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The promise and challenge of resistant starch

Resistant starch is important for digestive health, but it is much less well known among consumers than other gut health ingredients, such as soluble and insoluble fibre or probiotics. Is resistant starch on the brink of broader acceptance?

Resistant starch is an important component of dietary fibre that cannot be digested in the small intestine, and is thought to promote digestive health by conversion into short chain fatty acids, which prevent the formation of harmful compounds in the gut and improve the flow of nutrients. It carries an approved EU health claim for its role in reducing blood glucose spikes after a meal, and occurs naturally in foods like bananas, potatoes, grains, pulses and seeds. Research suggests it also helps improve satiety, and could even help prevent type 2 diabetes and counteract the link between high red meat intake and colorectal cancer.

With such impressive health benefits, resistant starch seems an obvious choice for manufacturers looking to improve the health profile of their products. However, the desire for simple, clean label ingredients may have restricted its appeal so far.

Suppliers include Ingredion, Cargill, Roquette and MGP Ingredients, which each produce resistant starch ingredients from various sources including corn, potato, tapioca and modified wheat, but consumer understanding of their benefits is lacking. However, as interest in digestive health continues to heat up, the time may be ripe for manufacturers to promote the prebiotic effects of resistant starch for gut health.

IAG is another resistant starch supplier, which has taken a different approach, playing up the clean label credentials of its resistant starch ingredient made from green bananas. Listed as ‘banana flour’ on-pack, it arguably sounds more appealing to consumers than ‘modified tapioca starch’ or ‘modified corn starch’.

When it comes to other clean label options, US-based Arcadia Biosciences has developed a wheat variety that contains 94% amylose – a type of resistant starch – whereas ordinary wheat contains just 25-30% amylose. The company says its wheat varieties could help answer demand for more natural, clean label packaged foods with the health benefits of resistant starch. For food manufacturers, resistant starch that is present in the grain itself means no need to add fibre to their products in order to make a fibre claim - helping meet consumer demand for shorter ingredient lists, as well as interest in high-fibre foods. What is more, the wheat is not considered to be genetically modified in the European Union, and the company plans to introduce it in the EU after its availability is expanded in the US market.

Recommendations for dietary fibre vary globally and depend on calorie intake, but the average is about 30 grams per day. Most people in developed countries do not consume enough. For food manufacturers in Europe, a product can be marketed as high in fibre if it contains at least six grams of fibre per 100 grams.