Converting native starches to dietary fibre that can be added to food to make it healthier
Researchers at RMIT University, Australia have worked with Microtec Engineering Group, a technology-based engineering company that supplies starch processing equipment, to develop a starch-based product, called FiberX, which resists digestion in the human gut, just like fibre.
Not only is FiberX smooth and tasteless, but it’s also suitable for fortifying low-calorie and low-GI foods and can be gluten free, or for adding to low-fibre foods such as white bread, cakes, pasta, pizza and sauces to make them healthier.
The team has used advanced starch modification technology with approved food grade materials to create what they describe as ‘invisible fibre’. With the help of Microtec, FiberX technology is now ready for the food industry to take up and use for large-scale production of dietary fibre.
Microtec and RMIT’s Food Research and Innovation Centre have also partnered with Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre to stop starch and fibre-rich by-products of plant protein production from going to waste.
Australia currently produces 5,000 tonnes of pulse protein a year, which generates 30,000 tonnes of waste.
According to the research team at RMIT, by processing this waste into dry pulse starch, FiberX technology can convert the starch to fibre on a large scale.
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