One of the curses of the kitchen is finding that frozen foods such as puddings go gooey the instant you thaw them out. Often, the ingredient to blame is starch, which separates out into solid and liquid components on thawing. Now a team led by Stephen Jobling at Unilever Research in Bedford has developed a potato starch that doesn鈥檛 do this. Potato starch normally contains two major polymers, but by blocking three key genes Jobling鈥檚 team skewed starch production in the potato towards amylopectin, which is the stickier of the two. The resulting starch survived at least five freeze-thaw cycles without damage, the researchers reveal in Nature Biotechnology (vol 20, p 295).
More from New Scientist
Explore the latest news, articles and features
Technology
Test moderators use AI-generated writing to judge literacy standards
News
Mind
THC in cannabis may reduce nightmares in people with PTSD
News
Environment
Fishers detonate a bomb every hour on one Indonesian coral reef
News
Environment
How bad is the UK drought and how long will it continue?
News
Popular articles
Trending New Scientist articles