Thursday 8 December 2011

Nutritional Facts about Potato Starch


Potato is a root tuber that contains leucoplasts inside its cells. These leucoplasts are nothing but grains of starch. When the potatoes are mashed, the grains of starch are released and are extracted to obtain potato starch. Potato starch is available in the form of a white powder that has moderately large grains that are spherical in shape. Sometimes, it can be found in liquid form as well. Potato starch is rich in carbohydrates and contains very little amounts of fat or proteins. Phosphorous is one of the major mineral constituents of potato starch.

For the manufacture of potato starch, potatoes with high starch content are selected. Potato starch is used as a thickening agent and is added to food products for increasing the viscosity. It is a good substitute for other thickeners such as wheat flour as it is gluten free. Potato starch is also used in the manufacturing of potato bread. Not only this, it is also used in the manufacturing of certain environment friendly products.

Potato Starch Nutrition Facts

Potato starch is widely used in the preparation of noodles, potato fries, soups, hot dog, sauces, bakery products, etc. Not only this, the uses of potato starch extend beyond the kitchen as well! It is used in manufacturing adhesives used in textile and paper industries. An interesting erstwhile use of potato starch was in the photography development process pioneered by the Lumiere brothers. So, now that we are aware of the many uses of potato starch, let us try to understand how beneficial this really is and for that we need to know about the nutritional value of potato starch.

If we try to analyze the nutritional value of potato starch, then we find that 1 tablespoon of the starch contains approximately 40 calories. As mentioned earlier, potato starch is pure carbohydrate and contains negligible amounts of dietary fibers, fats and proteins. To know more about the nutritional value of potato starch, refer to the table given below

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