Japan: Healthier tapioca starch is on the way

Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) in Japan have recently created a healthier form of starch in the cassava plant. Published in the scientific journal Plant Molecular Biology, the study shows how reducing levels of starch branching enzymes (SBEs) in cassava plants changes the composition of tapioca starch, making it more resistant to digestion and healthier for us to eat. Most of the starch we eat comes from cereal crops like rice, corn, and wheat or tuber crops like potato and cassava. Starch contains two molecules—amylose and amylopectin. The difference between them is that amylose is a straight chain of glucose molecules connected end to end, while in amylopectin the chains branch out like a tree. The crops we eat differ in ...