Effect of water content of high-amylose corn starch and glutinous rice starch combined with lipids on formation of starch-lipid complexes during deep-fat frying.

Moisture affects the combination of starch granules and fatty acids in deep-fat frying. In this study, high-amylose corn starch (HACS) and glutinous rice starch (GRS) with various water contents were fried in rapeseed oil at 170 °C for 7 min. The complex index (CI) of the GRS-lipid and HACS-lipid complexes improved as the moisture content increased from 6% to 40%; however, further increasing the water content from 40% to 60% led to a decrease in the CI. At a moisture content of 40%, the CI of the HACS-lipid complexes was higher than that of the GRS-lipid complexes. Fatty acid content analysis revealed that the total fatty acid content at different moisture contents in the HACS-lipid complexes was higher than that in the GRS-lipid complexes both before gelatinization and after enzyme hydrolysis. In addition, the total fatty acid content in the HACS-lipid complexes and GRS-lipid complexes at 40% moisture content was the highest among all the measured moisture contents. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that both the HACS and GRS granules lost their integrity after deep-fat frying, and no free lipid droplets were noted among the starch granules after defatting. Both Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and fluorescence microscopy verified that HACS combined with lipids yielded a stronger lipid-binding capacity than that of GRS at a moisture content of 40%. The study results may be potentially useful in the deep-fat frying of starchy food to produce foods with lower fatty acid content.