A E Staley Manufacturing Company

William S Huebner

Hsiung Cheng

An ingredient for enhancing the texture and organoleptic properties of tapioca-style pudding. Granular starch is pre-extruded under controlled conditions to obtain partially gelatinized spheroidal starch particles for use in tapioca-style puddings. The spheroidal starch particles (or 'pearls') retain their spheroidal shape in the finished pudding, thereby providing excellent texture, appearance and mouthfeel to the pudding. The starch pearls, after cooking, consistently provide the highly desired translucent appearance expected in home cooked, tapioca-style puddings. The extrusion process is cooled by water at a temperature below 100.degree. F. at an extrusion rate which only partially gelatinizes the starch. The granular starch is supplied to the extruder at 25-50% moisture, and the extrudates are cut into particles suitable for a particular use by a cutting means as the extrudates emerge from the extruder die orifices. The particles are then dried, as by oven drying, to less than about 12% moisture, dry solids basis. The drying temperature should be kept low enough to avoid additional gelatinization of the partially gelatinized starch particles. Particularly suitable starch particles for use in automated canning process have been found to be gelatinized to a level of about 45-70% by weight, dry solids basis.

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Decatur, IL, United States of America

William S Huebner