A Hypothesis for the Morphological Changes which Occur on Heating Lenticular Wheat Starch in Water

A model for the changes in shape of lenticular wheat starch granules during gelatinization and subsequent swelling is proposed. This suggests that swelling occurs, essentially, in the plane of the two major axes only. The swelling is a two stage process; radial expansion to form a flattened disc, followed by tangential expansion to produce a complex puckered granule. The model, based on microscopic observations using a range of techniques, is in agreement with the current views on the structure and biosynthesis of the starch granule, and can be related to the structure of granules extracted from a variety of processed food products.