Starch is one of the major polysaccharides employed as biopolymers by the food, textile, and paper industries. Its wide range of applications has resulted in intense research of starch structure and technology. This book covers starch structure, chemistry, and technology. After an overview of new trends in starch applications, modified starches, and enzymes used in the starch industry, the text presents recent advances in the study of starch structures. It also covers biodegradation of starch blends, starch nano-composites, and polymer biodegradability. It provides up-to-date methods of starch characterization, including the use of atomic force microscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance.

Andrea Curiacos Bertolini is involved in scientific research on starch and biopolymers. She has a PhD in food science from the Universite de Nantes in France, where she worked with a concentration on starch chemistry at the Institute Nationale de Recherche Agronomique (INRA) in partnership with the Centre de Cooperation Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Developpement (CIRAD). As an invited researcher, she worked at the Fonterra Research Centre in New Zealand and at the University of Idaho in the United States on Modified Starches and Starch Rheology. At present she is a food scientist at the Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria (EMBRAPA-Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, Brazil). Her interests include biopolymers with an emphasis on starch characterization, modified starches, and starch as an ingredient in food and nonfood products.

Trends in Starch Applications. Characterization of Starch Granules: An Atomic Force Microscopy Approach. Starch Macromolecular Structure. Solid-State NMR Applied to Starch Evaluation. Thermal Transitions of Starches. Starch-Based Plastics. Trends in Microbial Amylases. Modified Starch: Chemistry and Properties. Starch-Based Nanocomposites. Biodegradation of Starch Blends.