"Waxy" wheat for novel products.
Soft white wheat is the type suited for making foods such as cookies, cakes, noodles, and flatbreads. Its starch consists of two kinds of glucose polymer: amylose and amylopectin. Now a new wheat, Penawawa-X, has been developed that would be one of the first commercial soft white spring wheats available with 100 percent amylopectin starch--referred to as "full-waxy." It was developed using conventional plant breeding techniques.Waxy starch gels form a paste at lower temperatures, swell with more water than regular or partially waxy starches, and don't lose water during freezing and thawing.
Samples of Penawawa-X have been sent to bakers, millers, food processing companies, and others to see how it might be used in novel food or industrial applications. One company is already exploring commercial use of the wheat's starch, flour, bran, and other components.
Multistate field trials are under way to generate yield and other data needed for registering Penawawa-X and publicly releasing it. Craig F. Morris, USDA-ARS Western Wheat Quality Laboratory, Pullman, Washington; phone (509) 335-4062, e-mail morrisc@wsu.edu.
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| Title Annotation: | Science Update |
|---|---|
| Author: | Morris, Craig F. |
| Publication: | Agricultural Research |
| Article Type: | Brief Article |
| Geographic Code: | 1USA |
| Date: | Nov 1, 2005 |
| Words: | 173 |
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