The intrinsic viscosity is however a rather crude
measurement, as it only provides an average value of the degree of
depolymerization of the starch polymer mixture. It does not give
any information about which molecules have been degraded
(Harding, 1997). It is evident from Table 3 that with increasing time
and speed of mixing, the intrinsic viscosity of corn starch gels
decreased and starch depolymerization increased. It was also found
that the effect of mixing speed on molecular weight reduction and
depolymerization of starch was greater than heating time.