Barley starch modifications: Physical, chemical and enzymatic - A review

Starch is well known for its low cost, biodegradability, renewability and easy availability. Starches in their natural form have some undesirable characteristics that make them unsuitable for most applications and, therefore, they are subjected to various modifications to increase their positive characteristics and/or to decrease their defects. Modification is the process of changing the properties characteristic for native starch with the use of physical (thermal and non-thermal), chemical, or enzymatic methods. Modified starches display improved paste clarity, paste and gel texture, film formation and adhesiveness as well as decreased retrogradation, gelling tendencies of pastes, gel syneresis. This review summarizes the various methods of barley starch modification that can be employed to produce a novel molecule with substantial applications in various food and non-food industries.