Highlights  A new methodology shows amylose fine structure influences pasting & gelatinization  Peak and trough viscosities are increased by short and medium amylose chains  Peak, trough & setback viscosities are suppressed by long amylose chains  Molecular mechanisms are put forward to explain these new observations

High-amylose rices are slow to digest and hence nutritionally beneficial  However they usually do not taste good  Human panel tests used to evaluate sensory properties of low-to high-amylose rices  SEC used to characterise starch molecular structure and correlate with sensory  Structural characteristics responsible for poor sensory properties are identified

Background: Starch is a complex branched glucose polymer, mainly comprising amylose and amylopectin. The number of individual chains as a function of the number of monomer units they contain, i.e. the chain-length distributions (CLDs), are controlled by the underlying biosynthetic process occurring during plant growth. CLDs are currently commonly related to biosynthetic processes and to functional properties by dividing into arbitrarily chosen regions.

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