Present trends towards technologies and processes that increase the use of residues make starchy vegetal biomass an important alternative material in various applications due to starch's versatility, low cost and ease of use when its physicochemical properties are altered. Starch is increasingly used in many industrial applications and as a renewable energy resource. Starch can be modified to enhance its positive attributes and eliminate deficiencies in its native characteristics. In this article, the state of knowledge on conventional and unconventional starches and their properties, characteristics, modifications and applications are reviewed.

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Starch is widely consumed by humans as an inexpensive and stable available carbohydrate source, and much work has been performed on the structure, functionality and applicability of starches. Although conventional sources of starch, such as corn and potato, other sources with improved properties are becoming significant to allow simpler and more robust processes. The feasibility of the use of new starches, i.e., legume, seed and palm, as renewable materials for commercial application may provide cost reduction of raw material in industries. Little information is available on the structure, properties and practical applicability of non-conventional sources of starch. Thus, it is necessary that these starches be studied to obtain and report their structural parameters, information that is required to gain competitiveness in an international-scale industry. A review of properties, applications, future trends and perspectives of some new starches is presented in this review.

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In this work, we investigated the effects of the ultrasonic power (0, 200, 400 and 600 W) on non-thermal processing of an inulin-enriched whey beverage. We studied the effects of high-intensity ultrasound (HIUS) on microbial inactivation (aerobic mesophilic heterotrophic bacteria (AMHB), total and thermotolerant coliforms and yeasts and molds), zeta potential, microstructure (optical microscopy, particle size distribution), rheology, kinetic stability and color. The non-thermal processing applying 600 W of ultrasonic power was comparable to high-temperature short-time (HTST) treatment (75 °C for 15 s) concerning the inactivation of AMHB and yeasts and molds (2 vs 2 log and 0.2 vs 0.4 log, respectively), although HIUS has reached a lower output temperature (53 ± 3 °C). The HIUS was better than HTST to improve beverage kinetic stability, avoiding phase separation, which was mainly attributed to the decrease of particles size, denaturation of whey proteins and gelation of polysaccharides (inulin and gellan gum). Thus, non-thermal processing by HIUS seems to be an interesting technology for prebiotic dairy beverages production.