National Starch: Finding The Secret To Success

Having spent nearly 70 years in the mainstream food business, National Starch, Bridgewater, NJ, has finally found the secret to success—pleasing everyone. In this day and age consumers are looking for more health benefits from the foods they eat and drink than ever before. National Starch is poised to offer all of those attributes and more with its line of resistant starches, making it a formidable competitor in the nutraceuticals arena.

In the beginning, according to Rhonda Witwer, business development manager—Nutrition, National Starch spent a lot of time developing modified food starches, eventually moving on to functional native starches and finally to resistant starches. With its Novation® line, the goal was to be able to offer companies cleaner labels, while still being able to offer them functionality. Taking this one step further, the company now offers resistant starches that not only improve the physical characteristics of food products but also offer health benefits as well.

Most starches are digested and absorbed into the body through the small intestine, but some resist digestion and pass through to the large intestine where they act like dietary fiber and improve digestive health. This type of starch, resistant starch, is usually lost in food processing but National Starch’s products are process tolerant, which allows processed food manufacturers to reap the health benefits of resistant starch and the benefits of a technically functional carbohydrate.

The main players in the resistant starch line-up at National Starch include Novelose® and Hi-maize™, which is the most recent addition having been acquired by the company in November last year from Penford Australia Ltd.

The health benefits for both Novelose and Hi-maize range from lowering glycemic response to maintaining digestive health to enhancing mineral absorption. These starches also contain 25%, 30%, 40% and 60% dietary fiber, and with the new dietary reference intakes (DRIs) being issued last September, National Starch seems to be at the right place at the right time to take advantage of the dietary fiber trend.

In addition to this, Ms. Witwer also noted resistant starch’s ability to function as a prebiotic. “It is fermented like fiber, behaves like fiber and we have published studies showing increases in Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus,” she said. “We also have data showing a reduction in E. coli and salmonella as well as other harmful pathogens.” These qualities, according to Ms. Witwer, also have serious implications in the maintenance of gut integrity and in turn a possible reduced risk of cancer.

Looking toward the future, National Starch also aims to be actively involved in the discussion of carbohydrates and their impact on health. The company positions its starches as slowly digested carbohydrates, which do not cause the spike in insulin levels typical of rapidly digested carbohydrates, such as those found in white flour. It is important, according to Ms. Witwer, “that consumers understand that not all carbohydrates are the same.” And while there has been a lot of work done on protein and fat, she said, the work on carbohydrates is just beginning.

These attributes, along with over 25 published studies on Novelose and Hi-maize, are what Ms. Witwer hopes will convince key influencers and eventually consumers as to the overall value of resistant starch. National Starch is well prepared for this educational effort as there are over 300 studies attesting to the nutritional properties of resistant starch as well as 40 human clinical trials, which have been conducted on the benefits of high amylose cornstarch from which Novelose is derived.

In other news, the company’s newly designed and highly informational website, www.carbohydratenutrition.com, was recently re-launched to get the word out about carbohydrates, their benefits and applications. Ms. Witwer feels the website will be a good resource for people looking to learn more about how carbohydrates impact health and wellness.

For the future Ms. Witwer said, “I think we are on the cusp of people really understanding and being able to manage conditions with food. There is a lot of research going on right now, especially in the area of carbohydrates, which, I think, will be a main topic of conversation for the next 20 years.”—R.M.W.

National Starch
10 Finderne Avenue
Bridgewater, NJ 08807
Telephone: 908-685-2742
Fax: 908-685-7474
E-mail: rhonda.witwer@nstarch.com
Website: www.carbohydrate
nutrition.com