The amount of consumption of fried foods has been increasing recently. They are popular and often sold at delicatessens and take-out food markets in Japan.1,2) Frying is a very useful processing method, because it brings about many benefi cial changes in foods due to the gelatinization of starch, denaturation and coagulation of protein, development of characteristic aromas and browning, as well as textural changes due to dehydration.3) The textural changes, in particular the crispness of the fried coatings that appear after vaporization of water at a high temperature are extremely important because they strongly infl uence the quality of fried foods. However, triggered by a migration of water from internal food material, the fried coatings progressively lose crispness and retrogradation of starch, resulting in a deteriorated quality of fried foods and a shortening of their shelf life. It is therefore very desirable to control the vaporization and mobility of water in order to maintain crispness, and to control retrogradation of starch in the fried coatings in an appropriate manner.In order to improve crispness of the fried coatings, such acid-treated starch, heat-moisture-treated starch, crosslinked and gelatinized starch, powdered silicon dioxide and isolated soybean protein have been blended with wheat fl our. 4 6) However, no satisfactory improvement in crispness could be achieved with these methods because they could not prevent the crispness of the fried coatings being progressively lost due to migration of water from internal food material.We previously demonstrated that compounding with charged amino acids by autoclaving a starch and amino acid mixture with a limited water content was an effective method to achieve a marked rise in the gelatinization temperature, large reductions in viscosity of starch paste and swelling of starch granule, and provide an improved paste with less residual moisture resulting from easy vaporization of the external water of the swollen starch granules. 7,8) This suggests that compounding with a charged amino acid could contribute to providing a basis for controlling the vaporization of water from starchy batter during frying in hot oil. However, in order to achieve improved crispness of fried coatings, it is necessary to clarify the contributive effect of the charged amino acid-compounding on the water vaporization and retrogradation of starch behavior of the fried coatings.In this study, monosodium glutamate (GluNa), a commonly used amino acid in many foods, was used to prepare GluNa-compounded starch as a charged amino acid and to clarify that GluNa-compounded starch could achieve improved crispness and retrogradation of fried coatings from wheat batter in terms of a more weakened morphological structure, reduced moisture, raised mobility of water, reduced retrogradation, improved breaking property and enhanced broken sound. Abstract: A mono sodium glutamate (GluNa)-compounded starch prepared by autoclaving a mixture of tapioca starch and GluNa under limited water content...