Waxy Wheat Lasts Longer

The best thing since sliced bread? Scientists have developed a new type of waxy wheat that may have novel cooking uses as well as industrial applications.

The "full-waxy" wheat is one of the first commercial, soft white spring wheats with 100 percent amylopectin starch. This means it makes a paste at lower temperatures and swells with more water than wheat that is only partially waxy.

Pastes made with waxy starches do not lose water when frozen or thawed, which lengthens their shelf life. In the food industry, potential uses include shelf-life extenders and shortening replacement. Industrially, full-waxy starch might be useful as an adhesive.

Craig Morris, a cereal chemist at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service, developed the wheat, called Penawawa-X, using conventional plant breeding techniques.

Wheat starch is a combination of two sugars called amylopectin and amylose. To get full-waxy wheat, the starch can't contain amylose. By performing several cross breedings, Morris successfully developed a strand that lacked the ability to produce amylose.

Penawana-X is currently being field tested in several states.

--Bjorn Carey

Credit: USDA/ARS