Starch Coproducts

Starch Coproducts

Proteins: starch coproducts

The purpose of starch manufacturer is to extract starch from cereals or from potato in its purest form. Among the other components of cereals and potato, all of importance and use, proteins are of particular interest as both nutritional as functional additions for animal feed as well as for human consumption.

Origins and value:

According to the raw materials, proteins have specific qualities and uses.

maize proteins are developed in animal nutrition in 2 forms:

corn proteins purified or maize gluten
with draffs under the form of "corn gluten feed"

wheat gluten (wheat protein purified) is used:

for approximately 20% in animal nutrition and for 80% in human nutrition

proteins of potato are developed in animal nutrition in 2 forms:

purified proteins
pulps enriched in proteins

Wheat gluten and human consumption:

Rehydrated gently, the vital wheat gluten has the capacity to form a continuous extensible and airtight elastic network. It is the only protein with this property: it is said that it is visco-elastic.

If a flour does not contain enough gluten, the bread breaks down, has little volume, and its crumb is irregular. The millers use either wheat, rich in proteins, or directly gluten in order to improve quality of baking of flour.

Always thanks to its properties of visco-elasticity and binding, gluten improves resistance of puff and frozen pastries. It ensures good handling, and also cohesion of meat preparations . Wheat proteins offer high nutritional value , and can be used either as a basic ingredient, or combined with other vegetable proteins. A pure and concentrated source of proteins, they form a perfect substrate for hydrolysis in the preparation of soya sauces and vegetable protein hydrolysates.

90% of gluten is used in applications which traditionally employed wheat flour.

Proteins and animal nutrition:

The proteins resulting from the starch industry are purified and standardised proteins. They are vegetable proteins with each one having particular characteristics. Thus they have an interest, in addition to nutritional, for particular applications within animal nutrition.

Thanks to their very good nutritional balance resulting from an excellent distribution of the amino acids, potato proteins are part of the composition of high added value food, intended for calves ( milk substitute), or for piglets.

Specific richness of maize proteins in yellow pigments makes them highly interesting in certain food products (influence on the colour of eggs). They are used also more and more in dry food for dogs and cats. Wheat gluten is used on one hand for its nutritional properties (higher digestibility) and on the other hand as a binder, for the cohesion which it gives particularly in aquiculture feed or in meat analogues for pets food. Hydrolysed protein is used as the first choice source of protein in food for calves and piglets.