Maltodextrins

Description

Maltodextrin (also: maltrin) is produced enzymatically from starch and is offered as spray dried powder. In water, it builds a sticky, bleary and viscous mass. It has traits similar to other dextrins , but has a somewhat different composition of different sugars.

• Maltodextrin improves the foam stability and prevents the building of large ice crystals or the crystallisation of sugars. It also serves as stabiliser, filling agent and storage protector as well as for the prevention of "off" flavours.

Other as with chemically modified starches maltodextrin is considered an ingredient, not an additive.

Application

• as filling agent and as thickening agent in a multitude of products such as: instant soups, cold meats, confectionary and infant foods.
• increasingly as substitute for fat in calorie reduced foods
• widely spread as carrier for sensitive or volatile substances such as flavours, vitamins or spices
• also in: coffee whitener/creamer, beverages for athletes.

Gene technology

Maltodextrins are won from starch. Applications of gene technology are possible with plant starch sources, especially for the production of enzymes that solubilise and modify starch.

• Raw material: maize starch can partly consists of genetically modified maize, especially if they were imported from the USA or Argentina. In der EU, genetically modified maize is grown on a comparativelly small area and nonetheless is not used as raw material for foodstuff. This may change in the case that the cultivation of GM maize increases in significance. Ingredients derived from several types of GM maize are approved in the EU.
• Enzymes solubilise plant starch and metabolise it into compounds that are distinguished as ingredients and additives. Several of these enzymes are produced with help of GM microorganisms such as amylases, glucose-isomerase, pullulanase.

Labelling: starch based ingredients are subject to a labelling requirement, if they are directly produced from GM plants (e.g. maize). Whether this also applies to maltodextrin that results by way of various processing stages of starch, is not yet explicitly clarified.

Enzymes and their manner of production are generally not declared on the list of ingredients.