Wheat starch production, structure, functionality and applications—a review

Summary Starch is the main component of wheat having a number of food and industrial applications. Thousands of cultivars/varieties of different wheat types and species differing in starch functionality (thermal, retrogradation, pasting and nutritional properties) are grown throughout the world. These properties are related to starch composition, morphology and structure, which vary with genetics, agronomic and environmental conditions. Starches from soft wheat contain high amounts of surface lipids and proteins and exhibit lower paste viscosity, whereas that from hard cultivars contain high proportion of small granules and amylose content but lower gelatinization temperature and enthalpy. Waxy starches exhibit higher‐percentage crystallinity, gelatinization temperatures, swelling power, paste viscosities and digestibility, but lower‐setback viscosity, rate of retrogradation and levels of starch lipids and proteins than normal and high‐amylose starches. Starches with high levels of lipids are less susceptible towards gelatinization, swelling and retrogradation and are good source of resistant starch, while that with high proportion of long amylopectin chains are more crystalline, gelatinize at high temperatures, increase paste viscosity, retrograde to a greater extent and decrease starch digestibility (high resistant and slowly digestible starch and low rapidly digestible starch).