Use of Iodine as a Tool to Understand Wheat Starch Pasting Properties

The ability of iodine to bind amylose has been used to understand a variety of structural and functional aspects of starch in food systems. In this study, the changes in starch granule swelling, polymer leaching and their relationship to pasting properties was investigated by adding iodine to the starch slurry at either room temperature or 95°C. The objective of the study was to investigate the contribution of leached and solubilized starch polymers on the pasting behavior of wheat starch. The addition of very small amounts of iodine (0.1%, dry basis, db) at room temperature increased peak and final pasting viscosities as compared to when no iodine was added. Further increases in iodine concentration resulted in a decrease in peak and final pasting viscosities. The amount of iodine required to completely inhibit granule swelling was more than that required to minimize amylose leaching from the granule. Adding increasing amounts of iodine at 95°C to the starch slurry resulted in the gradual decrease in peak and final pasting viscosities. The contrasting effects of iodine on paste viscosity behavior when added at room temperature or at 95°C suggest that the contribution of extra‐granular amylose on the setback viscosity is minimal and a larger proportion of amylose is retained in the intragranular spaces.