites after DSC gelatinization, and that the endothermic transition of retrograded starch gels at low water contents does not fully represent the retrogradation behavior of starch. Very low or high water contents do not favor the occurrence of starch retrogradation.
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