When scanning the ingredient list on a a cereal box, you might come across a food additive called maltodextrin. While many additives have adverse health effects, maltodextrin appears to be safe for you to eat, although it is not a naturally occurring compound. Manufacturers often use this man-made starch to reduce the fat content and improve the texture of cereal.
Maltodextrin is a white powder made by treating corn, potato or rice starch with heat, acid and enzymes. It is a nonsweet carbohydrate that your body is unable to digest, making it what's called a resistant starch or functional fiber. While maltodextin is not a naturally occurring compound, it does not appear to have any side effects. It is on the Food and Drug Administration's list of food substances that are generally recognized as safe, or GRAS. To be on this list, a food additive must have little to no documented serious health side effects.
According to "The Handbook of Cereal Science and Technology," one common reason manufacturers add maltodextrin is to reduce the fat in a product. Maltodextrin forms a sort of gel that mimics the smooth, creamy texture created by the addition of solid fats, such as shortening. Maltodextrin also contains fewer calories per gram than fat. You may see it more often in cereals marketed as low-fat or fat-free because of its ability to give cereal the texture of having more fat than it does.
Flakes and Crunch
If you like flakes and clusters in your cereal, maltodextrin helps provide them. The gel formed by maltodextrin acts as a binding agent that holds molecules together when they are dried. According to Amy Brown, author of "Understanding Food Principles and Preparation," it's often used in alternative sweeteners to hold the powder together to form larger crystals. In your cereal, maltodextrin helps keep the flakes and clusters crunchy.
Although maltodextrin is usually made from rice, corn or potato, it can also be produced from wheat or oats. If you have celiac disease or are unable to tolerate gluten, these forms of maltodextrin may have trace amounts of gluten and produce side effects, according to Tricia Thompson on her Gluten-Free Dietitian website. For most people, maltodextrin will simply pass through the body undigested, contributing no calories and producing no unwanted effects.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Code of Federal Regulations Title 21 - Maltodextrin
- Advanced Nutrition and Human Metabolism; Sareen S. Gropper et al.
- Understanding Food Principles and Preparation; Amy Brown
- Handbook of Cereal Science and Technology; Karel Kulp and Joseph G. Ponte, Jr.
- Gluten Free Dietitian: Maltodextrin
- Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images