How can you tell if a food product contains starch-based ingredients?

Easy, you just need to look at the label!

According to EU law, all ingredients must be listed on the pack. So, if a starch based ingredient has been used in a product, it will be mentioned on the product pack. Ingredients must be listed by weight in a decreasing order, from the most to the least that a product contains.

Some of the most frequently used starches and starch-based ingredients that you can see on a product’s packaging are starch, potato starch, wheat starch, maize starch, pea starch, dextrin, maltodextrin, modified starch, glucose syrup, dextrose, etc. Some starch-based ingredients are also classified as additives, in which case they may also be labelled using their E number – the classification given to additives used in foods which have been reviewed, numbered and approved for safe consumption by the European Food Safety Authority.

Although they have different names, all of these ingredients originally come from starch naturally present in vegetables and grains. To find out more about the family of starch-based ingredients, please visit the Starch Europe website.