Synergistic effects of sodium adipate/triethylene glycol on the plasticization and retrogradation of corn starch

Starch retrogradation resulted in bad performance and taste of starch products. In this study, the corn starch films modified by sodium adipate and triethylene glycol were prepared by solution casting. The retrogradation of modified starch films were studied by FT-IR, XRD, SEM, tension test and UV-Vis. The results showed that sodium adipate was more effective than triethylene glycol in inhibiting the short-term retrogradation of starch, and triethylene glycol was more effective than sodium adipate in inhibiting the long-term retrogradation of starch. However, the mixture of sodium adipate and triethylene glycol, especially 15% adipic acid and 10% triethylene glycol, showed synergistic effects on the short-term and long-term retrogradation of starch. The starch film with 15% adipic acid and 10% triethylene glycol had the highest elongation at break, the best transmittance, the lowest change rate of elongation at break, and the lowest moisture content among all the recipes.