Exposure of starch to combined physical treatments based on corona electrical discharges and ionizing radiation. Impact on physicochemical properties

The paper deals with the investigation of the effects of corona electrical discharge (CED) treatment in conjunction with electron beam irradiation (EBI) on starch physicochemical properties. Acidity, paste clarity, gel consistency, apparent and intrinsic viscosities of corn starch subjected to the combined treatments were investigated and compared to the corresponding single treatment. The findings showed that the combined treatments based on CED and EBI, respectively, are able to modify the technological properties of starch, depending on the application sequence of CED, as a consequence of the degradation phenomenon. The degradation rate constant proved clearly that the combined CED/EBI treatment had the greatest efficiency in the changing of starch properties among all studied treatments. Also, this study revealed that the use of CED as a pre-treatment to EBI of starch can reduce the minimum irradiation dose required for certain industrial application by influencing more the sensitivity of starch to radiation.