when the inclusion of modified starch results in undesirable ice cream firmness, as was the case for the second FF sample, the behaviour of the individual starch polymers is most likely responsible. For a starch-based fat replacer to be highly functional in ice cream, the modified amylose and amylopectin chains must interact with water/ice and other constituents in the ice cream. It is probable that the starch polymers in the firmer products are interacting to form gelled starch particles. Such gelled particles would increase the resistance of the samples to deformation by the tongue thereby contributing to the higher firmness intensities obtained during sensory testing. If, on the other hand, the modified amylose and amylopectin chains are able to align at the air cell, milk fat and ice crystal interfaces, the force required by the tongue to flatten the ice cream sample will be reduced. It would appear that the main source of modified starch used in this study was able to perform this function and thereby produce ice cream products whose sensory firmness was not significantly different from that of regular fat ice cream.