Food-starch granulomatous peritonitis

Two cases of peritoneal granulomatous reactions to food starch are described. They followed bowel perforation and clinically mimicked tuberculous and glove-powder starch peritonitis. Their histological differences from corn-starch peritonitis warrant attention in the absence of previous documentation of starch as a component of peritoneal food granulomas. Food-starch granules tend to be larger than those of glove powder, are often oval, and may be extremely resistant to salivary diastase digestion.