High amylose pasta, more than an ideotype

While much innovation in recent years has come from whole grain or pulses, certain wheat varieties now offer specific benefits, too. Although high-amylose starches are not a recent innovation, their popularity has increased in recent years due to their unique functional properties and improved nutritional value in food applications. While high-amylose maize, barley, and potato are commercially available, highamylose varieties of other major crops such as wheat have also been developed more recently and will be available commercially soon. The commercialization of high amylose wheat semolina will certainly open a new area of food formulations with increased resistant starch (RS) and fiber. This is because distinctive structural features of highamylose wheat means that they are not fully broken down in the small intestine, whereas regular starches are more rapidly digested. High-amylose wheat therefore provokes a lower glycemic response compared to normal starches. Resistant starch is therefore also considered as dietary fiber. Most diets still have low amounts of dietary fiber and people are struggling to meet the recommended daily intake of dietary fiber from our diet. This is mainly due to excessive consumption of processed food sas well as the lack of availability of an adequate source of high fiber ingredients.

Health claim

The EU has authorized the following health claim for resistant starch: “Replacing digestible starches with resistant starch in a meal contributes to a reduction in the blood glucose rise after that meal”. The claim was authorized by Regulation (EU) 432/2012 (2012) following a positive opinion from EFSA in 2011. The claim may be used only for food in which digestible starch has been replaced by resistant starch so that the final content of resistant starch is at least 14% of total starch. Achieving 14% RS as of total starch is possible, pasta made from 100% high-amylose durum wheat reaches these values.

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