Technique manages to produce cassava with special starch in Brazil

Waxy or waxy starch is highly desired by the food industry because it has a maximum of 5% amylose, which determines less water loss after cooling the finished product. Commercial varieties typically have between 19% and 27% amylose in their starch composition. 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 the starch in question in their composition. The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (Ciat), from Colombia, was the first responsible for identifying the waxy gene. In a partnership with Embrapa, three methodologies are developed for the early selection of cassava clones with waxy starch. These works are part of the effort to obtain a variety of cassava with this special type of starch that can be produced on a large scale in Brazil. These works, recently published in international journals, arose from the need to accelerate the process of ...