The effect of annealing treatments at different temperatures on structural and functional properties of
wheat, potato, and yam starches was investigated. Annealing had little effect on the long- and shortrange
ordered structures of three starches, except for the annealing of wheat starch at 50 C. Annealing
increased the gelatinization temperatures of three starches, but had little effect on the enthalpy
changes. Annealing at 30 and 40 C increased the overall paste viscosity of wheat starch, while the
treatment at 50 C reduced the paste viscosity substantially. There was a continuous increase in paste
viscosity of potato starch after annealing at 50 C during the whole RVA (rapid viscosity analyser) testing.
The increases in gelatinization temperatures and paste viscosities were attributed to the increased
ordering of starch chains in amorphous regions. Our results showed that annealing is an effective method
to increase the paste viscosity of starch, which is very important for the application of annealed starch