Oxidised Starch (E1404)

About This Product

Oxidised starch is tapioca starch reacted with sodium hypochlorite under controlled pH and temperature, which does two things at once. It cleaves glycosidic bonds, shortening the chains and cutting viscosity, and it converts a proportion of the hydroxyl groups to carboxyl and carbonyl groups. It carries the additive number E1404, INS 1404, and carboxyl content is capped at 1.1 per cent.

Low viscosity is the point, not a defect. Because the paste is thin at a given solids level, an oxidised starch can be cooked at thirty or forty per cent solids and still be pumped, sprayed or moulded, where a native starch would set to a gel at a fraction of that concentration. That is what makes it the standard choice for confectionery depositing, for spray-applied coatings and for any process where the limit is what the equipment can move rather than what the recipe needs.

The carboxyl groups do the rest of the work. They are anionic and bulky, so they hold the chains apart, which suppresses retrogradation and keeps the set gel clear and stable rather than cloudy and weeping. They also give genuine adhesion to protein and to cellulose, which is why oxidised starch is the binder in batter and breading systems: it glues crumb to meat and survives the fryer without the coating sliding.

In Vietnamese and wider Southeast Asian practice it has a particular place in rice-noodle production, where a small addition to the rice slurry gives the sheet enough tensile strength to be handled and cut without tearing, and gives the finished noodle a cleaner surface and less cooking loss. It is also used in jelly confectionery, in dairy desserts, and as a carrier in encapsulation.

Bio Green Foods supplies oxidised tapioca starch, E1404, in 25 kg bags and jumbo bags. Carboxyl content, viscosity, whiteness, moisture, pH and residual chlorine are confirmed on the agreed specification and on the batch certificate of analysis. It is gluten free and non-GM.