The upstream and downstream benefits of the industrial chain have driven the development of the soluble starch industry to continue to accelerate.

Soluble starch, with the chemical formula (C6H10O5)n, refers to starch derivatives that are processed by oxidants, glycerin, enzymes, acids or other methods. Soluble starch appears as white or off-white powder, has no special smell, is soluble in boiling water, but insoluble in cold water. Soluble starch has the advantages of strong adsorption, good chemical stability, low nitrogen-containing impurities, and strong heat resistance. It is widely used in pharmaceutical excipients, food processing, packaging materials, daily necessities and other fields.

The upstream of the soluble starch industry chain supplies raw materials, including potato starch, corn starch, sweet potato starch, etc. Starchy crops are the main source of raw materials. my country is a large agricultural country with a huge planting area of ​​starch crops, which has driven starch production to maintain a long-term growth trend. Taking corn starch as an example, according to statistics from the China Starch Industry Association, my country’s corn starch output will reach 39.18 million tons in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 21.2%. Benefiting from the sufficient supply of raw materials, the development speed of my country’s soluble starch industry is expected to further accelerate.

The midstream of the soluble starch industry chain is product manufacturing, with enzymatic method, acid method, acid-enzyme combined semi-dry method as its main preparation methods. The acid-enzyme combined semi-dry method is a method derived from the enzymatic method and the acid method. This method has the advantages of high conversion efficiency, convenient filtration, and short reaction time, and can achieve continuous production of soluble starch. In recent years, Chinese companies have continued to increase research on the semi-dry method of combining acidase with enzyme, which has further improved the maturity of soluble starch technology.

According to the “2023-2028 China Soluble Starch Industry Market In-depth Research and Development Prospects Forecast Report released by the Industrial Research Center, soluble The downstream of the starch industry chain is application fields, including pharmaceutical excipients, food processing, packaging materials, daily necessities, etc., among which the pharmaceutical excipients and food processing fields are the largest demand end. In the field of pharmaceutical excipients, soluble starch can be used to produce pharmaceutical dosage forms such as capsules and tablets; in the field of food processing, soluble starch can be used as a thickener to produce dairy products and beverages. In the future, as research continues to deepen, the application scope of soluble starch will be further expanded.

There are many participants in my country’s soluble starch market, but most of them are small and medium-sized enterprises. The industry has problems such as uneven product quality and high-end products being in short supply. Shanhe Pharmaceuticals has independent research and development and production capabilities for pharmaceutical-grade soluble starch, and will occupy a large share of my country’s soluble starch market in the future.

​​  Industry analysts said that soluble starch, as a starch derivative, has broad application prospects in many fields. However, at present, there is still a gap between my country’s high-end soluble starch technology level and overseas developed countries, and demand is highly dependent on imports. In the future, with the support of national policies and the improvement of independent research and development capabilities of local enterprises, the localization process of my country’s high-end soluble starch market is expected to accelerate.