Cassava starch is used as the main ingredient in the production of biscuits and Brazilian cheese bread. The processing and sale of sour cassava starch - an artisanal product with no established standard of quality - is marked by hygiene problems and its commercial availability is uncertain. The purpose of this study was to characterize native and modified cassava starches and test them in cheese bread and cassava starch biscuit recipes. The main characteristics that differentiate sour starch from native cassava starch are its acidity, degree of expansion, viscosity, clarity of the starch paste, freeze-thaw stability and reducing power. Four different starches were used in the production of baked products: native cassava starch, sour cassava starch, starch modified with hydrogen peroxide and a commercial modified starch named Expandex® 160003. The baked products were evaluated to determine their physicochemical properties and to assess how the different starches affected the products’ internal and external characteristics and flavor. The baked samples were subjected to a sensory analysis of acceptability on a nine-point hedonic scale by untrained tasters. The cheese bread samples containing modified starch oxidized with hydrogen peroxide showed the best results. In the case of the cassava starch biscuits, those made with sour cassava starch and Expandex® 160003 showed the best results, which did not differ statistically.
cassava starch; Brazilian cheese bread; cassava starch biscuits
