Food starch-modified

Modified food starch is starch that has been treated to make it behave better in processing — to survive heat, acid, freezing or long storage without breaking down. Modified here means chemically or physically treated; it does not mean genetically modified, which is a separate question.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Food starch-modified by jurisdiction. Every jurisdiction this site covers is listed, including those where the substance does not appear.
JurisdictionStatusScope and limitsCitation
United StatesFood and Drug AdministrationPermitted, with conditions21 CFR 172.892retrieved 2026-09-07
Codex AlimentariusCodex Alimentarius Commission / JECFANot listedDoes not appear on this jurisdiction’s permitted list. That is not the same as being prohibited.

What it is made from

Made from maize, potato, tapioca, wheat or rice starch by chemical or physical treatment. The source grain is not usually declared, which matters to anyone avoiding wheat: a modified starch may be wheat-derived without saying so.

  • Vegan
  • Vegetarian

Every name it appears under

1 recorded name. A label may use any of them.

As it appears in regulation

  • Food starch-modified

Hazard reference values

No reference value for this substance in the sources we hold.

Evidence and how bodies read it

Studies, and the differing conclusions regulators drew from them, are curated by hand rather than machine-read, and none has been written for this substance yet.

Sources for this page

  • ecfr retrieved 2026-09-07

Full licence terms and publisher details on Sources. How this page is built and updated: Method.

Machine-readable:/api/v1/additives/food-starch-modified.json