Starch production

Starch production is an isolation of starch from plant sources. It takes place in starch plants. Starch industry is a part of food processing which is using starch as a starting material for production of starch derivatives, hydrolysates, dextrins.

At first, the raw material for the preparation of the starch was wheat. Currently main starch sources are:

The production of potato starch comprises the steps such as delivery and unloading potatoes, cleaning, rasping of tubers, potato juice separation, starch extraction, starch milk rafination, dewatering of refined starch milk and starch drying.

The potato starch production supply chain varies significantly by region. For example, potato starch in Europe is produced from potatoes grown specifically for this purpose. However, in the US, potatoes are not grown for starch production and manufacturers must source raw material from food processor waste streams. The characteristics of these waste streams can vary significantly and require further processing by the US potato starch manufacturer to ensure the end-product functionality and specifications are acceptable.

Potatoes are delivered to the starch plants via road or rail transport. Unloading of potatoes could be done in two ways:

Coarsely cleaning of potatoes takes place during the transport of potatoes to the scrubber by channel. In addition, before the scrubber, straw and stones separators are installed. The main cleaning is conducted in scrubber (different kinds of high specialized machines are used). The remaining stones, sludge and light wastes are removed at this step. Water used for washing is then purified and recycled back into the process.

Most often the rasping of potato tubers is carried out with a rotary grater. The purpose of this stage is disruption of cell walls, which therefore release the starch. In practice, potato cells are not entirely destroyed and part of the starch remains in the mash. Potato pulp rapidly turns dark, because tyrosine presented in the potato is oxidised by polyphenol oxidase, which is located in the cellular juice. Therefore, cellular juice must be separated as soon as possible.

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Wikipedia