Page 39 - Fall2020

Reading Between the Lines

By Merinda Teller

Beware Modified Food Starch—Especially the “Modified” Part

With the dramatic events that have unfolded medication capsules. Modified food starches The goal is to
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in 2020, demand for local food, support for local are also gleefully embraced by the manufactur-
farmers and renewed interest in home gardening ers of lowfat food products, who celebrate the make native
has exploded in many locations. Describing the ability of modified starches to serve as a “fat mi- starch more
boom in “crisis gardening,” one food historian metic”—creating “a fat-like mouthfeel”—and as amenable to
explains, “It’s helpful to be productive and con- fat replacers, acting “directly as fat globules.”
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nect with nature and it’s something that’s within Illustrating the primary aim of this dodgy food industry
our control in a situation that feels entirely out laboratory assault on native starch molecules, applications.
of control.” 1 the corporate behemoth Cargill emphasizes that
Unfortunately, while some segments “Cargill’s portfolio of modified food starch has
of the population have been able to up their been developed to fulfill the needs of the food
commitment to growing, raising or procuring industry” —needs for which native starch is,
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unprocessed real foods, unemployment—and from the industry’s perspective, ill-suited. In
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its byproduct, food insecurity—have driven Cargill’s characterization of these “functional
many Americans to food banks or to bargain- benefits,” modified food starches are “hard-
bin shopping at brick-and-mortar or online working ingredients that play an important
conglomerates. The Feeding America network role in food formulation, providing texture,
of food banks reports an average 50 percent in- controlling moisture, stabilizing ingredients
crease in the number of people requesting food and extending shelf life.” What Cargill does not
bank assistance nationwide since March, with disclose is the health havoc that modified food
four in ten recipients having never sought such starches have been wreaking on the unwitting
assistance before. The primary items requested consumers of the products that contain them.
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by food banks are shelf-stable canned goods,
while items requiring refrigeration—foods like MANY PATHS TO
produce, dairy and meat—are expressly on the STARCH MODIFICATION
“do not donate” list. Online sales of canned Modified food starch—typically derived
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goods and other shelf-stable foods have likewise from corn, potato, tapioca, rice or wheat—is cre-
skyrocketed in the Covid-19 era, increasing by ated through the use of techniques to “change,
a whopping 69 percent. 4 strengthen or impair new properties by molecu-
If you were to dissect the “stable” half of lar cleavage, rearrangement or introduction of
the “shelf-stable” equation, one would likely new substituent groups.” The goal is to make
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stumble upon a nondescript ingredient that has native starch more amenable to food industry
become a go-to stabilizer, as well as serving applications; this is accomplished by tampering
as a thickening agent, binder and emulsifier: with properties such as temperature of gelati-
modified food starch. Products likely to con- nization, gel clarity, viscosity, retrogradation
tain modified food starch include canned foods (recrystallization), texture and taste. The result
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(including canned meats); frozen prepared of these alterations allows the food industry to
foods; bakery items (such as breads, cakes and deploy modified starches, for example, “in foods
biscuits); candy; jelly; dairy-based desserts that promote themselves as ‘instant’ and in foods
such as ice creams and puddings; soups; sauces; that might need a certain temperature to thicken
instant foods; powder-coated foods; gravies and (during cooking or freezing). Think of gravy
dressings; beverages such as Gatorade; and even packets, instant puddings and those meals that

FALL 2020 Wise Traditions 37