Early selection of clones is science's proposal to produce cassava with waxy starch on a large scale in Brazil

Studies by Embrapa and partners developed three methodologies for early selection of cassava clones with waxy (or waxy) starch. These works are part of the Company's efforts to obtain a variety of cassava with this special type of starch that can be produced on a large scale in Brazil. Cassava starch is basically composed of two types of polysaccharides: amylose and amylopectin. Commercial varieties typically have between 19% and 27% amylose in their starch composition. Waxy starch has a maximum of 5% amylose, a characteristic of great interest mainly to the food industry, due to the lower starch retrogradation (loss of water after cooling the finished product). Thus, waxy cassava should bring benefits associated with better quality and shelf life of products derived from the industrialization of refrigerated and frozen foods that have waxy starch in their composition. These works, recently published in international journals, arose from the need to accelerate the process of ...