New ICUMSA Method to Determine Total, Soluble, and Insoluble Starch in Raw Sugars.

In recent years, it has been unequivocally shown that sugarcane starch all three physical starch forms, i.e., soluble, swollen (larger insoluble starch), and insoluble starch, can persist raw and refined sugars and sometimes in large quantities. All three forms starch have also been shown to detrimentally impede refinery processes. Because of the new starch knowledge, it became imperative that an industrial method was developed to measure both insoluble and insoluble starch in cane products. The current official ICUMSA (International Commission for Uniform Methods in Sugar Analysis) GS1-16 and GS1-17 starch methods measure only total starch but still remain useful for the trade of raw sugars. The new industrial method to measure total, insoluble, and soluble starch is based on microwave-assisted neutralization chemistry and does not require any expensive equipment. It is corrected for color, utilizes a corn starch standard (corn starch is more similar to sugarcane than potato starch since both are grass crops), and has been validated for use in raw sugars after being subjected to a single laboratory validation study following ICUMSA guidelines. It was accepted as an ICUMSA GS7 (2024) Tentative Method "Total, Soluble, and Insoluble Starch in Cane Raw Sugars by Microwave- Assisted Neutralisation," at the 33rd Session of ICUMSA held in Austria in 2023, following acceptable single laboratory validation results. It will next be subjected to an inter-laboratory analysis test. Additionally, there has been strong interest from the international sugar industry for this method. For example, ASR (American Sugar Refiners), an international refining group, are currently investigating the method in their Research and Technology Laboratory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]