AKFP unveils organic tapioca starch suitable for baked goods, snacks and frozen foods

18 Feb 2021 --- American Key Food Products (AKFP) has launched its Organic Native Tapioca Starch, adding a versatile, clean label ingredient to its portfolio of specialized cassava-based and organic offerings.

Derived from the cassava plant's root, this native, unmodified starch is certified gluten-free and is paleo and vegan-friendly. It is also grain-free, nut-free and non-GMO verified, making it an essential addition to the food developer’s better-for-you and clean label toolbox, according to AKFP.

“Tapioca starch is fairly versatile across various applications, which means it can be an available tool for product innovators in the development of new formulations,” Mel Festejo, AKFP’s COO, tells FoodIngredientsFirst. 

Better-for-you ingredients
It is already established in various food applications. In the coming months and years, more growth in its usage will be seen in specialty diet applications, particularly gluten-free and grain-free applications, Festejo flags.

“In recent years, industry has increased its focus on better-for-you products in response to emerging preferences of more health-conscious consumers. Our tapioca starch works well complemented by other starches and flours in baking and snack applications.”

AKFP has invested many years in developing specialized, high-quality, gluten-free, cassava-based ingredients with unique characteristics and which are better-for-you, explains Festejo.

Wins for cassava-based ingredients
Now that AKFP is expanding into organic cassava and tapioca ingredients, the company has found that consumers often prefer organic ingredients. 

“So, this native tapioca starch is a natural extension to our line of gluten-free starches and flours,” adds Festejo. 

AKFP is a supplier of food ingredients, such as flours and starches, focused mainly on simple ingredients, smart solutions and better-for-you.AKFP’s Organic Native Tapioca Starch is effective as a thickener, filler, binder and stabilizer in baked goods, extruded snacks, frozen foods, dry mixes, soups, sauces, gravies and other products. 

It is a natural ingredient made in facilities that only process tapioca, or cassava, products without chemicals. 

According to Festejo, tapioca starch is one of the world’s most globally traded starches for both food and industrial applications.

“As with other commonly used food starches, tapioca starch is a good binder and thickener. Compared with starches from other feedstock, native tapioca exhibits less pronounced retrogradation. In its modified versions, tapioca starches give foods great stability in freeze-thaw applications,” he comments. 

The starch has a bland, fairly neutral flavor that does not require masking and will allow natural flavors from other ingredients in a food product to be pronounced with less dosage. 

“It is also a white starch that produces a clear paste or gel,” adds Festejo. “In bakery applications, especially gluten-free and grain-free formulations, tapioca starch is one of the core ingredients that formulators rely on to help provide some desired textural qualities. 

“When used in high-heat processes, tapioca starch can provide crispiness in the crust or surface.”

Sourcing issues
Cassava is also one of the more sustainable crops that can be harvested throughout the year since it is grown along the tropical belt with no extreme cold conditions.  

The cassava plant, whose roots are the tapioca starch source, is a robust plant that does not especially need irrigation and can depend on natural rainfall for growth. “It is also not demanding of much fertilizer to provide a high crop yield,” notes Festejo. 

Commenting on the issues surrounding COVID-19, he says this has led to some sourcing challenges. 

“Currently, sourcing of tapioca starch is very difficult because of maritime shipping challenges. The pandemic lockdowns have caused global trade declines, particularly between North America and Asia. Consequently, shipping companies reduced the number of ships sailing the normal routes across the Pacific,” Festejo continues. 

“Eventually, many containers ended up being parked in American container yards. In the last three months at least, demand for Asian goods picked up dramatically. However, the number of active container ships is below the ideal.”

Furthermore, Asian shippers are awaiting for the slack in container availability to be filled up. Importers in North America are scrambling for the supply of their much-needed requirements, tapioca starch among them, he explains. 

In other years, the supply of tapioca has also been hampered by lack of rainfall, which lowered the starch yield of roots and pest infestation, according to Festejo. “The latter is increasingly better managed now but still occurs occasionally and destroys large quantities of the crop. Inevitably, such occurrences lead to high prices,” he concludes.

By Elizabeth Green