Starch-Based Materials: Principles and Applications

Starch-Based Materials: Principles and Applications explores the cutting-edge research and development of starches as biodegradable, renewable biomaterials addressing urgent environmental concerns associated with non-biodegradable polymers. This comprehensive volume delves into the structural characteristics of starches, recent advances in their physical, chemical, and enzymatic modifications, and emerging technologies that expand their use beyond traditional food applications. It highlights innovative approaches to enhance nutritional value and health benefits, including the design of gluten-free products and specialized foods, while also covering industrial uses such as hydrogels and controlled release systems.

Despite extensive prior research on starch packaging and non-food uses, there is a significant gap in current literature regarding modern starch modifications and their multifunctional applications across food, pharmaceutical, medical, and biomaterial fields. This book addresses this gap by providing a timely, authoritative summary of recent scientific findings, aiming to stimulate innovation and sustainable development in starch utilization. It is an essential reference, particularly in courses related to food chemistry, food analysis, nutrition, packaging, pharmaceutical applications, and specialized medical fields such as controlled release technologies.

• Summarizes the most updated research findings on important starch-based materials in food science and engineering
• Studies the principles of chemistry for high quality processing and utilization of starch
• Provides tangible applications of starches in the fields of food, pharmaceuticals, and biopolymers

Dr. Miao developed an interest in modified starch studies in 2006 and received his Ph.D. in Food Science from Jiangnan University in June 2009. During 2013-2014, he joined Dr. Bruce Hamaker's group of Purdue University as a visiting scholar. He published over 100 research papers and book chapters in high-impact journals such as Carbohydrate Polymers, Food Chemistry, JAFC etc. and had 39 patents. In addition, he has edited 2 Chinese books including “Functional modified starch”, “Non-chemical modification of starch” and translated 1 book of Ann-Charlotte Eliasson’s “Starch in food: structure, function and applications” into Chinese. He also won prestigious awards, such as the Science & Technology Award of China Light Industry Council, the Science & Technology Award of Hebei Province, the Natural Science Award of Ministry of Education etc. One of his many notable achievements in the field of starch-based materials is the first ever industry-scale production of biodegradable food packaging products in 2012 based on his innovative findings. Through long-time efforts, he has successfully developed green processes for the production of many novel starch derivatives, including slowly digestible/resistant starch, starch-based delivery systems, and transferred the technologies to food enterprises for industrialization. Dr. Miao has actively engaged in international scientific collaboration in food science and technology.

Professor Osvaldo H. Campanella has specialized in Food Engineering. On completion of his PhD, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow specializing in characterization of food powders. In 1990, Professor Campanella was appointed in the Department of Food Technology, Massey University, New Zealand as a Lecturer and was promoted to Senior Lecturer. He moved to Purdue University in 1999 where he continued working on areas of Rheology, Food Engineering and Food Processing. He is also actively involved in research related to new methods to characterize the formation of complex compounds using novel acoustic/ultrasound techniques. Since his appointment at Purdue, Professor Campanella has been associated with the Whistler Carbohydrate Research Center where he has researched methods to characterize starch and other biomaterials. Professor Campanella has published more than 150 peer reviewed scientific articles related to rheology, food engineering, extrusion, thermal processing and physicochemical characterization of biomaterials. In 2007 he was named Purdue University Scholar, a distinction given to faculties that have shown excellence in research and teaching. Professor Campanella has been awarded twice (2008 and 2010) as one the faculties to receive grants for more than one million dollars. He holds several patents related to the processing and functionality of dietary fibres and other biomaterials